With all the recent health focus on sugar, poor old fruit has gotten undeserved attention for the simple reason that it is high in sugar. And from that, some very average advice has surfaced that people need to limit how much whole fruit they eat too. Now a systematic review puts to bed any health concerns anyone should have about fruit, finding that whole fresh fruit does not contribute to weight gain. Eat up.
Fruit is a core part of dietary guidelines the world over. But with the rise in obesity rates and health problems and the greater scrutiny that sugar has received, especially with how much added sugar is in our food supply, fruit has sometimes been tainted because of its ‘high sugar content’. There have been some very loud voices warning people of the dangers of too much sugar with very little attention paid to the source of it, or the food matrix it is found in. And for this, recommendations on eating fruit have succumbed to friendly fire.
Whole fruit though is a very different food from refined sugar added to highly palatable energy-dense discretionary foods. Fruit is a good source of fibre, contains many important nutrients and because of its water content, is less energy dense than many high-sugar containing convenience foods.
If diets high in sugar are a driver of obesity and disease risk, is there any merit then to the line that whole fruit should also be limited or even avoided simply because of its sugar content? This question has been answered in a recent systematic review.
Involving 41 studies with a mixture of both randomised-controlled trials and observational studies where fruit consumption was tracked against body weight changes, a consistent outcome was seen. And here it is: increasing consumption of whole, fresh fruit did not increase body weight and likely even had a modest impact on weight loss – especially when you looked at the higher quality randomised-controlled trials that run for up to 6 months. And I’ll link to the review in the show notes https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2019.00066/full
And agreeing with the effects of fruit on body weight that the review found, eating fruit also helped to reduce the total amount of food eaten either by displacing more energy dense foods or helping control appetite. So, it is pretty clear that fruit in its whole form rightly counts as a healthy part of any diet and concerns about weight gain from it are very misguided.
There are lots of reasons to eat fewer foods high in added in sugar, but when it comes to healthy fruit and its naturally present sugar, there is no need to be cutting back. Whole, fresh fruit is unlikely to add excess kilojoules to the diet or cause weight gain, and if anything may help protect against it. That makes for a good reason to continue to enjoy fruit every day.
Boost fruit and veg by having frozen on hand
Even with the positive messaging on fruit being healthy, Australians fare poorly in meeting anywhere near the recommended target for eating fruits or vegetables each day. Recent dietary surveys point to just 7 percent of people eating the recommended 5 servings of vegetables each day. While just half of Australians make it to the recommended two servings of fruit each day.
One possible way to help address the fruit and vegetable consumption gap is to promote ways to make them more accessible and convenient. The limited shelf-life of fresh produce can mean that it isn’t always possible to have plenty of fresh produce on hand and at home, especially if regular access to a supermarket or greengrocer isn’t always possible. The situation can be even more difficult for people living in remote areas or who find it difficult to get to a supermarket.
Several studies have already found that fruits and vegetables packaged as frozen or even canned are cost-effective and nutritious options for meeting daily vegetable and fruit recommendations in the context of a healthy diet. So, the question is do people who have plenty of frozen produce on hand at home actually eat more fruit and vegetables on average compared to the general population?
Using food and nutrient intake data from two large dietary surveys conducted in the United States, researchers were able to look at fresh and frozen fruit and vegetable intake of people. This data was able to then be compared to a whole diet quality across large segments of the population. And I’ll link to the study in the show notes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29290348
So what did the study find? People who were regular eaters of frozen fruit and vegetables ate significantly more compared to people who only ate fresh produce. The not-so-good news was that on average, neither group of eaters met the recommended number of servings of fruit and vegetables per day.
A consequence of eating more frozen fruit and vegetables was that a person’s diet was overall better. More fibre, potassium, calcium, and vitamin D was consumed, and less salt was eaten in people who had frozen produce as part of their diet.
The energy intake of people 18 years and under was lower among frozen fruit and vegetable consumers which is a positive finding considering the rise in childhood obesity rates. Adult eaters of frozen produce were significantly more likely to have a lower body mass index too.
So, let's wrap all this up. Fruit is good for you. Keep it in your diet and ignore the ramblings of those flogging the tired message (along with their ‘sugar is toxic’ books and online quit programs) that you need to eat less of it because….sugar! And don’t be afraid to have some of it in your freezer as a backup convenience option as a way to get more fruit and vegetables in the diet each day.
So that’s it for today’s show. You can find the show notes either in the app you’re listening to this podcast on if it supports it, or else head over to my webpage www.thinkingnutrition.com.au and click on the podcast section to find this episode to read the show notes.
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I’m Tim Crowe and you’ve been listening to Thinking Nutrition.