Can You Eat Too Much Fruit? The Truth About Fruits and Weight Loss

Eating too much of any food will have its own health risks, but many dieters still consider fruits to be the good foods that they can eat in excess without worrying about health consequences like weight gain and high blood sugar levels. This couldn’t be further from the truth, though! While fruits are filled with important vitamins and minerals, they still contain natural sugars and simple carbohydrates that can throw off your weight loss efforts if you’re not careful. The key to enjoying fruit while on a diet without sabotaging your results is to understand how many calories fruit has and to stick to specific serving sizes.

Fact 1: All Types of Sugar Will Raise Your Blood Sugar Levels

When you eat fruit, your body digests it as a source of carbohydrates. Because it’s so high in natural sugar, however, your body digests it more quickly than other foods. This causes blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. Eating too much fruit can have similar effects on blood sugar levels as eating refined sugars—often with even more severe consequences.

Fact 2: Fiber Helps Prevent High Blood Sugar Levels

As you might expect, fibre is a key component of your body’s overall ability to regulate blood sugar levels. While glucose from food will enter your bloodstream relatively quickly, fibre can help keep that level steady by slowing down glucose absorption. This is especially helpful if you’re watching your weight but still want to feel satisfied with less food; high-fibre foods will help curb cravings throughout the day. A fibre-rich diet has also been linked to lower rates of heart disease and diabetes -– two of our nation's biggest health concerns right now. To get enough fibre in your diet, make sure to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains like oatmeal or brown rice.

Fact 3: Excess Consumption Causes Acne

It’s no secret that even in adults, acne often goes hand-in-hand with an unhealthy diet, with sugary sodas and pizza dinners being some of what people love most to eat when they want to indulge. Unfortunately, these meals also contain a lot of excess calories – calories that you might not actually be aware of are in foods like breadsticks, salad dressings or low-fat snacks.

Fact 4: Tropical Fruits Are Higher in Calories Than Their Juicy Counterpart

Many people assume that fresh fruit is great diet food, but most fruits are actually high in calories. One large pineapple, for example, packs more than 430 calories—more than you’ll find in one dinner serving of rice or pasta. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s best to stick with low-calorie fruit like apples and pears.

Fact 5: Bananas Are Not Very Good for You

Despite bananas being a commonly recommended food for people who are looking to lose weight, recent research suggests that they may not be quite as good for us as we previously thought. Specifically, a study published in Clinical Nutrition found that consuming bananas with your dinner leads to high blood sugar levels and increases your risk of developing diabetes. Researchers suspect that certain substances in bananas may lead to these negative health effects, so it’s best to consume them at lunch or breakfast instead of dinner.

Fact 6: Consuming Juice Is Not the Same as Consuming Whole Fruit

As with other foods, it’s good to eat fruits in their whole form rather than just drinking juice. Just because you may be eating something that comes from a natural source doesn’t mean it has all of its original benefits; in fact, you might be missing out on some nutrients if you go straight for juices instead of the whole fruit. For example, vitamin C levels are considerably higher in whole oranges than they are in orange juice—so if weight loss is your goal, stick to eating your fruit raw!

Final Thoughts

Eating too much fruit can cause you to gain weight. This is due to their high sugar content, especially when you consume large amounts of sugary fruits like apples or pears. However, eating fruits in moderation will not negatively affect your health or weight loss results if you exercise regularly. Just because fruits are healthy foods doesn’t mean that they can be consumed in excess without consequences.