My GUIDE to Low Carb Approved Fruits!
Some of you have raised concerns because I don’t eat very much fruit. So today I want to talk about why you don’t need fruit, and which I DO enjoy: low carb approved fruits!
Now, I’m sure you’re all familiar with the keto diet, which means you eat less than 20 carbs per day. I have my own reservations about the benefits and long-term feasibility of that, but I do think it’s important to be able to have fruits occasionally as a treat if you really love them.
You can see from the above photo that I’m still avoiding the highest-carb fruits: bananas, raisins, mangoes, apples…BUT I do have a bit of pineapple on my plate. High carb but just a taste. 😉
Why do we want to be careful with the amount of carbs we have each day?
Well, like I’ve brought up in earlier blogs, even healthy complex carbs from fruits are converted into glucose in the body, which elevates your blood sugar and insulin. Yes, fructose from fruit is healthier than refined sugars, because refined sugars are digested SUPER FAST which makes insulin skyrocket.
But once it’s digested, it doesn’t matter whether the sugar “came from an apple or a soft drink.”
It still gets stored the way any sugar gets stored…as glycogen, OR as fat!!
Fruit juice is even worse, because you lose the health benefits you do get from whole fruit: FIBER, vitamins, antioxidants. With fruit juice, you may still get some cancer-fighting antioxidants, but since they tend to be in the skin or the pulp, they can be broken down into a bunch of NOTHING when juiced. Same with the fiber…it’s all gone! You’re just left with something that’s just as SUGARY as SODA! Pour a 12-oz of apple juice for yourself and it’s got 40 grams of sugar, as much as a Coke!
“But Melissa,” you may be saying, “You just admitted fruits have antioxidants and vitamins! They’re healthy!”
But there’s nothing you get from fruits that you CAN’T get from veggies! Veggies have more antioxidants and minerals than fruits do, if you’re comparing “apples to apples” — or apples to kale!
Let’s take blueberries as an example, since they’re one of the healthiest low carb approved fruits. I want to “pit” them against veggies. (GET IT? “Pit”?…OK, that fruit pun doesn’t make sense because blueberries don’t have pits. But I tried!)
I’ll eat blueberries on occasion because, as you may know, they contain flavonoids, which are a type of antioxidant. The one that’s known most for fighting cancer = anthocyanins. But the thing is…red cabbage and radishes also have anthocyanins!! You probably don’t hear about them as much because not everyone is a huge fan of cabbage or radishes…but try adding sauteed cabbage to a yummy stir fry, or BUTTERED cabbage is a thing too…BEEF always makes cabbage better. And roasting radishes in butter is the BOMB, trust me!
Or maybe I just love butter. 😉
I love veggies too!! Carotenoids and flavonoids and fiber…these things are all in fruits, especially low carb approved fruits like watermelon, berries, coconuts…avocados, olives (YES, these are fruits.)
BUT fruit has nothing that you can’t get from veggies!
So avoid the blood sugar spike, and remember that low-carb diets are linked to REDUCTION of heart problems. So while I do occasionally enjoy low carb approved fruits like blueberries, I’d rather stay where the proven science is…doing the MADE Diet!
I’ve actually got an 8-week program starting VERY SOON called “The FUNdaMENTAL Approach.” Myself and Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald collaborated on this program, which gives you:
- Timed nutrition
- 30 minute workouts
- Education
- Nutrition
- Motivation
- Lab work proof!!