Can I eat fruit if I'm trying to lose weight?
You may be reading two things:
1. Fruit is good for you
2. Fructose is as bad as sugar so you mustn’t eat it.
And both of these things are against a background of it being suggested that we should be eating five portions of fruit and veg a day as an absolute minimum. So what’s the answer?
Well whether or not you are diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes it's still very important to have your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. However, one of the issues is the size of your portion - clearly a handful of grapes would be a portion, whereas other people might consider a whole bowl of grapes to be a portion! So the amount's important.
Yes, there is still sugar in fruit - particularly the soft summer fruits which tend to be full of sugar. So you're allowed them but limit the amount and focus more on the harder fruits and vegetables to keep your portion size.
One thing you’ll hear in connection with diabetes is that you shouldn’t eat any sugar but I’ve never believed any patient of mine will walk out of the clinic and never eat sugar - we clearly all do. So there are two strategies around this:
- Rather than have sugar on its own incorporate it as part of your main meal, so that the absorption of the sugar is much smoother
- Say to yourself - I'll have that cake but I'll go for a half an hour walk afterwards and actually try and work it off
I hope that’s cleared up some confusion!
