I love fruit. Absolutely adore it. Now that summer is in full swing, and we’ve got fresh fruit coming out the wazoo, I’ve been eating my weight in it on pretty much a daily basis. No shame.
My current obsession? Cantaloupe.
Hello, lover.
I crack one open in the morning, and it’s usually gone by the end of the day.
A slice here, a few chunks there. Poof. Vanished.
And then I do it again the next day…
A bit excessive, perhaps, but how can you say no to such refreshing, juicy deliciousness?
Clearly, I can’t.
And it kind of boggles my mind that there are actually people out there who can…
Story time!
So, I was at the grocery store today restocking on some necessities, which included 2 bunches of bananas, a big bag of apples, a 1 lb. tub of blueberries, 2 cantaloupe, and 2 bags of frozen mango. Just your average haul – I thought nothing of it. But as I was unloading my cart, the lady at the checkout counter looked at me and said, “Do you plan on eating all of that fruit by yourself?”
Errr…?
I bit my tongue, and instead of firing back with some smart-ass answer, I went with a simple “Yes. I love fruit”, and gave her a sweet smile. Without even blinking she came back at me with, “Eating too much fruit is bad for you, you know? I’m watching my weight so I’ve cut fruit out of my diet completely”.
:shock:… 😯 😯 😯
First of all, do I look like I need to lose weight? No. Furthermore, did I ask you for stupid advice? No; I already know where to look if I need some of that. And finally, I’m sure those chemical laden, 100 calorie snack packs that you live on are 100x better got you than an apple or banana.
Mmm… banana.
Err. Wha? Sorry… easily distracted.
Things like this drive me absolutely insane. Not only do I hate it when people feel the need to comment on things that are none of their business, but the idea that fruit is bad for you makes my left eye start twitching uncontrollably, as it tends to do when… oh, you know when.
There are people (fruitarians) whose diets are made up primarily of fruit; and while I don’t advocate that kind of extreme (life without oatmeal and chocolate? no thanks!), going in the polar opposite direction and giving up fruit just because of its sugar content makes about as much sense to me as going on a gluten-free diet when you don’t have any intolerances – in other words, it makes no sense at all.
Greek yogurt with strawberries and honey … Blueberries and peaches in kefir.
I understand that there are people out there with legitimate medical conditions that require them to stay away from fruit, but the other people? The ones who simply suffer from fruitophobia? I just don’t get it. I mean, I do, because I used to be fruitophobic myself when I was in the depths of my ED, but as with any other fear of food, this one just makes no sense. None. Nada. Zip.
Sure there’s sugar in fruit, but there’s also a host of other vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to function. Oh, and the last time I checked, our bodies need sugar (glucose) to function, too. Why do you think that bananas are such popular pre-workout snacks? Because they’re an energy powerhouse! I’ve been having one as part of my pre-workout snack for a few weeks now, and I’ve been absolutely rockin’ my workouts as a result. That and dates… dates are another good one.
So please, please, PLEASE, for the love of Pete and my poor twitching left eye, don’t buy into all the hype that fruit makes you fat. I easily eat 6 servings a day, and I’ve yet to see myself blow up to the size of a whale or experience any other negative side effects. Except for when it comes to apples…
You know how they say that eating an apple before a meal is supposed to help quieten your appetite?
Yeahhhh, no.
Sometimes, when I find myself getting really hungry while preparing dinner, I’ll grab an apple to hold me over until my food finishes cooking so that I don’t end up gnawing off my arm. It never works. If anything, I just end up hungrier… which just goes to show you that all that “advice” is absolute garbage.
. – . – . – .
Fruit: friend or foe? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have always heard that fruit in it’s raw form is fine and generally low calorie.
Fruit juices especially filtered and pastuerized are not as good.
Fruit sugar (fructose) is just as bad as simple sugar.
High fructose syrup is like taking a pill for adult onset diabetes
I should probably be incorporating more fruit in my diet, but that’s insane she said that. If anything, eat berries which are lower in their sugars.
Wonderful topic and great post!
I was telling my best friend (who knows zilch about nutrition) about my undying love for peanut butter and she told me how bad it is for you because of all the fat. Then when I explained to her how it’s a good fat, which is pretty impossible to tell someone, she totally thought I was mental.
I agree with you one hundred percent. I feel you on the twitching left eye thing too. I am frutiarian, and have been for a while. And I am not blowing up like a whale or having any negative side effects at all. In fact, I am in the best health! Thank you for this awesome and honest post! You rock girl
I have to tell you, this post has given me so much to think about. It actually inspired me to write a post about how people latch onto things (like weird-ass diets without fruit) rather than confront their emotions.
Check it out! 🙂
http://recoveryruminations.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-emotions.html
I love melon, too.
Did you know? In Japan, specially “designed” melon (made to taste extremely good and to be outwardly ‘beautiful’ based on the shell-patterns) can be SUPER expensive?
http://qjphotos.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/expensive-melons/
Isn’t it crazy?
Believe me, most fruits in Japan are unbelievably expensive. They don’t all cost a leg and an arm like these melons but for the same money I buy a handful of cherries in Japan I could buy like 5 lbs in my country. Only bananas are really cheap and I’m lucky I never get tired of eating them.
“And finally, I’m sure those chemical laden, 100 calorie snack packs that you live on are 100x better got you than an apple or banana.”
Right?!?! Avoid fruit, eat chemicals!!! Geez.
I love your blog. I myself, am in recovery (still struggle of course!) and it is so refreshing to read your honest and healthy approach towards food. I too, am a fruit nut. Bananas, apples, oranges, plums, melons, berries, kiwi, pineapple, grapefruit, grapes, mango…how do people NOT like them??
Fruit is SO necessary. Anyone who says otherwise would be the kind to fall for crash diets. It is so yummy, full of vitamins, fibre and glucose to allow our brains to function and satisfy sweet cravings. I can’t go without at least two pieces every single day. I await each season’s fruit with so much excitement hahaa.
The timing of this is impeccable – I was actually reading an article on this subject just yesterday and I hope this helps anyone out who feels ‘fruit sugar guilt’:
“Although fruit has natural sugar, it also contains fibre, which helps to curb the absorption of sugars in the bloodstream. Plus is has nutrients, vitamins and minerals.”
See… nature knows what it is doing! As if the sugar in something that is grown from the earth is going to be used by the body in the same way as too much processed sugar!
remember when we were kids… we were always over-encouraged to eat fruit every day! What happened?!
You’ve got to be kidding me!! Seriously?! Oh no she didn’t!!
Ok, now that I’ve got THAT out of my system…oh my gosh, I HATE it when people A.) comment on the foods I eat in a negative way and B.) try to give me nutritional advice when we both know that they wouldn’t know a kumquat if it hit them in the face! Where on Earth does she get off saying that fruit is bad for you?! She deems something that grows naturally “bad” or “off limits” while she is probably stuffing herself silly with “diet food”!
I have been a huge lover of fruit since as far back as I can remember! Like you, I can easily have 5-6 servings of fruit a day and not even think twice about it! And dates? Well, you know how much I love my trusty pre-workout fuel!
PS, I have the SAME problem with apples! I swear they make me even more hungry!
Ugh that would irritate me too. Sure it has sugar…natural sugar. A one ingredient FOOD is about as healthy as you can get, geesh. As if eliminating ALL fruit is the key to weight loss *eye roll*
HAHA what a joke that lady is! People seriously need to get educated about things before they start running their mouths and giving other people advice…especially people who know a heck of a lot more about the subject than she does. GEEZ! Super annoying.
I love fruit and would never eliminate it from my diet. I do however, try to watch my portion sizes with them because I am a tad bit sensitive to sugar and too much at one time makes me feel very tired and blah. I have found that I can eat a serving paired with a protein/fat and I will usually feel perfectly fine. wooohoooo!
Loved this post, Amanda!
Although it does make me really hungry.. haha!
I wish the fruit I ate looked like that 😉
I’ve been looking for dates for a while now, but I can’t seem to find them!
They were big fear foods, now can’t get enough of them 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Can I hug you…no, tackle you for this?! It irks the HELL out of me when people shun fruit, or ANY food for that matter cause they’re “dieting” bullshit. Absolutely BS. There’s a purpose for everything that goes into our bodies, whether it be for nutrition or pleasure.
I won’t tackle you, sorry…I’ll stick it the hug 🙂 Just as a thank you for being sane.
Ok, firstly, re the comment on eating all the fruit – I’ve had those comments too! Often with veggies..it drives me mad.
Seondly, people who refuse fruit (not including medical reasons) are tools IMHO…yes, fruit has sugar, but the body needs some sugar! And it’s far better, I think, to get sugar from a natural source that the body knows how to handle, than from some processed junky source that is foreign to our bodies.
Besides, fruit has vit c and tastes nice and blends well 🙂
That’s a no brainer. Fruit is definitely my friend. I LOVE it!
I 100% agree with this post! I hate when people are on diets and they aren’t allowed fruits..or even carrots because of the sugar! I feel the same way about the apple thing…always gets my appetite going
First time stopping over at your blog! I saw a link on Healthy Diva Eats and hopped on over.
This post cracked me up and I love fruit and cannot fathom limiting the amount of fruit I eat. I have at least 3-4 servings per day and would have more if my food budget were larger!
Fruit is for sure a friend! I dont understand people who say otherwise…. I tell you, people these days! 😉 good for you for not taking that BS!
Okay, so MY ED sometimes gets “worried” about the sugar content in fruit but the LOGICAL and correct part of me knows that fruit is good for you! It has tons of vitamins, carbs, water, electrolytes, and the sugar in fruit IS COMPLETELY different then table sugar. Our bodies process it differently. I also dont thinking “sugar” makes one gain weight anyway. You gain weight because of excess calorie consumption, not because of “sugar”.
take a look at this article:
http://www.eatingdisordersblogs.com/nutrition/2011/03/the-truth-about-so-called-sugar-addiction.html?goback=.gde_2176720_news_420766754
With that being said….I dont eat much fruit. I dont really like it!! haha, I know..it’s weird. It honestly is TOO SWEET for me. I’m much more of a savory kinda gal. I have a “fat-tooth” haha (meaning, I’d choose peanut butter over something sweet ANYDAY!)
Dana xxoo
PS I wish people would keep their comments to themselves (hmm…crazy grocery lady). Some lady came up to me and the gym today and said, “You look so good, you’ve lost a lot of weight”. I wanted to cry. 1) I dont think ive lost any weight 2) Im not trying to lose weigh 3) WTFFF keep your comments to yourself.
I just wish people would be more considerate before they talk to others about food or weight. Most likely your going to upset or offend someone by commenting, so just DONT…. ugh sorry about the rant. I had to get that off of my chest. It upset me so much.
I consider myself a severe fruit addict. If I had to chose between fruit or veggies, fruit would definitely win! I eat multiple pieces of fruit a day and I used to feel very guilty about my “abundance” of sugar. Now I don’t even think about it and I eat my litte heart out. Apples, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, banana, strawberries. I could go on and on. I ate half a galia melon a few days ago, but I don’t like them as much as cantaloupes. I used to eat them with slices of proscuitto ham in France. I still do that occasionally, because I love the contrast between the sweet and salty flavours.
Can’t believe that lady! The nerve……
There’s nothing better than slicing a delicious cantaloupe in half and going to town with a spoon! We buy cantaloupes every week, but I’m very picky–it has to taste perfect. Whenever my mom begins to cut it up, I always take a bite. If its good, I’ll nab away the other half all for my self! (lol, its okay, I go on like daily grocery runs with MY MONEY for food for the family–so I don’t feel bad about hogging to fruit sometimes.) Sadly, none have been good enough this year, so far… maybe I’m letting them get too overripe. They’re too squishy and sickly sweet, not perfectly light and sweet. I’ve never gotten the whole cottage cheese + cantaloupe (or any other fruit) thing before, though (unless the cottage cheese is sweetened or something…) I just can’t get behind that particular flavor combo!
I feel like I used to eat a lot more fruit than I do now… now its a struggle to get one serving in a day… I just don’t know what to do with it! Eating it just plain straight up seems like a “waste” (dumb ED talk, I know…) and I don’t like it with yogurt.
ok I know I already commented but I realized I had sooo much more to say on this.
I am CONSTANTLY barraged with comments about what I eat, ranging the gamut from “ohmigod, how can you eat SO much?” to insinuations that there is something wrong with me for passing on french fries. It used to really bother me, but I’ve learned to more or less to ignore it — and I’ve also learned not to comment on other people’s food choices.
bottom line, I don’t think it is ever okay to comment on what other people are eating. Especially because one never knows the state of another person’s health (both physically AND mentally).
love this post! fruit is so good 🙂 I can’t believe the cashier would say something like that… there are so many ridiculous diet ideas out there that usually don’t work anyway. And whole foods have to be better for us than chemical-laden snack packs. I don’t understand people that eat foods like that and think they’re going to be healthy. Anywho, I’ve been obsessed with cantaloupe before. We used to grow them in our garden and they were absolutely amazing.
Fruit is amazing!
I try to pair it with a protein to get a more complete snack….for those who knock fruit……..ridiculous!
The most mind-blowingly inappropriate/dense comment I’ve ever had from someone (a middle-aged guy just standing next to me in the queue), when about to buy an avocado on a market stall a few years back was- “avocados are nice but don’t eat that all at once, they’re really fatty”. Firstly, it was rude of him and off-putting to anyone to have their food criticised and secondly, I weighed less than 5 stone at the time and was just about to be hospitalised for anorexia! Like, was he blind? Even I knew I should be eating avocado and my brain was completely whacked-out… unfortunately, I was so sick I couldn’t bring myself to buy it after that and put it back 🙁 I’m still angry about that to this day…
i eat so so much fruit…and feel guilt (again, I don’t move at all..no exercise).
I’ve recently learned that my liver is very compromised. In fact its not detoxifying my body properly…I need to figure out how to help this (I don’t think forcing back food is helping me anymore)…my friend always tells me i’m making myself worse for forcing in food and that makes me feel so guilty.
i refuse to restrict anything though (like food groups, etc)…there has to be a way to eat that can be a bit gentler for my body …because my iver can actually start poisoning my body…this all sucks….i swear nutritionists all suggest something different and i’m tired of bothering with them…they just make me obsessive and i refuse to restrict things , etc..
I know what u mean though…the other day i was talking about how much fruit i eat before lunchtime even hits alone (not to mention the rest of the day and night) and the woman stared at me and said “i don’t eat carbs in the morning, only protein”…acting like she should be applauded for her superior restraint and knowledge…
i swear it all gets so aggravating. I feel guilty for freaking eating anything anymore and that jsut makes me sick of it.
ugh..no cmoputer at home and i get a computer at libray for about 20 minutes a day…usually i check about 2 blogs…and notice in one of your posts u r reading Room. Such a freaking good book.
Love Cantaloupe!
Okay. I hate that in all those fitness magazines they never tell you to even eat fruit in their ‘meal plans’. And if there if a fruit you can eat, they say, “Have one SMALL apple with a teaspoon of almond butter”. Who the hell does that? Since when does an apple make you fat?
Ahahaha I’ve heard some of my friends coming out with gems like that!! I’m just like huh?! So you think it’s better to eat that artificially sweetened “health” bar instead of an apple? mmmmkkk crazaayyy!!
I LOVE fruit, I eat so much of it, and I’m not dead 🙂
Omg this would have pissed me off!!!! I LOVE fruit :). Sometimes, I wish I could smack some sense into people. They think that eating 100 calorie packs is healthy…oh they are wrong. The media has warped people’s minds. Anyway, hope you have a great day!!
FRUIT IS SUCH A FRIEND! *she says whilst eating a banana*
CHeACH… i dnt get ppl who cut out fruit. its naturesss CANDY!
I get comments like that whenever I go to the store. Usually people assume I’m baking something because of the massive quantities haha. It’s sad but my fruit intake is probably at least 10 servings…and sometimes I wish it would help me put on some needed pounds!