Don't Eat Fruit?

If you are following my post-spring break weight loss journey, you will know that I was having no luck returning to my pre-break weight by simply following my normal Zone diet. I was getting ready to blame peri-menopause, my thyroid, my age (almost 50!!!) or my husband. I'm not sure how I could hang this on him, but he seemed like a good candidate. Then I made a small switch.

Instead of fruit and Greek yogurt for breakfast, I switched to meatloaf. Basically, meat and veggies, with a tiny bit of oats and eggs thrown in there. Why would this switch lead to a sudden drop in poundage? Mighty resistant poundage, at that?

Tim Ferriss, author of the The Four Hour Body and creator of the Slow Carb Diet, counsels us to EAT NO FRUIT as one of his cardinal weight-loss rules. WHAT??? Eat no fruit??? But isn't fruit a wonderful, delicious, low calorie, HEALTHY choice for a snack or a treat? Well, that depends.



Here is Tim's argument: "Humans don't need fruit six days a week, and they certainly don't need fruit year-round." Our ancestors probably ate fruit only when it was ripe and readily available locally. Gathering fruit required lots of time and energy. Many of the tropical fruits that we eat year-round today would NEVER have been available to our ancestors. (Unless you are Native Hawaiian or Polynesian.) And the types of fruits that we eat today have been developed (mutated) to contain WAY more fructose than the wild fruits and berries we were designed to eat. Of course, all these "natural" sugars make fruit delicious and irresistible. So why abstain?

Because the principal sugar in fruit is fructose. And fructose is converted to glycerol phosphate more easily than almost all other carbohydrates. This efficient conversion leads to an instant insulin response which in turn leads to instant fat storage. Yes, fruit is natural and yes, it does contain fiber and vitamins and antioxidants. But you can get all of the above from a good variety of veggies, plus tomatoes and avocados, which are sanctioned fruits low in sugar.

According to Ferriss, a scheduled cheat day (once per week) is a great opportunity to break all the rules, including the no fruit rule. On the Slow Carb Diet, absolutely anything goes on Cheat Day. As I have mentioned before, the whole Cheat Day concept did not work for me when I spent a month on this diet. Every Cheat Day, I gained back all the pounds I had lost during the week. After a month, I was at a net loss of zero. (My cheat days almost always involved eating out in restaurants, so go figure!!!)

However, the no fruit during the week rule may just be something I can experiment with for a while. I am feeling very positive and energized about my sudden 2 pound weight loss, so I am going to stick with my fruitless breakfasts for the rest of the week. I'll keep you informed.

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