One of my pet peeves is hearing people say fruit is bad because it’s full of
sugar. Sugar is bad ergo fruit is bad. Sugar's sugar... or is it?
Yes, fruit contains a fair amount of sugar but that’s hardly a reason for avoiding it. If you are diabetic, you might have to limit it but for most folks fruit is a highly nutritious snack full of antioxidants, vitamins and fibre.
A related question about fruit came up recently in regard to cancer. You've probably heard before
that sugar feeds cancer, right? Well, that's true. It doesn't
mean that sugar necessarily "causes" cancer in the first place, but
if your immune system is weak from other aspects of life (stress, poor
nutrition, etc.), and you're exposed to chemicals in food or the environment
(or radiation) that are known to cause cancer, then you're giving your body the
perfect set of conditions to actually develop cancer by eating sugar.
Which begs the question: "Can I eat fruit if I'm trying to prevent cancer, or can a friend that's fighting cancer eat fruit and not add fuel to the fire with extra sugar?"
That's actually a great question, and one that I pondered as well. According to the documentary The Truth about Cancer”, the answer is yes, you can eat fruit and still prevent cancer. In one of the episodes, one of the world's top experts in natural cancer research talks about the differences between right spin and left spin sugars.
Without getting too technical, the basic thing that he talked about was that processed sugars (from table sugar, corn syrup, and other junk food sugars) are the ones that actually feed cancer in your body, but the types of sugars that are naturally in an antioxidant-rich fruit do not actually help to feed cancer. The sugars in fruits are more "neutral" instead... and in fact, some fruits that have high antioxidant levels (such as berries) are particularly powerful in the fight against cancer even though they do contain moderate amounts of natural sugar.
Keep in mind that to benefit from fruit, you need the WHOLE fruit (including the fiber), not just the processed fruit juice. Consuming large amounts of concentrated sugar in fruit juices is never a good idea, whether we're talking about weight gain, diabetes, or cancer.
Which begs the question: "Can I eat fruit if I'm trying to prevent cancer, or can a friend that's fighting cancer eat fruit and not add fuel to the fire with extra sugar?"
That's actually a great question, and one that I pondered as well. According to the documentary The Truth about Cancer”, the answer is yes, you can eat fruit and still prevent cancer. In one of the episodes, one of the world's top experts in natural cancer research talks about the differences between right spin and left spin sugars.
Without getting too technical, the basic thing that he talked about was that processed sugars (from table sugar, corn syrup, and other junk food sugars) are the ones that actually feed cancer in your body, but the types of sugars that are naturally in an antioxidant-rich fruit do not actually help to feed cancer. The sugars in fruits are more "neutral" instead... and in fact, some fruits that have high antioxidant levels (such as berries) are particularly powerful in the fight against cancer even though they do contain moderate amounts of natural sugar.
Keep in mind that to benefit from fruit, you need the WHOLE fruit (including the fiber), not just the processed fruit juice. Consuming large amounts of concentrated sugar in fruit juices is never a good idea, whether we're talking about weight gain, diabetes, or cancer.
I hope
this puts that idea to rest. Fruit is not bad. In fact, a diet high in fruits
and vegetables is the most powerful proactive step you can take to prevent
certain forms of cancer. And if you don’t get enough vegetables, the good news
is that many fruits rival even the best vegetables at lowering your risk of getting
cancer. Eating 2 vitamin C-rich fruits and 2 other fruits a day is recommended.
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