Can too much fruit be bad?

Although I only do limited personal training these days, I always offer to provide nutritional guidance if people want it. Some people are quite happy with what they eat and feel they know what the difference between healthy and not healthy food is. I don't doubt this for a second with most although I recently met someone that got me thinking.

We live in a society that promotes this 5 a day message on fruit and veg. Whilst the fundamentals of this are good direction, it's important to know a few things. A few months back I met someone who swore blind that they ate a super healthy and balanced diet. They never touched package food, it was only fresh, organic, regular and seemingly the kind of diet that have most of us feeling a little bit guilty and possibly inspired.

The problem was that the person in question had quite a history of tooth decay, receding gums and numerous fillings. Looking at the food diary, it was absolutely packed with fruit. In fact, most days had at least 6-7 pieces of fruit which is pretty high and eaten on their own.

On large, fruit is good but the thing to remember is that it is essentially sugar (fructose). Whilst sugar is important and vital towards cellular and brain function, excessive amounts can be extremely bad and can lead to an increased storage of fat. The best way to think of fruit is good sugar when in moderation, not to mention it's provision of fibre and other micro-nutrients.

Here are some simple tips that can help with fruit intake:

1. Make sure that your fruit mix is predominantly fruit from your home country. Your system is better designed to break down and get the most out of native fruit.
2. Drink water or eat a non-sugar based food after eating fruit to flush residue sugar from attempting to assinate your teeth
3. Try where possible to get your fruit from good source. The nutrients in the fruit are only as good as the soil it was grown on. Empty Harvest (Jenson & Anderson 1990) is an excellent book on this. Fruit in supermarkets can be upto 9 months old by the time you pick it off the shelf. Freezing and waxing are common ways to store and maintain longevity of the fruit post picking.
4. Vary the fruit you eat. Your digestive system adapts to what you challenge it and eating the same fruit will reduce the value you get from it.
5. Eat fruit seasonally, again supermarkets can distort and confuse what is ripe at what time of year. There are loads of online resources to help you with this. http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/ is an easy one that is kept updated with current and seasonal foods.

Hopefully the above pointers are useful. Don't let it put you off. Fruit is excellent, brimming with goodness and a great snack that can replace chocolate or other fraudulant foods.