Fruit or Fat? Is Fruit Phobia Justified?

Fruit phobia is increasingly popular.

The low carb craze that has swept the world has encouraged people to view a banana the same way they view a candy bar.

In addition there is all this fear about candida, high blood sugar and diabetes.

People are being encouraged to cut the good sugars out of their diets along with the processed and refined sugars.

Even raw vegans, who one would imagine might know a bit better, have jumped on the fruit phobia bandwagon and advocate a low fruit, high fat diet instead.

Fruit Or Fat?

As a raw vegan, there is only two ways to get enough calories: fruits or fats.

Raw vegetables contain such tiny amounts of calories that even if you ate enormous quantities you wouldn't meet your caloric requirements.

So the raw vegan with fruit phobia eats vegetables and fats, in the form of nuts, nut butters, seeds, oils, olives and avocados.

They frequently DON'T get the health results they expect, and that leads them to spend hundreds of dollars on dehydrated superfoods, so that they can get the nutrients they are lacking.

The average raw vegan with fruit phobia averages out at a diet that is 40% fat and upwards

This is because the caloric value of vegetables is so low.

High fat diets are enormously unhealthy. While raw plant fats are MUCH healthier than cooked or animal fats, our bodies do not function well on high fat diets, whether the fat is from high fat plant foods or otherwise.

This high fat approach is the reason that most of the scientific community have written off the raw food diet!

If you think about how we would eat in nature, without the benefit of cooking facilities and utensils, spices and flavorings, you wouldn't be too hard pressed to realize that fruit would comprise the majority of our fuel.

What else is delicious in its natural state and requires no embellishment?

Some vegetables such as celery and leafy greens like lettuce and spinach would also be eaten in fairly large quantities, being easy to eat and palatable, as well as things like tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers.

Nuts in their natural state are encased in very hard shells, and without utensils adequate to the task, how many nuts do you think we would actually manage to eat? How many coconuts?

Even armed with a nutcracker, I sat for a good half an hour and only managed to eat about 10 pecan nuts.

So, in nature we would automatically gravitate towards a low fat, high fruit and greens diet.

This is our OPTIMUM diet for health!

Physiologically we are almost identical to primates, and what do they eat?

Large quantities of fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables and a small amount of nuts. Have you seen an ape cracking open nuts with a rock? It is a slow process, so he only eats a few.

The gorilla diet (gorilla food!, not rabbit food!) is the diet that allows our bodies to function at their peak and there are NO problems with candida, diabetes or high blood sugar!!! In fact within a FEW DAYS of this diet, blood sugar is normalized and candida clears up!

So how did fruit phobia come about?

When we eat fats they thicken the blood, which then traps the sugars, and they are unable to reach the cells, thereby increasing blood sugar and leading to candida, diabetes and other blood sugar disorders.

This applies to any sugars. So it is true that if you are eating a high fat diet you may be negatively affected by eating fruit.

It isn't the fruit that needs to go it’s the fat!

If you are eating a diet that contains animal products then it is impossible for you to be following a low fat diet.

You can eat all the low-fat dairy and lean meats that you want and you are still following a high fat diet. Many vegans are eating just as much fat as non-vegans in the form of fake meats, nuts, oils and avocados.

And then there are the raw vegans who are frequently eating more fat than anyone!

It is very true that to add a lot of fruit to any high fat diet may cause problems, which is why you find so many health advocates jumping on the fruit phobia bandwagon and recommending that it be cut from the diet, along with all other forms of sugar.

However, if you are consuming a low fat diet (less than 10% of calories from fat) you can eat all the bananas, mangoes or whatever you love and not only will your blood sugar normalize, but you will have the most tremendous energy levels, your body fat will melt away and your muscle and strength gains will be enormous! This is the optimal diet for health.

Carbohydrates are our body's first choice of fuel and they are what we constantly crave!

This isn't a bad thing! To tell yourself not to eat carbohydrates is counter productive, as you will be constantly craving and will therefore eat more fat to compensate!

Why do people eat a huge meal and at the end of it, they are still craving dessert?

They have not received sufficient carbohydrates!

If you are not ready to go raw then eat those potatoes, that brown rice, that whole wheat bread and put your fruit phobia behind you and enjoy that watermelon or those bananas, and skip the fat! You will look and feel SO much better.

Dr John McDougall has had amazing success with both getting patients to their ideal weight and with getting them off their medications and on to great health, and he does this through a very high carbohydrate, low fat diet.

On the raw food side, Dr Douglas Graham has been a raw vegan for nearly 30 years and has helped many people achieve fantastic success on the vegan raw food diet.

Healthy and athletic are one and the same!

Dr Graham is an athlete and has also coached many famous athletes.

For him, healthy and athletic are one and the same, i.e. you can't be healthy unless you are also athletic.

Believe me, all the energy for the type of vigorous activity he stresses does not come from FAT!

It is from a minimum of 80% carbohydrates, and a maximum of 10% fat and 10% protein.

The Protein Issue

All natural food contains protein. If you are simply eating enough calories, you are automatically meeting your protein needs, and this applies equally whether you are a body builder, a runner or a couch potato.

If you ONLY eat raw low fat natural foods you will be getting around 87% carbohydrates, 5% fat and 8% protein (our bodies only need 5% protein). Therefore this is perfect.

If you add in half an avocado or so (on roughly a 2000 calorie per day diet), you would bring that fat percentage to around 10%, and this is just fine.

High Carbohydrate Low Fat Diet

The high carbohydrate low fat diet approach is the only way to reach optimal weight, feel awesome, and get the exercise results you crave.

What works wonderfully well is to eat fruit and greens in abundance and only eat overt fats such as avocado, olives or nuts, about 3x per week. This keeps your fat intake at a fantastic level and you will feel amazing.

Time To Toss The Fruit Phobia!

Eating fruit as the bulk of your diet means you get to eat your dessert as the main course, EVERY TIME!

Toss the fruit phobia, and keep it sweet and juicy!