Is Fruit (and the Sugar in it) Bad for You? Longevity, Inflammation, Insulin & How Much Fruit to Eat

I go over scientific studies on how fruit and fruit juice intake affect your health, particularly in terms of inflammation, insulin resistance and diabetes risk, cardiovascular risk markers, and overall mortality. I also go over the optimal range of fruit consumption--that is, how much to eat per day. Press "show more" to see the study link(s)!

[MichePhD]

There seems to be some confusion—as I specified throughout the video, my focus was on randomized controlled trials (and I specified whenever a study was not). Randomized controlled trials are a class of particularly high quality EXPERIMENTS, which are by definition not correlational or associations. Experiments, such as randomized controlled trials, are how we establish cause and effect (aka causality). If you don’t believe me, it’s easy to Google.

[avapilsen]

Just discovered this channel. The internet needs more people like you--people who can read and comprehend the literature on nutrition and simplify it for us. Thank you so much.

[salvaged_title]

Fruits are Loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and anti-pathogenic phytochemicals.

[damtewharinet]

I’m not sure if I agree with you. I’m a type 2 diabetic. The fruits spike my blood sugar all the time. I don’t eat them anymore. If they are not good for diabetics, they are not good for anyone.

[davidsawyer]

Thank you. I cheated and read the transcript, and I jumped ahead.
I don't drink juice.
I do eat fruit. All types. Berries, citrus, stone fruits and on and on. I consciously make an effort to eat dark colored fruits.
Unlike some of your viewers I don't monitor my various levels of whatever.
I know this. I know that when my fruit consumption is down. So am I.
I also believe, though I have 0.0 proof of this. We are not all alike! All bodies process the same intake differently.
Not everyone wins the gene pool lottery!
Your work and sharing is most helpful to more understanding by us regular folk.

[jamesalles]

yes, fructose is to be avoided if one has developed Fatty Liver Disease. Give your liver a break.

[smilingpossum]

The problem hasn’t been caused by the fruit. The problem has been refined carbs, sugars and seed oils! So…. Do whatever it takes to get well, zero sugar refined carbs and seed oils, get to a healthy weight, then eat the fruit as a part of a good diet

[Gary]

I'm not sure I buy the fact that eating fruit does not raise triglycerides. Years ago the respected 90 yr health doctor Gabe Mirkin thought eating 9 oranges a day would be good for him. Turns out his trig level zoomed up 3Xs over the standard high trig level. He cut way back on the oranges and his trig level came back to a healthy range. Fruit is still sugar with fiber unless you drink juice, then it's just sugar.

[DarylannCampbell]

I grow about ten types of berries, plums, pears, apples and cherries. The upper limit of fruit to eat per day is 200-400 grams per day, she says. Even with my access to fruit, I doubt I eat 400 grams per day. Variety and moderation in all things is key.

[stephenbell]

Miche, you are EXCELLENT. There is so much crap on the internet, as we all know. But you stick to the facts. to the meta-studies. In a way that only a good PhD is capable of. Keep up the good work!

[Cindy-eeou]

Association studies obviously have limitations, it’s plausible that the bananas don’t help, but the kind of person who would eat bananas everyday could have the kind of life style that reduces all cause mortality. Randomized controlled studies also have limitations, for example, the amount of juice could be of more significance than the juice itself. Fructose is processed by the liver, hence lack of insulin spike effect. Too much of it does contribute to non-alcoholic liver disease… but good to hear the sound outside of the echo-chamber here. So thank you.

[antoinettefrancis]

I love fruit, but as I have gone through menopause, my glucose readings do not correlate with your findings. If I eat more than 2 pieces of fruit, my glucose sky rockets and it’s the only carbs I eat as I’m predominantly carnivore.

[mjss]

Good, since I eat about 3lbs of fruit per day.

It is sad that we need studies like this because people are brainwashed by anti-carb or pro-high meat or high fat diets into thinking that all carbs are the same and that source doesn't matter.

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen articles that have zero granularity and talk about carbs like this "Did you know that two apples has as much carbs as a can of soda?" and then they get into an entire article that just is carbs = sugar only and all carbs are the exact same as refined white sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

Just checked Cronometer and the fruit per day that I eat gives me 252 grams of carbs of which 35 grams is from fiber, 49 grams is from starch (of which there many), with the rest being a mix of fructose, sucrose, glucose. Then all the other goodness that comes along for the ride.

But anti-carb people would see my 252 grams of "carbs" as if it is sugar and that it is the same as if I just drank 86.4 fluid ounces of Coca Cola, or just ate 1.25 cups (60 teaspoons) of granulated white sugar.

[Artzimer]

I don’t believe this. Every time I eat fruit, specially banana, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe it spikes my sugar so high. I used to eat a lot of fruits because that’s how I grew up. In America, the fruit is all changed all the fruits even the berries are Genetically modified and now they are a lot more sugary and sweet. If you’re a diabetic, please don’t drink the orange juice after your meal. That’s a very bad idea. If you have high blood pressure stay away from eating too much fruit. Sometimes these studies are done by juice companiesand people get paid for giving leading information. Just go with your own body check your blood sugar check your blood pressure. Don’t trust anyone but yourself.

[paveldrobnych]

Interesting. Eating 100g of blueberries gives me huge postprandial glucose spike. As do 2 apples. And a banana is the worst. I see it clearly on CGM. Such spikes by definition increase inflammation and harm arteries. Then at the end of the day fructose has to go somewhere. I wouldn’t risk eating too much fruit unless being absolutely sure I am in calorific deficit. Which of course not great for muscles. Focus on veggies . Measure what it does to you.

[nancydowns]

I hope you see this. I saw that if you take high dosages of vitamin D without K2 that you could end up cause a stroke or heart attack. Would love to see a video on this.

[ACL]

Fruit literally GROWS ON TREES and falls off in our hands. To think that they would be a "bad" food for us always struck me as an insane view. Thanks for the great work!

[mariettanoordewier-kenkel]

I have always assumed that the risk of dying is 100% for all of us 😅

[cookinglivewithlala]

My husband became an ultra runner in his mid 50s. He never competed in a 5k, just went straight to the 30k. I created a smoothie for his training recovery that included berries and his always recovered really well. I'm sure being plant-based was overall helpful in his recovery and training as well.

[lynnrobin]

Seems like I've heard that too much fruit is hard on the liver, because the liver can only store the fructose - not to mention contributing to weight gain, if eaten on top of you, normal diet, also, from my own experience, for especially fruit smoothies, raised my blood sugar, then dropped it, precipitously, leading to increased hunger. All this leaves to a lot of weight gain, which is one of the biggest factors of ill health and shortened longevity. So yes, the video on fructose would be helpful thank you.