Fruit. Nature’s candy? Or superfood?

Posted on February 12, 2008. Filed under: Nutrition | Tags: fat loss, fruit, micronutrients, nature's candy, Nutrition, paleo diet, paleo nutrition, veggies, weight loss, whole food |

There seems to be a return to sanity from the crazy era of “High-this Diet”, “Low-that Diet”, “Supplement-X”, “Pill-Y”, “Z-powder”. Make no mistake, the “Health and Fitness” (rolls eyes) industry is alive and well, with a marketing machine that’s well-geared to lure in the unwary to spend their hard cash.

The truth is that whole food, specifically those that could be eaten raw if we wanted to, reigns supreme for many reasons – physiological and psychological. Again, that will be discussed in a future post – I want to talk about plant-based foods, and specifically fruit here. After all, our genome evolved in such a scenario, and in its ’sapiens’ form was only further specialized by the environments and circumstances of the Paleolithic era. So, our bodies are genetically programmed to expect high-quality plant based foods in addition to quality food from animal sources.

Now, plant matter is not just meant to be ‘filler’ – it is an essential source of good calories and micronutrients (e.g vitamins). Beyond that there are phytonutrients (meaning: nutrients of plant origin) that will never be formally identified as providing health benefits because they are present in such trace quantities. But they exist nevertheless – probably thousands of them – and they are a piece of the nutritional puzzle. Without them things will still work OK, but probably subobtimally. Just because the benefits are not yet measurable does not mean we should not bother to get these trace nutrients and elements. For example, who knows what role these nanonutrients play in delaying or preventing the development many of the so-called ‘diseases of modern society’, that are so glaringly missing from the human fossil record? There is also enough evidence that shows that a return to whole foods can actually relieve certain afflictions, as well as turn around pre-disease physiological profiles. So we need to consume plant based foods- as many different types as we can get. Of course, not necessarily all in one sitting (impossible) – another good case for focusing on getting variety, and thinking of nutrition in terms of cycles…

As far as plant foods go, I am personally biased in favor of fruit. Humans can survive on only fruits and nuts for extended periods. In Paleolithic times, this meant “until the next successful hunt”. Most uncooked vegetables would not provide the caloric content to fuel the next hunting trip. That is not to say that veggies should not be eaten- just that the ‘gurus’ should stop positioning fruit as nature’s ‘candy’. Oh, and BTW, many of what we call veggies, are fruits anyway. Regarding types of fruit, I am even more in favor of tropical and subtropical fruits, since much of our evolution occurred in those climes.

As an aside: I find it silly that very smart scientists will promote a certain style of Paleolithic eating based on the fact that ‘Joe Iceman’ who lived in the Ice Age ate that way. Ummmmm, no… That Age is an unforeseen aberration that had little impact on our evolution. Its silly – that’s like saying that we have evolved enough to adapt to the Neolithic ‘agriculturist’ type diet in such a short period of time. While I’ve personally found evidence of ‘BIG BANG evolution’ in bacteria, trust me – humans evolve very slowly. So lets take our lead from the non-Ice Age or even more recent/modern hunter-gatherers.

So, back to my point: tropical fruits get the nod from me. Then other fruit. Then veggies that can me eaten raw. Then as a last resort, those that have to be cooked (due to them being otherwise poisonous). BTW, I haven’t even mentioned the benefits of soluble fiber found in most fruits. Another aside: can you imagine early humans fueling a hunt with spinach? I mean come on, caloric density aside, have you seen how unappetizing a spinach leaf looks? Why in heavens name would a human being start salivating at the sight of one? I can accept that they may have been eaten to stave of hunger yes, thereby providing occasional access to novel trace elements not found in fruit. But as a staple? Has anyone even paused to think about this? This is why I encourage people to look to guys like Dr. Lonnie Lowery and Dr. John Berardi for realistic, well thought out theories and strategies – oh, and you’ll even get to eat more calories on their systems.

To summarize:

Eat whole foods
Eat fruit, its good for you…
Make most of that tropical fruit
Substitute fruit for some of your cooked starchy veggies and starchy grains (no, doing this won’t wreak havoc with your insulin – the glycemic index and load is quite low in most cases)
Have fruit whenever you eat cooked meats and fattier meals (more on this in a future article)