Fruit - what we think about it

[jack412]

T1's and T'2s that aren't insulin resistant..eat as much and as many types as you want to or your meds will allow.

for the rest of us, fructose is bad news and is metabolised the same as alcohol

for insulin resistant T2's ..the normal person converts 3% of glucose to fructose, we convert upto 30% to fructose and load up our livers

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KybOPCB2Qd4 from about 15min into the video


www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceFyF9px20Y
Fat Chance: Fructose 2.0

 

[Ellie-70]

I love fruit, all fruit, but not all fruit loves me. Mainly eat berries, fun sized apples, bananas. Non of them really spike me. Anything else I don't find is worth having because of the spike I get, Might as well eat sweets lol

I am insanely jealous that you can eat bananas! I used to devour really ripe bananas before getting my first meter last week. And how I miss baking banana bread and banana muffins too - I miss eating them even more. Off to peck at a black currant now..........

 

[AloeSvea]

T1's and T'2s that aren't insulin resistant..eat as much and as many types as you want to or your meds will allow.

for the rest of us, fructose is bad news and is metabolised the same as alcohol

for insulin resistant T2's ..the normal person converts 3% of glucose to fructose, we convert upto 30% to fructose and load up our livers

Thanks heaps for that Jack! See you guys! I told you there was some controversy about fruit eating and diabetics. All over the net. Throughout the diabetes med journals and labs studies about it and so on - can't move in nutrition circles without coming up against a pro or con. (OK - I'm slightly exaggerating for dramatic effect. But there is a lot of discussion about this amongst scientists and nutritionists and health commentators and online.)

And unfortunately, sometimes ordinary folk/the diabetes police get a wind of it and that's when you get told you can't eat it. (Grrr indeed.) (Especially grrr when you are turning away from the chocolate cake and the beer and the french bread, and delicately munching on an apple or enjoying an orange! Golly gee! Have those diabetes police no idea of what we have to go through re food choices anyhow???!!) (yeah, I know - the answer is - no they don't - they have absolutely no idea.)

I'm pleased you posted that Jack, as I've been meaning to put some of the nutritionists' comments on here, and the studies but haven't gotten around to it while I have been enjoying all the lovely talk of lovely fruit.

As I certainly have insulin resistance (there are T2s that don't? Really?), but as a religious 'eat and meterer' (and drink and meterer and exercise and meterer) I know that a little moderate alcohol (i drink fermented fruit ,or spirits, when I drink these post diagnosis days) , and fruit - especially if eaten with fats, as some other posters have noted (in the form of yoghurt, cream, cheese) or other food - barely spikes me, if at all.

My thoughts are that this is one of the hugely individual things - whether fructose in fruit spikes us as diabetics or not. Or if spikes, how high are the spikes. Ditto on which type of fruit. And I think it is marvellous that we put it out there and see the whole wonderful range like this.

 

[jack412]

Thanks heaps for that Jack! See you guys! I told you there was some controversy about fruit eating and diabetics. All over the net. Throughout the diabetes med journals and labs studies about it and so on - can't move in nutrition circles without coming up against a pro or con. (OK - I'm slightly exaggerating for dramatic effect. But there is a lot of discussion about this amongst scientists and nutritionists and health commentators and online.)

And unfortunately, sometimes ordinary folk/the diabetes police get a wind of it and that's when you get told you can't eat it. (Grrr indeed.) (Especially grrr when you are turning away from the chocolate cake and the beer and the french bread, and delicately munching on an apple or enjoying an orange! Golly gee! Have those diabetes police no idea of what we have to go through re food choices anyhow???!!) (yeah, I know - the answer is - no they don't - they have absolutely no idea.)

I'm pleased you posted that Jack, as I've been meaning to put some of the nutritionists' comments on here, and the studies but haven't gotten around to it while I have been enjoying all the lovely talk of lovely fruit.

As I certainly have insulin resistance (there are T2s that don't? Really?), but as a religious 'eat and meterer' (and drink and meterer and exercise and meterer) I know that a little moderate alcohol (i drink fermented fruit ,or spirits, when I drink these post diagnosis days) , and fruit - especially if eaten with fats, as some other posters have noted (in the form of yoghurt, cream, cheese) or other food - barely spikes me, if at all.

My thoughts are that this is one of the hugely individual things - whether fructose in fruit spikes us as diabetics or not. Or if spikes, how high are the spikes. Ditto on which type of fruit. And I think it is marvellous that we put it out there and see the whole wonderful range like this.

there are a few T2's here that have 'fixed' their insulin resistance and they say are eating heaps of carbs, I guess if their metabolism is running as normal, they can..

my guess is that the insulin resistance gene is still there and as soon as the weight goes back on because they pass their carb trigger point. , it will bite and high BG will kick in again

 

[AloeSvea]

I am insanely jealous that you can eat bananas! I used to devour really ripe bananas before getting my first meter last week. And how I miss baking banana bread and banana muffins too - I miss eating them even more. Off to peck at a black currant now..........

I am a huge banana fan too. And sadly have become much more careful with them because of admonitions to be so, as a diabetic. (have you too seen that pic of a banana and 'never eat this food' that pops up everywhere on the net?! I hate it! Poor innocent banana!)

I still eat them in non-grain breads - ie cooked with nut flours, eggs and with coconut oil, and I bake a wonderful scone substitute that uses a ripe banana as natural sweetener, and I find this to barely register on my meter if at all, (and I smother them with butter - which I believe is part of the zero or only-mildly raising bg nature of them, for me at least).

Also, I fry a banana in coconut oil and smother them in the pan with cinnamon (the 'ceylon cinnamon' kind, care of a thread in the forum) - this is beyond yummy, because the coconut, banana and cinnamon caramelises. I also eat it with a good dollop of greek full-fat little-greeblie-full yoghurt (I'm a paleo/LCHF eater, I guess obviously by my sharing this as a breakfast food!) You could give this way of eating a banana a try? Eat and meter it?

 

[AloeSvea]

there are a few T2's here that have 'fixed' their insulin resistance and they say are eating heaps of carbs, I guess if their metabolism is running as normal, they can..

my guess is that the insulin resistance gene is still there and as soon as the weight goes back on because they pass their carb trigger point. , it will bite and high BG will kick in again

If I am able to get my HBA1c as low as yours Jack, I will be deeply grateful, and agree - will always have a deep abiding respect for carb trigger points.

I am pleased you brought up the fructose to high glucose argument.

 

[jack412]

If I am able to get my HBA1c as low as yours Jack, I will be deeply grateful, and agree - will always have a deep abiding respect for carb trigger points.

I am pleased you brought up the fructose to high glucose argument.

people who I think are wrong can have good A1c and clever ones [funny how they think the way I do] with high a1c,,I wouldn't go with what a persons A1c is
this is the internet after all, where everyone is a fighter pilot

 

[phil1966]

I used to love bananas but they have a ridiculous effect on me (spike me well into double figures) so I don't eat them any more. Apples and oranges aren't quite as bad but still take me higher than I want to be.

I'm OK with a small amount (< 50g) of raspberries or strawberries so they're pretty much the only "sweet" fruit I eat now (I also have the odd tomato)

 

[AloeSvea]

people who I think are wrong can have good A1c and clever ones [funny how they think the way I do] with high a1c,,I wouldn't go with what a persons A1c is
this is the internet after all, where everyone is a fighter pilot

Cute! Love the fighter pilot thing, although I'm not quite sure what you mean! (But it sounds great!)

But is very interesting to see the ranges of HBA1cs, and how we deal with them. How we deal with our dysfunction, and sometimes so differently.

I re-read Dr Bernstein 'The Diabetes Solution', and fruits definitely on on the no-no list. But he is a type 1 and I bow my head in deference to him, and he has kept his BG levels under control through diet as well as the insulin injections, and has lived long to tell the tale.

Also saw this on the forum tonight 'And yes, if you want to reduce glucose levels, to say nothing of the beer - fruit is one of the things that you will need to cut back on, as much of it is full of sugar. Stick with berries to begin with, but use your meter to test how your body responds to different varieties as we are all different in what we can tolerate.'

Just ate a feijoa, and a passionfruit - mmmmm. As I say, watched my hba1cs go from 93 to 40 eating fruit all the while. T2D transformed my life! But not by leading me to not eat fruit. (Don't drink beer though for sure.) (I stick to fermented fruit, not fermented grain.) (Ever heard of a 'fruit belly'?)

I must say, when doing the deviated Newcastle diet with real food, I had to calorie count and so on, and also saw the nutritional counts of various foods. When making a green juice I popped a gorgeous Italian orange into it, and then saw the vitamin C count of it online. I was blown away. Wo ho! No wonder vitamin C tablets are orange flavoured I thought to myself. I also bow my head in deference to the orange!

Fruit! Vitamin C. Protection against infection and colds and flus and so on, and who knows what else that we need is in them? Especially with compromised health like we T2Ds. We want to risk not eating enough of such a nutritious food? That humans and our prehuman forebears ate, and ate, and maybe ate some more. Especially when humans live in the tropics and the subtropics (how not to eat fruit when it is delightfully everywhere). (Berries are great - but so sedate compared to tropical and subtropical fruit.) So I think anyway.

 

[CheeseJunkie]

I have cut the amount of fruit I eat to 2 pieces a day, one being an apple, and I'm eating fruit with other stuff, so apple with slice of cheddar and an oatcake and some walnuts.

 

[hankjam]

squeezed limes in water a couple a day, 25g pomegranates with my morning yog and nuts are my routine and fresh rasps and rhubarb when in season, occasional pear.... kept away from nearly everything else and it seems okay for me.

 

[Fayefaye1429]

Yum yum yum

 

[kesun]

T1's and T'2s that aren't insulin resistant..eat as much and as many types as you want to or your meds will allow.

for the rest of us, fructose is bad news and is metabolised the same as alcohol

I don't have insulin resistance, but I still can't eat fruit - it spikes my BG. I miss fruit, especially apples, and sometimes if I'm preparing apples for the children I have just one slice. I do worry that I'm missing the vitamins etc from fruit, but on balance I've decided that BG control is more important to me.

On a happier note, I have no problem metabolising alcohol

Kate

 

[RuthW]

Fruit, fruit, fruit - everywhere, but not a bit for us to eat?
There seems to be quite a lot of controversy about whether or not diabetics should eat fruit. Or certain kinds of fruit. What is your experience? Your thoughts? Your likes and dislikes? If you have 'eat and metered' with fruit, what were your findings? Your feelings or thoughts about the impact of eating fruit other than BG readings? Is it different for different kinds of fruit? Do you support advice for diabetics not to eat fruit (or particular kinds of fruit)? Which studies, words of wisdom - or not - from diabetes writers/youtubers/bloggers etc, if any, have you come across? Let's share!

I eat all kinds of fruit but avoid fruit juice like the plague. Fruit does not spike my BS - presumably because of the fibre in it, but fruit juice - I just LOOK at it and get the dreaded hyperglycemic thirst. For me the point about fruit is that it is not calorie dense. And it's not "empty calories", that is, it has lots of vitamins and trace elements in it. And the skin particularly feeds the healthy bacteria in your gut which help to keep your weight down and your mood up. (It's kind of weird when people sing hymns of praise to processed meats which are carcinogenic but ban fruit).

 

[Alisonjane10]

Hi all,

I've found as my weight continues to reduce, I can tolerate a variety of fruit without it spiking my blood glucose. I also eat Irish Yoghurts diet brand which have between 5-7g of carbs per pot depending on the fruit variety. I simply couldn't stand plain Greek yoghurt any longer, even with berries. I limit how much fruit I eat to no more than 3 small/fun size pieces a day. I completely avoid fruit juice, but enjoy tomato juice with Worcestershire sauce. I've eased up on LCHF as it was making me miserable. I now eat moderate carbs & may not be in ketosis, but I'm still losing weight. So, for me, I'll continue eating to my meter. I know other members have to be very strict to prevent blood glucose spikes. So I do consider myself lucky. I guess it's whatever works for each of us. Interesting post btw.

Alison. X