Dr. Bernstein says he doesn’t eat any fruit. Do any of you eat fruit? I grew up in a large family and we all only liked a few of the same vegetables so my likes are very limited. My concern is giving up fruit.
The only fruit I eat are berries in small quantities. Berries don’t have much of an adverse effect on my BG. Half a tart apple, like Granny Smith, doesn’t do much to me either.
I’m wary of fruit, although I do eat it.I use the meter to check what levels I get. I have found a small portion of berries is safe. I can handle half an apple, so I share with husband or grandchild. Pears I can manage just about a quarter. I love the occasional Kiwi or a piece of peach or persimmon. In other words, you have to try and test.
Hana
Im a fruit lover too so I will enjoy a small (1/4 cup) amount once or twice a week and when I have a low bg, if I have fruit in the house, i indulge to bring me back up. I am amazed that I haven’t had any watermelon all summer. Delicious apples are my favorite so maybe I will try a small one this fall. I agree with Hanna, try it and test. But keep it a SMALL amount.
Personally I love fruit, and will eat it daily with cereal or as snack. Amount may very, usually one half to a quarter serving depending on type of the fruit. Testing about 1 to 2 hours after eating the fruit has not increased BG. Smoothies I will make, so I can control ingredients, this is the same with pies and cobblers. It boils down to experimenting to find what you are safe with.
Strawberries?
I did not eat any fruit for the first few months I was following the diet, but then as summer started coming on, I found myself unable to resist some of the bounty of the season. I have been eating some tomatoes, figs, a bit of melon here and there. Sometimes I do better than others, but yes, portion is such a big part of it. I find it easier in the other seasons to avoid fruit as I try to eat local foods, so if there’s nothing fresh, I’m not so tempted (of course, living in California there’s always something fresh). I think I would need some sort of shock therapy to make it through a summer without eating a fresh tomato.
That said, I do find that by relaxing my standards with regard to fruit, it made me cave in other areas as well (a little chocolate here, a bite of ice cream there). Sugar really can have a powerful effect on our minds.
Great topic! Fructose is such a weird substance in general I try to stay away from it. I only eat sugar (of any type) when my blood sugars are low, so I don’t consider sugar to be a part of my diet since lows should never happen ideally, but the fact is I do have lows almost daily, and so I do eat some sugar, mostly glucose tabs. But I have experimented a bit over the summer with some fruit. If I buy berries from the farmer that grew them, or if I pick wild ones, I can pretty much eat them by the crateload without them affecting my bgs much. On the other hand if I buy them at the grocery store they will make me skyrocket. Melons are right out, peaches & plums are pretty good though, half a peach will see me through a mild low, while a full one will bring me back from the 30s-40s.
I find that fruit is much slower to act than the dextrose is. If my brain wasn’t happily burning ketone bodies in place of glucose, I probably wouldn’t want to wait around for the fruit to work.
Blueberries & cherries are my favorites. Can only handle 2-3 cherries so I avoid them because I can’t stop once I’ve started. I’ll send you an awesome blueberry coffee cake I recipe I found. My husband has declared it the “best ever” dessert. Your mom would approve it.
Will do. Tim ate half before I had a chance to taste it. Easy, too. You know me, it has to be simple.
I have not been eating much fruit at all. For the life of me, where is the science behind fruit being healthy? Can anyone point out what macro or micronutrients we need from fruit? I’ll be waiting patiently here. If anyone can tell me why I have to eat fruit, I’ll be surprised.
My understanding is that there’s nothing major that you can get from fruit that you can’t get from meats/veggies/etc. Although the marketing departments haven’t figured out how to sell “super veggies” yet.
So you have me there Judith. Joy and happiness. I guess there is something important there. Just don’t eat fruit because the USDA says you need 2 cups of “fruit” a day, eat it because it makes you happy.
I had watermellon for the first time in a long time. these were sweet seedless strippers and little or no effect on my numbers. Best ever
Do you know why there is a difference in the fresh vs. grocery store…just curious?
Thanks for all your responses. I’ve made it through week 1 without any fruit. It wasn’t easy though. I went to an evening work meeting and there was a platter full of hugh blackberries, strawberries, grapes, and pineapple. Of course they had to put it in front of me at the table. Some how I mustered up the strength to move the platter.
Living in the hot, humid south to me there’s nothing like cold juicy fruit to cool you off. With all your suggestions, hopefully I’ll be able to find the right balance so I can control by BG and enjoy some fruit.
Huh, Tu seems to be acting a little odd this morning, anyway insulinjunkie here’s my reply:
I’m not entirely sure, but I would guess it has something to do with centuries of controlled, monocultured agriculture. Farmers have been breeding/picking the sweetest, juiciest fruit from their orchards for so long that now we primarily find only those types of fruit on the store shelves.
Case in point, here is what a wild banana looks like: 
And of course, the modern store-bought variety: 
Not to hard to spot the sugarier one.
Wow!
bsc
I’m hunting for the science benind most dietary advice. I know how to hunt, being a scientist[40 years ago:o)]. The truth is MOST Dietary “FACT” is mere supposition with little or No evidentiary support.
the only Tested diet I can think of is the paleo diet, which has been tested by time and Dr B.'s diet, which has been tested by the health of people following it. and also Atkins??}
Hana
Well, as it turns out there have been a “reasonable” number of studies on low carb done over the last decade. Many of them demonstrating positive effects on the so called “biomarkers.” The new book New Atkins for you discusses at a high level much of this research. The Nutrition and Metabolism Society has many good studies reported on the subject. There have even been recent studies in so called mainstream journals like the Annals of Internal Medicine Weight and Metabolic Outcomes After 2 Years on a Low-Carbohydrate V… which showed that a low carb diet had better cardiovascular outcomes (as measured by biomarkers), than a low fat diet. But on the topic of fruit, there has not been much study. It is just assumed, even though there is little physiological reason, no macro/micro nutrient reason and the prospective observational studies are really inconclusive.
Unfortunately, when talking to doctors and dieticians, it is not about “fact” or “evidence.” We are expected to defer to so called “expert” advice.