Is a diet high in fruit as detrimental as one that includes sugary snacks?

Question

I'm currently trying to eat a lot healthier, and to that end I've cut out any sugary snacks - cakes, cookies, chocolate bars, protein bars and so on. I've noticed that I've mostly ended up replacing them with nuts, and a lot of fruit.

I'll get through a large container of pineapple, a couple of bananas, a large fresh orange juice and various other fruits through the day. I'm trying to make sure all my fruit is raw and fresh but, even so, are the sugars from fruits likely to be as detrimental to my dieting (the aim is weight loss & muscle gain), as if I simply cheated and had the odd sugary snack?

Answer 1

You correctly identified the bad foods, so that's a good start. You haven't mentioned drinks; if you consume sugary drinks (even from fresh fruit) you better stop.

The problem is that you replaced all of these with fruit and nuts. Fruit is quite overhyped. It is completely true that it is healthy. But you don't need that much nutrients. It's not like if you don't eat few pounds of a 'super-food' you will be malnutritioned.

What is true though, is that modern fruits have lots of fructose. And that is basically sugar.

Try to replace a lot of the fruits you currently eat with vegetables.

Don't strive to eat everything raw or in whatever form a hipsterish blog would suggest. Eat it in a way that you like it, so you have a good chance of keeping following the diet.

Answer 2

No, not the same. Fruit, in addition to the sugar, also contains fiber. The fiber will slow digestion and keep the sugar in fruits from quickly going right to your blood stream (and thus spiking insulin).