Episode 33

Don't Fear the Fruit, Enjoy It

Published on: 28th February, 2023

Don't Fear the Fruit, Enjoy It

Are you afraid that eating fruit will cause your blood sugar to spike? Let us bust that myth right now.

Only ten percent of adults eat enough whole fruit daily despite the clear benefits of fruit.

Eating fruit and Living Longer

 My 98-year-old dad eats fruit with breakfast for as long as I have known him. We would have grapefruit every morning. We even had those cute grapefruit spoons to wrestle the goodness out of the half grapefruit.

Now, dad enjoys a mixed bit of fruit.

In 28 studies with over 1.6 million people, each serving of fruit led to a 5% lower incidence of death (reference).

Each serving of fruit

8% less risk of heart disease

3% lower risk of cancer

200 grams (7 ounces) showed the lowest risk of cancer rates and deaths from cancer.

Even the Low Carb Community is coming around

Thirty years ago, the low-carb community advised against whole fruits. Their rationale was that fruits spiked blood sugar, which caused insulin to rise, which caused fat storage. They even cautioned against eating carrots for the same reason. But now, even the most extreme members of that community proudly eat fruit.

What 5 servings looks like

Breakfast with 1/2 cup of blueberries

Morning snack of one medium banana

Lunch with one apple

Afternoon snack of 1/2 cup of grapes (about 16)

Evening snack of 1 clementine

Don't forget the tomato

The tomato is a fruit. Yes, the Supreme Court said, for taxation purposes, it is a vegetable, but it isn't.

Other Benefits of Fruit

  • promoting long-term weight management
  • reducing the risk of heart disease
  • reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes
  • decreasing the risk of colon and lung cancer
  • lowering the risk of depression
  • successful aging (like dad)
  • higher bone mineral density
  • decreasing incidence of seborrheic dermatitis
  • less constipation
  • less irritable bowel
  • less inflammatory bowel
  • less diverticular disease
  • less hemorrhoids
  • less stress

Fruit is not the enemy - but it is one of the easiest of the nine food groups to add to your Mediterranean Diet and one of the easiest and most delicious to add to the DASH diet.

 

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Produced by Simpler Media

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About the Podcast

Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson
Learn more about what you put in your mouth.
Fork U(niversity)
Not everything you put in your mouth is good for you.

There’s a lot of medical information thrown around out there. How are you to know what information you can trust, and what’s just plain old quackery? You can’t rely on your own “google fu”. You can’t count on quality medical advice from Facebook. You need a doctor in your corner.

On each episode of Your Doctor’s Orders, Dr. Terry Simpson will cut through the clutter and noise that always seems to follow the latest medical news. He has the unique perspective of a surgeon who has spent years doing molecular virology research and as a skeptic with academic credentials. He’ll help you develop the critical thinking skills so you can recognize evidence-based medicine, busting myths along the way.

The most common medical myths are often disguised as seemingly harmless “food as medicine”. By offering their own brand of medicine via foods, These hucksters are trying to practice medicine without a license. And though they’ll claim “nutrition is not taught in medical schools”, it turns out that’s a myth too. In fact, there’s an entire medical subspecialty called Culinary Medicine, and Dr. Simpson is certified as a Culinary Medicine Specialist.

Where today's nutritional advice is the realm of hucksters, Dr. Simpson is taking it back to the realm of science.

About your host

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Terry Simpson

Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than petri dishes. Dr. Simpson, a weight loss surgeon is an advocate of culinary medicine, he believes teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, husband, author, cook, and surgeon “in that order.”