sugar in fruitbased diet

Question
I am a swedish rawfooder confused about the role that sugar have in the food, from different sources I met. The 100% rawfooders eating dr Grahams 80-10-10-diet get their energy primaly from fruits containing a lot sugar. But they claim that the sugars in fruit isn't that bad that come from 'pure sugar'. I have also heard from other sources that the sugar in fruit is better because it has longer 'chains', that takes some more time for the body to 'take up'.

Now I have just read an article on the net in the famous BeyondVeg - site, "The calorie paradox", that says excessive urination is a form of 'pre-diabetic reaction', because of the insulin-spikes caused by the excessive sugars from fruits. This makes me some worry, because I recognize excessive urination from my own experiments with the 80-10-10-diet.

My question: is there any dangers involved in eating lot of fruits (3-4 kilos per day), thinking about sugars?

Answer
Hi Ulf,

My biggest concern with a diet that includes 3-4 kilos per day of sugars, is that it is probably not a very balanced diet. Fruit, although it's nutritious, is lacking adequate protein and minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc that are essential to human health.

I advocate a diet that includes generous amounts of whole grains, along with fruits and vegetables (although I recommend more serving of vegetables than fruits as most vegetables contain more nutrients and less calories than fruits), and legumes or other protein-rich foods. Some type of calcium-rich foods need to be included in the diet as well to meet calcium needs.

Eating 3-4 kilos of fruit a day will result in an excessive intake of sugars. Although the sugar in fruit is absorbed more slowly than white sugar (due to the fibre in the fruit), your total sugar intake is going to be higher than recommended. Eating a lot of sugar (even in the form of fruit) will indeed cause insulin levels to spike. That's one reason why I recommend a diet as described above - much lower in sugar and higher in nutrients, which will lead to more stable blood sugar levels with lower levels of insulin secretion.

Hope that helps!

Karen
www.getfitwithkaren.com

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