CAN FRUITS HELP IN WEIGHT LOSS?

January 27, 2020

CAN FRUITS HELP IN WEIGHT LOSS?
by Dietitian Sonam Balasaria

“HEALTHY” OR “UN-HEALTHY” FOOD, over-eating can result in weight gain. Even if you are eating healthy in large quantities, without keeping a calorie check you will tend to gain weight, if your goal is to lose weight.

In Indian Households, fruits are considered a very healthy food category, and can be consumed in any quantity, and if anyone dislikes fruits, they are forced to eat some, because it’s “HEALTHY”. Fruits are healthy because it has lots of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, Fibre etc, but we should not forget it has good amount of simple sugar too also known as fructose. And also contains CALORIES. Yes like any other food, fruits are also rich in calories. They are not calorie free food.

Even if you are consuming fruits whole day, skipping on other food items, you will tend to gain weight, because you may cross your daily requirement of calorie intake.

We often see people replace their meal of rice-roti-daal-sabzi with fruits, assuming they are eating healthy and fewer calories. But they might be eating more than the required calories. May be more calories than in Roti -dal -Sabzi. Ultimately it results into weight gain. Which is disappointing.

Also since fruits are simple carbohydrates that means they are broken down easily and very fast to produce energy, which means it gets burn by the body very fast, which results in hunger bouncing back. You eat more to curb your hunger resulting in consuming more calories. Ultimately by replacing one meal of ROTI-SABZI you land up eating two meals/ eating more than required. Can you relate to me? We all have done this at least once in life. Isn’t it??

WHAT ABOUT FRUIT JUICE ?

Also we notice people drinking fruit juices, be it freshly extracted or pre-packed. Juices are liquid calories, it has very low to no amount of fibre and a very high amount of sugar.

Juices won’t keep you fuller as compared to fruits when eaten as a whole fruit. We also don’t realise, that to make a full glass of juice we use more fruits which contributes more to the calories without any fibre content.

When you want to reduce weight, food choices make a significant difference.

A glass of juice might keep you full for 10 mins, a fruit might keep you full for 40 mins but a Roti might keep you full for 120 mins.

You can enjoy fruits and still maintain a healthy weight by making correct choices and in correct quantity.

Water based fruits like watermelon and small fruits like berries are low calories fruits, You can easily fit them in your calories chart and enjoy them as well.

Enjoy fruits in moderation, but focus more on vegetables, especially green leafy veggies which are more fibrous.

If you have a sweet tooth and are looking forward to cutting down on sweets then you should avoid fruits as well. Because the natural sugars in fruits will keep the cells activated which will lead to cravings when ever you see sweets.

I am not saying eating fruits will make you gain weight, neither am I saying, not eating fruits will help in weight loss. Just want to convey that “ MODERATION IS THE KEY”, Making healthy choices is important.