Erica: wasThe problem with high raw fat diets? In your own words....

[Guest guest]

Hi Erica, how are you?

 

You're quite knowledgeable about raw foods if I recall. Can you tell

me if eating too much fruit, or eating too much of one type of fruit

(like melons - watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew ) can cause stress to

the pancreas because of insulin secretion, and lead to adrenal fatigue?

 

Forget about fat/nuts/meat/ etc. I just want to know if fruit can

possibly have that effect. I used to think ALL fruit was low

glycemic, but lots of people are telling me that diabetics are told to

avoid fruit for a very obvious reason. So I would appreciate your

take on it.

 

Also, can you clarify your question you posted? I had a hard time

understanding exactly what you asked haha

 

Cheers

 

Joe

[Guest guest]

-

Joe Postma

>Forget about fat/nuts/meat/ etc. I just want to know if fruit can

possibly have that effect. I used to think ALL fruit was low

glycemic, but lots of people are telling me that diabetics are told to

avoid fruit for a very obvious reason. So I would appreciate your

take on it.

 

I was told by the diabetic counselour/dietitian, to avoid fruits, to eat

more bread and grains, and more meat. All of which made me very sick. You

can't have it both ways - either you're following medical advice, or you're

eating raw (INCLUDING fruits). I've read, from a few raw foodists, not just

the one who shall remain unnamed, that going halfway is worse than not at

all, for the very simple reason that fats in your diet, cooked or otherwise,

however small the amounts, WILL impair your body's ability to process the

sugars.

 

As far as I can see, the solution give is very simple - if you will eat fats

and/or cooked, do it at night, as your last meal, so that your body has all

night to process those foods. Because of the blood sugar issues in this

family, and yes, I've been diagnosed with insulin resistance and diabeties,

we eat fruit all day, from the first meal of the day, through lunch, and all

snacks, then the fat meal (an avocado for my son) is the last meal before

bed. I continue to eat fruits only, as I have plenty of fat stored to meet

any needs for a while. This satiates both of us, and no, we're not eating

all day (though he likes to bounce around the loungeroom with a banana in

hand). I sit down to a plate of fruit in the morning, and though I'm not

full, I don't feel the need to eat again for at least 3 hours, which brings

me to either a snack, or lunch. This continues till about 8pm, though it's

getting earlier, and shortly after that I feel the need to go to bed and

sleep (still training myself to listen to that, I've been going to bed

between midnight and 4am for many years).

 

I've looked at NutriDiary (www.nutridiary.com), and discovered some very

interesting things about fruits. My plate of fruit that I have for breakfast

has 3% fat (yes, fruits contain some fat, I never " knew " that, though it

makes perfect sense when I think about it), 4% protein, 10% of my

" recommended daily intake " of iron, as well as the other " major " vitamins

that we're said to need. That's just breakfast. Multiply that by 5, the

average number of meals I eat a day, and I'm doing pretty well, about 100g

of protein (from memory, which is a bit vague), and 50% of the recommended

intake of iron, which is about perfect, given that the iron is in a form

that the body can use, rather than a supplement, or cooked meat. I say this

because breastmilk is supposed to be " low in iron " , yet it's very rare to

find a fully breastfed infant who is anemic, because the iron in breastmilk

is in a form that can be directly absorbed into the body. That was bananas I

looked at on nutridiary, it's probable that other fruits have different

ratios of fats and proteins, and different amounts of vitamins. Oranges, I

recall, are particularly high in protein.

 

It's worth taking the time to sit down and run some numbers through

nutridiary, and see what's actually in what you're eating. Not just one

banana, I eat about 3-6 at a time (following the example of my boy, who

stops grazing if he eats 3 at a time), even though the ratios stay the same,

the amounts are more realistic according to what we need.

 

Eating this way, I'm not hungry, yet don't have that pain in my belly that

used to mean I was full after a meal. I don't have the insane spikes of high

and low blood sugar, though I did get shaky yesterday when I went too long

without eating, it was soon fixed by a plate of fruit. I don't get that

buzzy feeling in my head like after a high sugar meal (fruit is NOT

chocolate cake), and I'm losing weight, which is literally physically

impossible for someone with insulin resistance, or typeII diabeties. My

activity levels aren't particularly high at this stage, though I often feel

as though I WANT or NEED to move around more, whereas before, I avoided

movement at all, because it hurt too much. Now I can do a little without ill

effects, it's great.

 

One last thing, on the distinction between fruit sugar and processed sugars

(which are also in bread). Sugars are made up of carbon chains, in which

each carbon is attached to a water molecule (2 hydrogen atoms and an oxygen

atom), so each breakdown of that chain takes an oxygen molecule (2 oxygen

atoms) and releases a water molecule, and a carbon dioxide molecule, and

energy from the broken bonds. Processed sugars are glucose, which is a

6-carbon ring, and the simplest sugar for our body to break down for fuel.

 

Fruit sugars, on the other hand, are fructose, which one of the very

simplest starches, in that it is 2 simple sugars bonded together, sucrose (a

5-carbon chain), and glucose (the 6-carbon chain) (more complex starches, as

found in potatoes, are many many glucose joined together in a particular

sequence, ie joining on a particular carbon in the chain - either 5 or 6, I

can't remember; cellulose is fibre, which is basically a starch joined the

other way, and gives plant cells their structure). The metabolism of these

sugars differs, meaning that the glucose in the fruit sugars will be used as

fuel first, giving you that immediate burst of energy, leaving the sucrose

as a backup, extending the length of time the fuel from the fruit is

available. I realise this is a lot of chemistry, is may be a bit difficult

to understand if you don't know the basics of chemistry (I left out the

biochemistry, as it's far more complex), but hopefully it will help you

understand the whole situation a bit better.

 

Caron