Fruit Diet – ‘Just eat fruits and see your weight magically disappear in weeks!’ Have you ever seen such boards or read articles which recommend an all fruit diet to lose weight?
Have you been tempted to follow a fruit diet plan for weight loss after knowing these claims? After all, your grandma and parents have always told you that fruits are good for your health. So, if you get to eat only fruits whole day, what harm can it do to your body? Right?
Related: Why You Should Choose Mediterranean Diet?
Wait.
We have got some bad news for you.
An all fruit diet is no magic pill. In fact, it can be disastrous for your health as eating only fruits in your diet is even linked to pancreatic cancer!! Don’t believe us?
How Did Only Fruit Diet Led Ashton Kutcher to Hospital?
The famous Hollywood actor, Ashton Kutcher went through a terrifying experience while he was preparing for the role of late Steve Jobs for the movie Jobs. To get into the character, Kutcher went on an all fruit diet as Steve Jobs followed this diet for a major portion of his life.
However, within a month of following this diet, Ashton Kutcher was admitted to the hospital just three days before the commencement of shooting. Reason?
Let Ashton Kutcher explain the reason himself, “I was doubled over in pain, and my pancreas levels were completely out of whack, which was terrifying, considering everything.”
For those who do not know, Steve Jobs struggled with pancreatic cancer in his life before he said goodbye to this world. This is what made the experience so terrifying for Kutcher.
It is possible that the excessive consumption of fruits led to highly elevated blood sugar levels in his body. So, the pancreas had to work extra hard to process that sugar from fructose. Over the time, pancreases might have got overloaded leading to a severe imbalance in the body of Ashton Kutcher.
Did Fruit Diet Lead to Steve Jobs Death?
Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs was a famous fruitarian ( a person who follows a fruit diet). He lived with pancreatic cancer for nearly 20 years and ultimately left this world at an early age of 56. Although he used to follow an all fruit diet in his college years way before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, many doctors believe that there might be some correlation.
It has not yet been medically proven that only eating fruits cause pancreatic cancer, but various medical professionals indicate a high possibility of the connection. There is still much research needed to establish this relationship, yet you cannot deny several hazards if you ignore other foods and take only fruits in your diet. After all, it is rightly said that the “excess of anything is bad.”
Why An All-Fruit Diet Does More Harm Than Good
Even if you do not believe the relation between cases of Kutcher and Jobs, there are plenty of reasons why health professionals never recommend going on an only fruit diet. This is because of the following reasons:
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1. Crucial Nutrients Are Missing In Fruit Diet
This is the most significant hazards of following an only fruit diet plan. Fruits might be rich in fibers, vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates in the form of natural sugar. However, you cannot find two other critical nutrients – Fats and Proteins.
These nutrients are essential for healthy functioning of the body. Protein helps in repairing and building muscles, whereas healthy fats regulate the functioning of hormones and brain while also meeting energy demands by acting as reserve.
Then there are other minerals and vitamins like zinc, iron, vitamin B, vitamin D-12, calcium which you totally miss while following a fruit diet plan. This can lead to major complications in your body over the time posing a serious threat to your health and well-being.
2. Excessive Fiber
Most fruits are an excellent source of fiber. That is why people often recommend eating a minimum daily serving of fruits or going on a mixture of fruit and vegetable diet. However, when you consume only fruits throughout the day, you make it difficult for your digestive system to process all that fiber. It can cause discomfort in your stomach causing pain, gas, bloating, and other problems.
3. Increased intake of sugar
Yes, we know what you are thinking? Fruits do not contain any processed sugars and contain natural sugar in the form of fructose and sucrose. However, when you are eating only fruits in your diet, your sugar level still increase in your blood, making pancreas act frequently on fructose to stabilize sugar levels.
Unless you are exercising regularly for hours (again not recommended), insulin from the pancreas is frequently secreted to maintain your sugar levels. As explained earlier, this could lead to their desensitization and gradually imbalance in the body!
4. Heart Disease Risk Due to High Insulin
When you consume only fruits in your diet regularly, there is a continuous presence of insulin your blood to deal with the rise in sugar levels. Over an extended period, high levels of insulin in bloodstream lead to inflammation in arteries and other parts of the circulatory system. Moreover, it is a medically proven fact that this inflammation gives rise to several coronary artery factors related to heart diseases.
Related: Heart Healthy Diet.
Due to the above reasons, going on a fruit diet plan while ignoring other foods can prove disastrous for your health. The ideal way to stay healthy and prevent diseases is to follow a balanced diet. It will provide you with essential macro-nutrients (healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates) as well as necessary vitamins and minerals.
You can even follow a combination of fruit and vegetable diet for some time if you want detox benefits of following an all fruit diet. However, in the long term, it is best to stay with a healthy diet which provides all types of nutrients to your body.
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