Fruit: its role within the paleolithic diet

Yesterday, I explained why I believe that the paleolithic diet is the best diet tool we have access to. I also talked about how there are unresolved debates within the paleo community. I already covered one of them in the past (dairy). Let’s try to replicate this process with fruits. What do the experts think about them? Are they healthy or not ? Is the sugar content something we should worry about? How many of them should we eat in a day? What is my personal stance on fruits? We will try to address all those concerns today and hopefully resolve this conflict.

Over the last few years, the reputation of fruits has changed quite a lot. At some point, fruits were the magic ingredient everyone should add to their diet to be healthy and lose weight. We were told that fruits have a lot of nutrients (which is true) and that their sugar content is quite low (for most of them that is). Accordingly, there was no real reason to not eat them : they taste good, they are sweet and they are packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and bunch of other goodies. They are not processed – unless you buy them in some sort of packaged foods (e.g. canned fruits in syrup) – and because of that it was promoted as a healthy and natural way to snack : grab a piece of fruit, some nuts, and some water and you are all set.

Meanwhile, the reputation of fruits changed radically. It was all about avoiding them because of their carbohydrate content (carbs are evil after all, right?). The reasoning behind this is that eating a lot of fruits might spike your insulin and this might limit your fat loss. We were told to eat more green vegetables instead. Same (or more) nutrients for less carbohydrates (therefore, less calories). We were also offered a list of fruits and their glycemic impact (based on either the glycemic index or the glycemic load). There was now good fruits (those who have a lesser impact on your blood sugar levels) and bad fruits (those who had a bigger impact on your blood sugar levels). The various berries are often said to be the best fruits available. Fruits like pineapple, watermelon and banana are the worst to consume.

This debate had repercussions in the paleo community. There are all kinds of opinions one could base his diet on. For instance, in his book ”The paleo diet”, Loren Cordain makes the claim that we can eat all the fruits we want and lose weight without any real problems. On the flipside, Kurt Harris of Panu, says that most fruits are like candies. He definitely recommends to eat them in moderation. Mark Sisson tends to recommend eating fruits that are low in carbohydrates and high in antioxidants. He also seems to think we should eat them in moderation. As for Art Devanny, I know he eats one or two pieces of fruits in the morning and that’s about it. He recently took them out (might have added them back in since then) of his diet to help with fat loss.

My personal opinion is that fruits are a decent and healthy choice. You should eat lot of them if it fits you (no diabetes problems, no insulin resistance, etc. of course). To make this claim, I base myself on three arguments.

First, imagine yourself  in the middle of a wild and dangerous jungle. You don’t wear any clothes because it is too warm. You don’t have a house or any practical modern technologies (no car, computer, electricity, etc.). All you have got are some stone tools (knives perhaps) you made. You feed yourself from the land. To do so, you hunt with your band. Sometimes, you get to eat some red meat. Sometimes, you have to eat bugs, because the hunt was not successful. You also gather plant foods. Over the years, you have gotten to know which food is edible (and makes you feel fine afterwards) and which foods are bad (poisonous perhaps) for you. As you walk with your band, you notice a bush full of wild berries. How would you react?

Let’s do a test here. Forget everything you know about nutrition, food and all that stuff. Look at the following picture and answer the question in the caption.

It seems implausible that our ancestors would avoid fruits and it seems highly plausible that they probably ate more than a single serving  of those delicious looking wild berries. I have no doubt that you would run over and enjoy eating them.

Second, evolutionary speaking, we have some self-defence mechanisms that help us make the right choices when it comes to foods (in other words, survive and avoid poisonous foods). If it tastes bad, it probably means you should not eat it. However, if it tastes delicious, it probably means that the food (not fake ”science foods” engineered to hack this process) is good for you. There is no way that our ancestors would have eaten fruits if they tasted bad. In fact, they tasted  so good to them that it motivated them to walk – sometimes for hours and hours in certain populations – just to gather them.  If fruits were as bad as some sources say they are (e.g. ”real insulin disrupter”), then why would our ancestors do that? They did not know about the sugar content, that’s for sure. All they knew was that it tasted good and it did not make them sick.

Third, people seem to assume that our ancestors ate little fruit because they had to find them in the wilderness. Accordingly, a bush can only provide  so many fruits  and the food resource would run out after a while. This is obviously true. But anyone who has went on to gather wild berries in the woods when they are in season will agree that they are everywhere. You would have to be blind to not see them! I remember picking them up when I was a kid (we had a forest behind our house). It would take less than an hour to come back with more than a kilo (2.2lbs) of raspberries and I live in Canada. Imagine living in a place that is better suited for the growth of such plant foods.

Still, our reality is quite different than the reality of a hunter gatherer. That’s why I tried to hint at personalization yesterday. In my opinion, the best way to do it is to base your eating on the seasons. For example, during late spring and summer, I usually have access to a bunch of berries and other great fruits. However, when autumn hits in Canada, the production of such foods stops. That’s why I will probably eat more meat and squashes during that time. During winter, where we usually have about a feet of snow on our Canadian ground, I tend to eat more meat.  As I said yesterday, the paleolithic diet was different depending on the environment in which one was living in.Therefore, it’s probably wise to not ignore our own environment, as it probably dictates what we need to eat.

I believe that eating this way will balance everything out during the year. If you can’t tolerate fruits (they make you bloated for example), then it’s probably best to avoid them. However, if you have no problems when you eat them, you should eat a lot of them. I still believe it’s important to eat those who are the lowest in sugar if the goal is weight loss. Because I believe in simplicity and objectivity, I thought it was important to show the real face of fruit consumption : it’s healthy, recommended and definitely a great way to get lots of nutrients (unless you are allergic or can’t tolerate them).