More and more doctors are finally getting the message that in order to avoid chronic disease, patients must limit their sugar intake. The funny thing is, this simple message dates back several decades to the way medicine was practiced when I was a child during the 1950s and 1960s…
Doctors typically advised eating a balanced diet of “rich” but nutritious foods such as butter, eggs, fish, meat, and healthy amounts of greens. They also told us to cut the sugars.
That’s what we did in our household, every day.
My father and grandfather, who both grew up on a farm, wouldn’t have it any other way. To them, this was the standard American diet, especially if you wanted a clean bill of health.
But then, it all changed.
In the 1970s, we started to hear a bombardment of medical nonsense. You might remember the call to substitute healthy foods like butter with toxic, synthetic margarine. Government health “experts” also began their crazy campaign against eggs. (A debate that’s — somehow — still not over with many dietician nutritionists who ought to know better.)
We were told that cutting out dietary cholesterol, eggs, and saturated fats was supposed to benefit your heart. But instead, it led to an epidemic of heart disease and other chronic conditions.
To this day, some doctors still target the wrong foods as the enemy…
In fact, I often hear doctors advise patients with pre-diabetes and full-blown diabetes to limit their fruit intake. And many people with diabetes avoid fruit because they fear it will cause spikes in blood sugar.
It just shows how a little ignorance can go a long way — and be extremely dangerous.
Yes, fruit does have some natural sugar (fructose). But the fructose in fruit does not cause the same metabolic problems as table sugar.
Plus, fruit also contains dozens of healthy vitamins and phytochemicals, like bioflavonoids, carotenoids, and polyphenols. It also contains antioxidants, dietary fiber, and minerals — all of which you need for digestive, metabolic, and pancreatic health.
Altogether, the healthy constituents in fruit help:
• balance your immune system
• prevent blood clots
• lower blood pressure
• lower blood lipids (fats)
• lower blood sugar
• fight inflammation
• support a healthy microbiome (the environment of healthy probiotic bacteria in your gut)
These functions make sense, as science over the past century has always linked increased intake of both vegetables and fruits to a lower risk of chronic diseases.
And for decades, the government has correctly advised eating seven to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
It’s great advice.
But try getting those same seven to nine recommended servings — day in and day out — without eating fruit.
I know I couldn’t do it…
And ask any chef — outside of a vegetarian restaurant — if they could do it. I bet they couldn’t either.
And, anyway, why should they want to?
Finally, studies are beginning to bear out my own observations about fruit…
Studies show fresh fruit protects against Type II diabetes
Studies are beginning to show eating fresh fruit actually helps protect against Type II diabetes, as well as the disease’s dangerous complications.
In fact, in a huge, new study in China, Oxford University (UK) researchers wanted to see the impact eating fruit had on men and women with and without Type II diabetes.
They recruited 510,000 participants ages 30 to 79 to participate in the study. And they controlled for factors such as age, sex, alcohol, smoking, physical activity, BMI, and family history of Type II diabetes.
At the outset of the study, about 30,000 participants already had Type II diabetes. And about 9,504 people developed it over the course of the study.
Participants who didn’t have Type II diabetes at the study’s outset who ate fruit daily had a 12 percent lower risk of developing the disease compared to those who never or rarely ate fresh fruit.
And the researchers observed a strong dose-response relationship between eating fresh fruit and diabetes risk.
In other words, the more fruit the participants ate, the lower their risk of developing Type II diabetes. In fact, with each daily portion of fruit consumed, participants reduced their risk an additional 12 percent.
And how did the participants fare who already had Type II diabetes at the study’s outset?
As you might guess, they did better. Much better.
In fact, those who ate fruit more than three days a week had lower blood sugar levels than those who didn’t eat fruit.
Plus, those who ate 100 grams of fresh fruit per day (roughly equivalent to an apple) had lower mortality risks as well as lower risks for complications in the blood vessels, eyes, heart, kidneys, and peripheral nerves.
Misconceptions persist about fruit intake
A lot of the misconceptions about fruit and Type II diabetes most likely stem from prior studies that carelessly combined fresh fruit and processed fruit intake. And it’s my guess that the processed fruit intake skewed the results.
However, as I explained on Tuesday, we must differentiate between “healthful” and “unhealthful” plant-based foods. The same principle applies to fruits. So, processed and packaged fruits should always go on the “unhealthful” list.
My advice remains the same whether or not you have Type II diabetes: Strive to eat one to three servings of fresh fruit in addition to at least five or six servings of vegetables each day.
If you already have Type II diabetes, this way of eating will help you control your blood sugar and decrease the risk of the disease’s life-threatening complications.
And if you don’t have Type II diabetes, it will help prevent you from ever developing it.
If you haven’t seen the latest announcements, I’m pleased about the release of my new online learning protocol last week, titled, Dr. Micozzi’s Integrative Protocol for Defeating Diabetes. If you’d like to learn even more uncommonly effective, commonsense strategies to prevent and reverse Type II diabetes, simply click here to learn more or to enroll today.
P.S. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you more about Type II diabetes and the dangerous blockbuster drug taken by millions of Americans.
Source:
“Fresh fruit consumption in relation to incident diabetes and diabetic vascular complications: A 7-y prospective study of 0.5 million Chinese adults,” PLOS Medicine 2017