compilation: Yan Chuanxin
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/a-diet-consisting-mainly-of-fruit-is-bad-for-you/
In recent years, plant-based diets have become more and more popular for health and moral reasons. An extreme form of a plant-based diet is "fruitism", which is based primarily on eating fruits. At first glance, this sounds healthy, but what effect does this restrictive diet have on the body? Is it a healthy diet choice?
There is conclusive evidence that plant-based diets are beneficial to the body. A plant-based diet can reduce the risk of heart disease by 40% and the risk of stroke by 29%. Plant-based diets have also been shown to help people lose weight.
Some fruit eaters claim that eating fruit has significant benefits, including curing cancer, eliminating bloating and body odor. But there is no strong evidence to support these claims. At first glance, the idea of eating only fruits (or eating more fruits) may seem like a healthy choice, but this restrictive diet may have many problems. When a fruit-based diet is required, physical health issues need to be clearly considered. Following this diet pattern does not take in the basic food groups and nutrients the body needs to maintain normal health.
Although most fruits are considered healthy and nutritious, a diet that relies solely on fruits will lack nutrients, including protein, iron, calcium, vitamin B (including vitamin B12) and D, zinc and omega- 3 Fatty acids. Lack of these nutrients can have a major impact on health, including rickets and osteomalacia (bone softening), anemia, and bone, muscle, and skin problems.In short, fruit does not contain all the nutrients needed by the human body.
In the human diet, the high content of fructose must also be considered. Fructose is a monosaccharide , just like glucose, but the human body processes it very differently. Fructose is only metabolized in the liver. Excessive intake of fructose can cause liver fat accumulation, leading to liver insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver. Although there is controversy about whether fructose in fruits is as bad as fructose syrup, adding fructose syrup to food can increase the sweetness of food, but experiments on rats fed a high fructose diet show that it is related to human fatty liver disease. Similarities.
In addition to the potential effects of fruitism on the body, restrictive diets are often associated with an unhealthy obsession called orthodontics or eating only "pure" foods. This means that starting with healthy measures to eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less junk food may lead to eating disorders, depression and anxiety.
What is worrying is that there have been isolated cases of death or major illness when following a fruit-style diet. Examples include a nine-month-old girl who died after eating a fruit-only diet. The girl died of underweight and malnutrition. In addition, it was recently reported that a 49-year-old man suffered from reversible dementia after eating only fruit.
There is little evidence of the benefits of this restrictive diet, and it is clear that people who follow this restrictive diet may put their health at serious risk. Supplementing foods that provide the lack of nutrients may help, but it may be rejected by some people with orthodox views of fruitism. Before changing your diet, especially if the change will be extreme, seek medical help. Adding more fruits and vegetables to a balanced diet is a safer and healthier fruit diet.
Author: James Brown
Aston University Associate Professor of Biology and Biomedical Sciences,He is also a staff member of a number of TV companies and broadcasting companies. James is the main contributor to BBC2’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor, BBC1’s The Truth About Fat, BBC1’s The Truth About Healthy Eating, and Channel 4’s How to Lose Weight. James is also a trustee of the British Society for Research on Aging (BSRA), the oldest biogerontological research society in the world. Based on the role of fat-secreting hormones in pancreatic function, James received his Ph.D. in 2006, and he continues to work in basic and clinical sciences and how obesity affects health and disease in areas related to body fat.
.
