Fitness advice

Fruit – Not Your Physique’s Best Friend

Alex Wasyl

Certified Trainer Alex Wasyl

As everyone is likely aware (or should be), fruit is a highly nutritious, fiber containing, phyto-nutrient rich food that is without question good for one’s health. The question that boggles most people’s minds however is why fruit is not such a great friend of one’s physique…

Fruit is most rich in one specific macro-nutrient – carbohydrates. Carbohydrates come in many forms such as simple carbohydrates (sugars) or complex carbohydrates (starches). An example of a simple carbohydrate is table sugar. An example of a complex carbohydrate is a potato. Complex carbohydrates take longer periods of time for the body to break down into the primary usable monosaccharide – glucose. Our brains and bodies are fueled mainly by glucose. When there is a spike (sudden release) of glucose in the blood, the pancreas releases insulin, which takes excess glucose and stores it in the muscles (as glycogen) or in adipose tissue (as fat). When there is a steady release of glucose in the blood stream (complex carbohydrates), less insulin is released and generally less fat storage occurs.

Now that we’ve covered a little basic physiology regarding carbohydrates, let’s talk about a very unique sugar – fructose (the main sugar found in fruit). Fructose sugar is not metabolized the same way in which glucose is metabolized. Fructose is primarily metabolized by the liver and stored in the liver as liver glycogen. This is why fructose sugar yields a low glycemic index rating – by not being able to be directly absorbed by the muscles, fructose sugar is processed first in the liver and thus as a result - less insulin is released. This is a catch .22, because generally less insulin = less fat storage. Here’s the catch - when liver glycogen stores are full, the excess fructose sugar leaves the liver as a triglyceride (fat) molecule and is thus stored accordingly….

Fruit is a great food to add to your nutrition regime if your goals are mainly health oriented. Don’t get me wrong, it is not necessary to avoid fruit entirely in order to build a lean and attractive physique (in fact there are quite a few fruits that are low in fructose sugar), but eliminating a lot of your fructose intake could be the missing element needed to help you achieve that lean, chiseled look that that you desire.

Alex is the owner of FitnessbyAlex.com. A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer CISSN Certified Sports Nutritionist Alex is a fitness model and competitive bodybuilder who is well educated in the fields of nutrition and applied physiology. Alex used his passion for nutrition/fitness and years of research and experience to develop cutting edge, unique methods for ultimate physique enhancement.

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