5 ms·
Having lost a lot of weight on a paleo-ish diet, I don't find this surprising. A related note: fruit, while generally considered good for you, also has a lot of
by msluyter 17y ago
Having lost a lot of weight on a paleo-ish diet, I don't find this surprising. A related note: fruit, while generally considered good for you, also has a lot of sugar/fructose. In particular, the process of selective breeding has made fruits like bananas ever sweeter, much more so that our primitive ancestors would have encountered. Now I consider most of it (aside from berries) in the same category as candy.
- timcederman 17y agoSelective breeding of bananas? Culinary bananas are sterile and grown exclusively from cuttings. Also, the Cavendish is a lot less sweet than the previous banana of choice, the Gros Michel (which was sadly not as fungus resistant).
- maxharris 17y agoYes, like most fruits, bananas are sterile polyploids that have to be replicated from grafts. However, the intent of his post is still correct - these grafts are selected to ensure high sweetness and sugar content. It's not very different with other commercial fruits (See Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire for a similar story on apples.)
- timcederman 17y agoI guess I was surprised by the example, as the modern commonplace banana (in the western world at least) is very static.
- paulbaumgart 17y agoUCSF's Dr. Lustig disagrees with that assessment. According to him, the fiber in fruit counteracts the negative effects of the fructose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
- paulbaumgart 17y agoA more scientific assessment of a a few different types of fruits is here: http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/ http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-ab...
- illumin8 17y agoFruit does have a lot of sugar, but it also has a lot of fiber in it which causes your body to process the sugar in a different, slower way. Drinking fruit juice, however, is just about as bad as drinking HFCS soda. Berries are truly awesome fruits. I eat blueberries almost every day, although it can be pretty expensive, especially during the winter when they have to ship them in from the southern hemisphere.