Fruit Nutrition: Facts and Calories

Fruit Nutrition:
These Calories Are Worth It!

Nutrition Facts for Fruit

Fruit Nutrition The following servings provide approximately 60 calories, 0 grams fat, and 1-4 grams of fiber. 1 serving is:
grapefruit, banana, cantaloupe, mango	1/2 large fruit
apple, orange, pear, peach (or similar sized fruit)	1 medium whole fruit
Apricot, plum (or similar sized fruit)	2 small whole fruit
berries, grapes, cherries, melon	1 cup fruit
unsweetened 100% fruit juice	1/2 cup
dried Fruits	2 tbsp.

Misunderstanding Fruit Nutrition: Fear of the Dreaded Banana

Nutrition experts (like me!) have a full time job dispelling myths about fruit, such as:

"Bananas are fattening."
"You should avoid fruit because it has too much sugar."
"The carb content and calories in fruit will destroy your diet."

Almost every day I work with someone who avoids bananas or other fruits like the plague due to the sugar or carb content, and then "cheats" by eating some sugary, processed junk food.

Why don't we avoid sugary, processed junk food like the plague and "cheat" by eating fruit? What's up with the disconnect?

You can see from the chart above that if you eat an entire banana, it's only ~120 calories.

Chances are you have one banana and you're done. When's the last time you went back for a second or third banana? Can you honestly say it's as easy to stop at one portion of chips or nuts?

Banana calories are perfectly portioned by mother nature...so don't be fooled by all of the myths surrounding them. I'm waiting to meet the person who has a banana-caused weight problem!!

Are you making any more of the most common weight loss mistakes?

Avoid Getting TOO Hungry

Consider Alcohol Calories

Eat Sloooooowly

Eat Plenty of Fruits

Eat Enough Vegetables

Exercise FOR REAL

Get Enough Water

Kick "Quick" Weight Loss

Know What's On Your Plate

Quit Eating Haphazardly

Practice Portion Control

Calories in Fruit and Weight Loss
Good news. There's absolutely no reason to avoid any kind of fruit if you're trying to lose weight.
In fact, eating fruit is one of the best choices you could make!
So don't buy in to any of the nonsense you hear about having to avoid it!
Next to vegetables, fruit is the lowest calorie food group and they're high water content foods so they make you feel full.
Fruit nutrition is good nutrition!
It's unprocessed, wholesome, and yummy too!

Fruit Nutrition Facts: The Sugar Content

While it is true that fruit has sugar, it's also true that the sugar is tightly packaged along with the fiber in the fruit.

In order for your body to get to the sugar, it has to "unwind" the fiber.

What that really means is that it takes your body a while to break down the sugar in fruit...it's not like injecting a sugar cube into your veins!

And the little bit of sugar in fruit is the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth when you're trying to lose weight. Some of my favorite fruit desserts:

Baked apples
Baked pears
Sauteed bananas (in nonstick spray) sprinkled with cinnamon
Fruit smoothies frozen in popsicle molds
Yogurt and fruit parfaits sprinkled with lowfat granola
frozen banana chunks
frozen grapes
frozen pineapple
100% fruit juice (such as blueberry or pomegranate) stirred into unsweetened applesauce (optional: freeze in popsicle molds)
"ice cream": frozen banana blended with 2 tbsp. vanilla yogurt
"ice cream": 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries blended with 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
100% fruit juice frozen in popsicle molds