Etiquetado: vitaminas

Should I eat more fruit?

(versión en español: pinchar aquí)

Is a piece of fruit now and then, too little fruit? Will I have any kind of defficiency in the long-term?

That has been one of my doubts since I started eating low-carb?

The «five-a-day fruit and veg» marketing campaign has been really succesfull and it is logical to question if not eating so much fruit is somehow going to affect your health. I eat green vegetables with pepper almost every day, Brussels sprouts and broccoli now and then, aubergine and other vergetables eventually, but only one or two pieces of fruit every week.

Another doubt I have is, are the vitamin RDA (recommended daily amounts) also valid in my case? I doubt it because I don’t eat exactly the same as the average Joe. In other words, If I don’t mistreat my body eating carbs, should I get the same amount of «healing nutrients» as the guy who eats lots of grains and potatoes?

I think it is interesting to hear what Dr. Phinney tells us in the following video (from minute 55 to 59):

He says carbs produce inflammation and fruit may be good to counteract that inflammation. But, if you don’t eat lots of carbs, may be you don’t need so much vitamins.

So, if a scientific study says that «a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of all cause mortality» does it really matter if it is an observational study, inherently ignorable, if the population under study eats completely different as I do?

Just an example: our body uses B1 vitamin to properly use carbohydrates. If I barely eat carbs, I shouldn’t need as much B1 as a guy who eats lots of them, should I? The same idea applies to vitamin C: lowering your sugar intake lowers the need to supplement with Vitamin C. If you eat almost no carbohydrate, you can get enough vitamin C from lightly cooked meat, fat or other vegetables.

Summarily, the first idea I want to bring up is that may be my vitamin needs are not the same as those for a guy that eats lots of carbs

Another idea: even if my vitamin needs were the same as those of a guy that eats lots of carbs, do I need fruit to be healthy? Zoë Harcombe wrote three articles about this issue:

According to Harcombe’s data, foods like chicken liver, sardines, eggs, sunflower seeds and kale, may be used to give us all the vitamins we need. And they have much less sugar than fruit. From Harcombe’s data we learn that animal based foods are higher in vitamins and minerals than plant based foods.

«This is why I get seriously pissed off with five-a-day. It isn’t evidence based, never was and we are telling people to eat foods that can never compete with genuinely nutritious foods. To add insult to injury – the most nutritious foods are the ones that we demonise. I think that justifies the words pissed off!» Zoë Harcombe

The second idea of this post: there are nutritious foods other than fruits than can give us all the vitamins we need, but with considerably less carbs.

 

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