Cravings for Fruit, Do They Mean Anything?

#1

The hardest thing for me to give up was fruit and I have not completely, still eat some berries and the occasional grape (since I can grab a small one or two, not a big commitment). After 11 months I usually do not get cravings except every once in awhile for fruit. Usually citrus such as orange. I will usually eat a quarter of an orange or so. It seems to happen when I feel a cold coming on. Today I had cravings for a banana which I love but have only eaten once in the last year while doing a cheat weekend. I eat plenty of avocados so I do not think it is a potassium deficiency

(Karen) #2

I am thinking of a peach plan. The tree in the garden of Eden was not an apple tree, who’d sin for apples. Must have been a peach tree!
I share the loss with you.
K

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

If the fruit doesn’t kick you out of ketosis, a few small pieces here and there aren’t going to hurt you. Berries are better, for ketoers. Avocados, of course, taste more like a vegetable than a fruit, and they have all that lovely fat. I enjoy the occasional cherry tomato, as well. I try to stay away from the really sweet fruits, such as peaches, bananas, and the like, on general principles, and becuase sugar is not good for me.

Robert Lustig, despite his detestation for fructose, says that fruit is actually okay to eat, because the fiber slows down the absorption of the fructose to a rate that the liver can handle. But he says to stay away from fruit juice as though it were poison, because the lack of fiber means the fructose hits your liver all at once in a way that is not good for it.

(Trish) #4

@PaulL I’m so glad you posted that info. I really miss fruit. Juice I can live without and suspect I would find it way too sweet by now anyway but I love so many fruits. My hopeful plan was that I would be able to have some down the road when I was at goal weight and healthier in general. I watched a talk that one of the keto gurus (I can’t remember which guy) gave in which he discussed fructose in detail with lots of biochem and much of it was over my head being the take away of fructose is really bad. I’ll have to do some more research but the concept of it not being that bad due to the fibre does make sense especially after looking some of the food comparisons of the insulin index.

#5

Citrus cravings…are you monitoring your vitamin c intake? Could you be low/deficient in vitamin c? The late Linus Pauling took 20,000 mg per day. I’m working on a theory that my recent horrible Hashimoto’s attack was brought on by vitamin c deficiency. I’m currently at 6,500 mg per day (slowly building up) with absolutely no digestive issues. Clearly, I was low! In the past, I’ve gotten sudden strong cravings for potato chips that I believe were also low vit c. I don’t get cravings anymore since I started this n=1 vitamin c (and other things) experiment.

Just a thought…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Sounds like Dr. Lustig. He is a pediatric endocrinologist at the UC/Berkeley medical school, who runs a clinic for obese children. His thesis is that fructose is essentially as toxic as ethanol, because it affects the liver and the brain in the same way and through the same pathways. Fructose is half of the sugar (sucrose) molecule—the other half being glucose—and the body has much more difficulty dealing with fructose than dealing with glucose. This is why starches, despite the insulin response they stimulate, are better for you than sugar, which not only stimulates insulin but in quantity damages the liver, causes inflammation, and increases fat production (which the increased insulin forces your fat cells to store). Fun, huh? :bacon:

(Trish) #7

Yes! That was the one. Honestly, it kinda scared the crap out of me and made me very sad as I do really like many, many different fruits. It is definitely something I need to do more research on though to better understand.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

It’s a lot harder to eat enough apples for the fructose in them to damage you, than it is to give your liver a jolt of fructose by chugging a 20-oz. can of (a brand of) soda (which shall remain nameless) that is loaded with high-fructose corn syrup.

(Trish) #9

Ok. So in theory, down the road, and once I n=1 test my carb limit to stay in ketosis, I could actually eat fruit again? Please say yes, Paul. LOL

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

If it’s within your carb limit, why not? I love blueberries (my niece and I discovered crème fraîche; put some of that on the berries, with perhaps just a tad of sweetener, and oh, my!), and I have been known to eat the occasional apple. I appear to have a fairly high carb limit, but I try to be very careful with the sweet stuff, because I am a sugar/carb addict.

(Dan Dan) #11

:strawberry::lemon::cherries::yum:

Low-Carb Fruits With the Least and Most Sugar

“May the Force (fat adaption) be with you”

IF/EF Keto WOE is Self-Discovery :wink:

Good luck and much success in your journey in IF/EF Keto WOE :grin:

#12

Thank you.

I have been using this one and they seem a little inconsistent