In this article, we are going to discuss the “fruit and water diet”. I will include the benefits of fruits and the vitamins and nutrients they provide. I will also add the drawbacks of following such a restrictive diet for a long time.
What is the fruit and water diet?
The fruit diet is known as the fruitarian diet. The diet is highly restrictive and based only on fruits. It eliminates all other food groups like dairy, protein, carbs, and vegetables. Although moderate consumption of vegetables, nuts, and seeds is allowed in moderation on this diet.
What are some benefits of fruits in this diet?
The fruit diet is rich and high in fiber. Fiber is beneficial to your health and well-being. Fiber is crucial for normal bowel movement, it prevents constipation. Some of the fruits that are rich in fiber are apples, raspberries, and blackberries.
Fruits are also rich in vitamin C which is important for the immune system. It supports a healthy immune system that can fight off infections. Lack of vitamin C would compromise the immune system and increase the risk of infections.
Vitamin C is present in oranges, red peppers, and kiwis. Kiwis contain the most vitamin C, even more than oranges. Fruits are also a great source of the mineral potassium. Potassium is essential in regulating blood pressure, bananas are the richest in potassium.
Fruits are also a good source of antioxidants. Antioxidants fight off free radicals that cause cell aging.
What are some cons of the diet?
The fruit diet does not mean all good, and not bad. It lacks some major macronutrients. The diet does not provide enough protein or even any, to begin with. This means you are not getting enough protein from your diet which would put you at great risk of muscle loss.
Protein is essential to promoting healthy muscles and it has a role in hormones and enzyme production. Not enough protein will lead to muscle loss and hormonal imbalances.
The diet is also lacking in the essential mineral calcium. Calcium is needed for normal bone health. A great-risk diet is compromising bone health. This is due to the lack of calcium in the fruit diet.
This will lead to a decrease in bone density which further increases the risk of bone fractures and bone loss.
B vitamins are highly included in animal products and leafy vegetables. Eggs, milk, legumes, yogurt, fish, sweet potatoes, and nuts are rich in B vitamins. The fruit diet lacks these important vitamins.
This will lead to many health conditions including anemia from lack of vitamin B12, depression, increase risk of infections, and nausea.
The fruit diet provides a tremendous amount of sugar in it. This is due to the high carbs in fruit and sugar as well. Some fruits contain more sugar than other fruit. This will lead to an increase in blood sugar and more insulin release.
Over time the body will be resistant to insulin and type 2 diabetes might develop. Some fruits are a high glycemic index which spikes blood sugar even more.
The diet also provides so much water. About 12 glasses of water each day. This diet prevents any further dehydration in the body. The diet allows you to avoid beverages that are rich in sugar and additives.
These drinks do not provide any nutritional benefits. They only provide added calories and sugar. These are known as empty calories that bring no additional benefits, no minerals, or no vitamins.
The diet avoids all starchy vegetables for the high carbs content they include. It also prevents the tea and coffee that so many people enjoy. The diet is restrictive and hard to follow and stick to for a long time.
The weight loss that is noticed in the diet, will gradually be regained back once the diet is stopped. Also, it is to be noted that the diet weight loss is mainly from water weight at the beginning.
The calories provided by the diet would include so few calories, to begin with. The calories will not be enough for you.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed the “fruit and water diet”.I included the benefits of fruits and the vitamins and nutrients they provide. I also added the drawbacks of following such a restrictive diet for a long time
