Can eating fruits instead of meals help with weight loss? Reminder: long-term persistence may lead to 4 “bad news”
Because most of us like to celebrate holidays with delicious food, entertain guests with delicious food, or reward ourselves, the post-holiday season often brings a peak in weight loss. Most women have the need to lose weight. However, exercise is too tiring, coupled with factors such as location and weather, so many people find it difficult to persist, and most people will choose to lose weight by dieting, with many opting to replace regular meals with fruits.
In fact, fruits do contain many nutrients, especially dietary fiber, vitamins, various minerals, and plenty of water, of course, also containing quite a bit of fructose. Therefore, consuming fruits in moderation is very helpful for boosting the body’s immune system and promoting food digestion and absorption. Due to the low fat content in fruits and the richness in dietary fiber, a reasonable combination is very helpful for weight loss. However, using fruits to replace staple foods as our main meals can also bring us many troubles.
Can eating fruits instead of meals help with weight loss? Reminder: long-term persistence may lead to 4 “bad news”
1. May lead to malnutrition
The 7 major nutrients required by the human body are proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals (or minerals), dietary fiber, and water. They are distributed in various foods, and the content of each nutrient varies in different foods. The advantage of fruits lies in their rich content of vitamins, fructose, dietary fiber, water, and minerals, but the content of fats and proteins is relatively low. Continuous use of fruits as staple foods may lead to a lack of protein, thereby affecting the body’s health. In addition, fructose is easily utilized by the body, so it is not suitable as an energy reserve. If solely relying on eating fruits to supplement energy, more fruits need to be consumed and supplemented regularly to meet our activity needs.
2. Impairs the function of the digestive system
In addition to containing rich carbohydrates, vitamins, and dietary fiber, fruits also contain a certain amount of fruit acids. Eating too many fruits can stimulate the digestive system and even damage the stomach and intestines. Therefore, it is not advisable to eat fruits on an empty stomach, let alone replace staple foods with fruits. Eating some fruits after meals can reduce direct contact between the stomach wall and fruit acids, reducing damage.
3. May lead to digestive system diseases
I still vividly remember that during last year’s entrance exam, a student had diarrhea in the middle of the exam because they ate some plums before the exam, forcing them to abandon the exam halfway.
It should be noted that fruits require the application of a lot of pesticides during their growth to maintain high yields or prevent damage by pests and diseases. Therefore, it is unavoidable to have residual pesticides in fruits. Although they meet national safety standards by the time they reach the market, consuming excessive amounts of fruits, especially as raw and cold foods, may lead to gastrointestinal discomfort. Particularly, some fruits that appear very bright and beautiful may have more pesticide residues.
In addition, fruits are rich in dietary fiber, which can promote gastrointestinal motility, aid in food digestion and absorption, and promote excretion, but it can also easily cause discomfort, especially when consuming fruits on an empty stomach, eating too many fruits may also cause stomach pain and bloating.
4. Not all fruits are helpful for weight loss
Some fruits have high sugar content, especially some very sweet fruits such as grapes, lychees, mangoes, durians, etc., eating too much of them may not help with weight loss, on the contrary, it may lead to weight gain.
We often say to have a balanced diet, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, etc., but it’s all relative, it doesn’t mean to replace staple foods with fruits. Staple foods are the main source of energy for our bodies, generally referring to rice or flour-based foods, with appropriate side dishes, and complemented with fresh fruits to compensate for nutritional deficiencies and promote digestion.
In conclusion, if you want to lose weight effectively, you can control the intake of staple foods, especially meat, and complement it with appropriate exercise, which generally yields good results. Avoid extreme methods as overly rapid weight loss is not advisable.
