Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Fruit Fearmongering: Is Fruit Bad For You?

Transcript

Fruit Fearmongering: Is Fruit Bad For You? · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: Have you heard the latest hot take from the Diet
• 0:06
  Grift industrial complex?
• 0:09
  Apparently fruit is bad for you. Yes,
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  fruit, the thing that grows on trees. The stuff
• 0:14
  you put into your kid's lunchbox. The humble
• 0:17
  banana is now public enemy number
• 0:20
  one. According to these TikTok health prophets,
• 0:23
  fruit is just sugar and dragon and smoothies
• 0:26
  are metabolic warfare. Seriously,
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  that's where you are now? The same crowd
• 0:32
  slamming blueberries is slurping butter in their coffee
• 0:35
  and calling it breakfast.
• 0:39
  I am, um, your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson, and this is Forku Fork
• 0:45
  University, where we make sense of the madness, bust a few
• 0:48
  myths, and teach you a little bit about food and
• 0:51
  medicine.
• 0:55
  Now, before we dive into the science, let me tell
• 0:58
  you about someone who never missed a bowl of
• 1:01
  fruit. My dad. He had a heart attack
• 1:04
  when he was 55. A big one. The kind that changes
• 1:07
  your whole life. And yet somehow he lived. Not just
• 1:10
  lived. He survived and thrived until he
• 1:13
  died at age 98. He lived independently on his own
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  until his final heart attack. And every morning, like
• 1:19
  clockwork, he had fruit, grapefruit,
• 1:21
  berries, cantaloupes. He never skipped it. So, um, when
• 1:24
  someone with a ring light and no medical
• 1:27
  degree tells me that fruit is killing people,
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  I call nonsense. I've seen what a real diet looks
• 1:33
  like over the lifetime, and it includes fruit. But let's not talk
• 1:36
  about anecdotes, which they love. I just had to bring up my
• 1:39
  dad because, you know, I think about him this time of year.
• 1:42
  Let's go into science. Social media
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  influencers have decided that fruit is the villain of the week.
• 1:47
  According to the Keto Carnivore cabal, fruit will
• 1:50
  spike your insulin, turn you into a type 2 diabetic
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  overnight, and leave you stranded in a metabolic
• 1:55
  wasteland. Let me guess, right after they finish
• 1:58
  shaming you for eating a banana. They offer you a coupon
• 2:01
  code for their liver based multivitamin.
• 2:04
  Convenient. This is classic
• 2:07
  grift behavior. Invent a new food
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  villain, scare people and sell them on the
• 2:12
  overpriced cure. And even Paul
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  Saladino. Yes, the Paul
• 2:17
  Saladino. The original shirtless salesman of
• 2:20
  dehydrated beef liver supplements is now
• 2:22
  eating fruit. Guess scurvy isn't a good look for him. Um,
• 2:25
  but hey, good for Paul. Now let's talk about
• 2:28
  actual science. Fruit is one of the nine
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  foundational components of the Mediterranean diet.
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  The diet isn't some Internet trend. It has been studied
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  for over 70 years. It in massive
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  cohort studies and randomized trials like
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  predimed and epic. The Mediterranean diet recommends
• 2:45
  250 grams of fruit per day. That's about 9
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  ounces or 3.5 servings. And guess what?
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  People who follow this diet have significantly
• 2:54
  lower rates of heart disease, diabetes,
• 2:57
  cancer, Alzheimer's, and they live
• 3:00
  longer. Even people with diabetes,
• 3:03
  Whole fruit consumption is associated with better
• 3:06
  outcomes. Yes, fruit. The
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  thing TikTok carnivores told you to avoid like
• 3:12
  the plague.
• 3:13
  Now let's address the smoothie panic.
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  Yes, blending fruit can slightly increase the speed at
• 3:19
  which sugar is absorbed. That's true.
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  But the idea that this turns your smoothie into soda
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  is pure pseudoscience. If you're using
• 3:28
  whole fruit or frozen fruit, the
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  fiber is still present. Your smoothie still
• 3:33
  provides nutritious value. Add a scoop of
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  protein, maybe some oats or chia, and suddenly you have
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  a balanced meal, not a metabolic bomb.
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  Does it raise your blood sugar a little more than eating an apple whole?
• 3:44
  Maybe. Is it the same thing as drinking a Coke?
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  Absolutely not. So if a smoothie is your
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  breakfast of choice, enjoy it. You're not
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  harming your body, you're feeding.
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  Probably comes as no surprise that every long live
• 4:00
  population on earth eats fruit. Okinawans
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  eat bananas, papayas and sweet potatoes.
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  Sardinians snack on figs, citrus and
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  grapes. The Loma Linda Adventists eat
• 4:12
  berries, apples, stone fruit and live some of the
• 4:14
  longest healthiest lives in the United States. These
• 4:17
  people are not avoiding carbs. They're not afraid of
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  fruit, they're thriving with it. So if
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  fruit is causing disease, it forgot to tell the
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  world's healthiest populations. Lets talk
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  about the people peddling fear. These are not
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  scientists. They are YouTubers and
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  TikTokers who shout confidently while standing
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  shirtless in their kitchen. They're selling collagen powder
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  made from cows who were fed pulp. If you believe fruit is
• 4:43
  killing you but your diet includes butter, coffee and beef
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  jerky dipped in tallow, I have some bad news.
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  You're not a biohacker. You're just constipated
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  and confused. So here's the
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  Fruit is not your enemy. The only thing fruit is
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  guilty of is being delicious, packed with nutrients and
• 5:01
  not having an affiliate code attached. So if your
• 5:04
  diet says no to blueberries but yes to bacon wrap
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  butter bombs, maybe the problem isn't fruit.
• 5:09
  Maybe it's who you're listening to. Speaking
• 5:12
  of which, thanks for listening to Forku. If you
• 5:15
  liked this episode, share it with someone who's afraid of apples.
• 5:18
  And if you're sipping on a smoothie right now, raise it high.
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  Here's to fiber, flavor and the death of those
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  dumb diet myths. This
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  podcast was researched and produced by me, Dr.
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  Terry Simpson. And while I am a doctor, I am
• 5:32
  not your doctor. If you're making changes to your
• 5:35
  diet, please consult a Western trained physician and a
• 5:38
  registered dietitian, not a chiropractor or some
• 5:41
  Eastern trained shaman. The distribution was
• 5:43
  handled by my friends at Simpler Media and the pod God
• 5:46
  himself, Mr. Ivo
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  Terra. Have a good week, everybody.
• 5:56
  Hey, Ivo, here's a question for you. If fruit is
• 5:59
  so bad, why does everybody in Italy look
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  so good eating it?
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  If you think Italians look great eating fruit,
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  you should see me going to town on an overripe
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  peach. Mmm. Um, baby.