It has been my experience that fruit has gotten a very bad rap and is sometimes down-right hated, but is there any evidence to support these ideas? Some people claim fruit sugar is no different than processed sugar, others insist diabetics should never eat fruit. What is the truth? We first have to understand that scientists often study with a reductionist mindset, so if isolated fructose has a specific effect in a petri dish than fructose in a whole fruit must therefore have the same effect in the human body, but we know this is not scientific.

Let’s look at the science:

When people were fed 20 servings of fruit, essentially 4 times the “fructose toxicity” level, or they equivalent of 8 soda cans worth of sugar, they experienced absolutely zero adverse effects.^[1]Meyer, B., De Bruin, E., Du Plessis, D., Van Der Merwe, M. and Meyer, A., 1971. Some biochemical effects of a mainly fruit diet in man..  https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19711408038 Despite this extremely high level of sugar, it had no negative impacts on the human body. In fact there were many benefits including for diabetics.

Similarly, in a second study that also had participants consuming 20 servings of fruit a day, again, found zero negative effects and even improvement in colon cancer^[2]Jenkins, D., Kendall, C., Popovich, D., Vidgen, E., Mehling, C., Vuksan, V., Ransom, T., Rao, A., Rosenberg-Zand, R., Tariq, N., Corey, P., Jones, P., Raeini, M., Story, J., Furumoto, E., … Continue reading which should have been “fed” by this high fructose—if we accept the notion that fruit feeds cancer. Let me assure you dear reader, there is zero evidence to support the idea that cancer feeds on fruit, in fact to state that shows a fundamentally flawed understanding of what cancer is and how it survives.

Increasing fruit consumption by 100g/day, (twice the “fructose toxicity” level), was inversely associated with risk of bladder cancer in women.^[3]Jochems, S., Reulen, R., Osch, F., Witlox, W., Goossens, M., Brinkman, M., Giles, G., Milne, R., Brandt, P., White, E., Weiderpass, E., Huybrechts, I., Hémon, B., Agudo, A., Bueno‐de‐Mesquita, … Continue readingAt worst fruit has no negative effects on bladder cancer, at best it is inversely associated in women… meaning a mild protection.

When fruit is restricted, we see disease progress, not decline. The only exception to this is when people go from a standard American diet to a restricted diet, which also removes fruit. Because you are removing a lot of terrible food you will see healing. But if instead of removing fruit, you only eat fruit, you would see healing, no harm. In a study of 63 men and women, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, when fruit intake was reduced, there was not a single benefit.^[4]Christensen, A., Viggers, L., Hasselström, K. and Gregersen, S., 2013. Effect of fruit restriction on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes – a randomized trial.

Bananas (high sugar fruit) and cancer

The idea that fruits, especially high sugar fruits promote and feed cancer is a relic of pseudoscience and has no factual basis. There is not a single valid study that proves fruit causes cancer growth or spread. Studies examining the effect of different fruits on cancer show zero cancer promoting activities. Not all fruits seem to slow or stop the spread of cancer, but none promote it. And sugar content in fruit has no promotion of cancer growth. Higher sugar content fruits, such as banana, slow spread of cancer and do not promote it! In fact, in one study bananas slowed cancer growth by 40%.^[5]Mondal, A., Banerjee, S., Bose, S., Das, P., Sandberg, E., Atanasov, A. and Bishayee, A., 2021. Cancer Preventive and Therapeutic Potential of Banana and Its Bioactive Constituents: A Systematic, … Continue reading In a mouse study of carcinoma cancer, a fruit extract of ripe banana led to a survival of 30% of the treated group vs 0% survival in the control group. Then a hospital-based case-control analysis of Sinapore Chinese patients with esophageal cancer found that this type of cancer occurs at a higher incidence in male patients who eat fewer or no bananas in their diet.^[6]de Jong, U., Breslow, N., Goh Hong, J., Sridharan, M. and Shanmugaratnam, K., 1974. Aetiological factors in oesophageal cancer in Singapore Chinese. They concluded that weekly consumption of bananas reduce the risk of esophageal cancer.

Moreover, based on a population-based case-control study, frequent consumption of bananas (8.9g/day) lowers the risk of breast cancers^[7]Malin, A., Qi, D., Shu, X., Gao, Y., Friedmann, J., Jin, F. and Zheng, W., 2003. Intake of fruits, vegetables and selected micronutrients in relation to the risk of breast cancer. In fact, in this study the only fruits that were not shown to reduce breast cancer were apples and watermelon but even these did not promote growth.

Diabetics

The reason removing fruit from the diet can seem to show benefit, is because when we simplify our diet we usually remove a lot of bad foods. Remove everything else and eat only fruit, and you will see your health improve. It is not removal of fruit that brings healing, but removal of the other foods. For instance, if you eat a high fat diet, the fat plugs the insulin receptors, causing sugar spikes. So any sugar, including fruit will cause your sugar to rise. Remove the fat from the diet and you will see no issues with fruit alone.

There are studies of fruit juice, most of which is processed garbage, showing increased risk of cancer, but you will not find a study showing fruit intake is correlated to increased risk or proliferation of cancer. Fruit juice from the store is devoid of the health giving properties of nature because of pasteurization and chemical preservation.