Exordium
Admittedly, a major shortcoming of natural healthcare is its lack of scholarship. This means that—unlike big pharma and its constituents—natural healthcare lacks stringent academic standards and governing bodies; things that could give it structure and direction. This is largely due to the fact that the earth provides a number of ways to address a single condition. Essentially, Mother Nature affords liberty to her students, but an unfortunate side-effect is that the unlearned and unqualified are free to erect themselves as her practitioners, experts, and spokespersons.
The Propagation of Absurdity
As a result, certain natural healing spaces have become plagued with misinformation. Like, the idea that ‘the body cannot differentiate between the sugar from fruit, and the sugar from candy’. If this were true, fruit would be a leading cause of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders. Sure, some fruits have enough sugar to rival junk food, but other nutrients that most fruits carry helps to offset their sugar content.
The Modalities of Blood Sugar & Insulin
The gist of the matter is this: blood sugar is unavoidable because it is the body’s preferred source of energy. Sugar converts into glucose, and then insulin transfers that glucose into various cells throughout the body. What tends to separate healthy food from unhealthy food is the rate that this sugar enters into the bloodstream. A slow entry—normally triggered by healthy foods—provides a steady source of energy. While a fast entry—normally triggered by unhealthy foods—causes a short burst of energy followed by a crash. A quick and simple way to discern the two is to examine the food’s texture and consistency. Food that melts in the mouth is likely to digest the same way and cause a blood sugar spike. And, outside of the obvious—junk foods—fruits do indeed fit this criteria.
But, what separates fruit from junk food is nutrients. Junk food is nutrient deficient. They have little to no vitamins and minerals, so the body is forced to borrow resources from other places in order to process it. They are biological thieves, taking more than they could ever give. Fruit, on the other hand, is not only packed with vitamins and minerals, but fiber and water as well. Such are critical to blood sugar control because they help to slow down digestion—thus slowing the entry of sugar into the bloodstream—and dilute the blood, which helps the kidneys expel excess sugar.
In-Closing
It is disingenuous of the natural healthcare community to simply lump fruit in with junk food. This radicalizes, and religionizes the movement. One could argue that fruit helped set the precedent for how we understand blood sugar and insulin. Increased fiber and water before high carb meals is a common protocol given to those who are insulin resistant and diabetic. Essentially, fruit has never and will never cause metabolic disorders, because fruit is nature’s bio-hack for metabolic disorders.
