Dr. Gary Fettke - 'Is Fruit Good or Bad For You?'

It is an honor to speak in Australia once again. Yes, I'm coming out this year. It hasn't really been defined where I can or can't speak and that's one of those questions, but it's also pretty impressive because it's the first time that Belinda is going to speak at a conference and I'm going to share the stage with her and I can't tell you that we are, you know, I'm not doing this alone, we are partners and we support each other and it's an interesting journey. I don't know where the end point is, but we're at it, so it's

good

or bad for you.

As far as I can understand, I can give you this presentation today, as long as you realize it. It's not specific individual nutritional advice, so we've always been told about the benefits of

fruit

and I'd like to challenge that, so take it all with a pinch of salt. This is just an opinion. Okay, I'm NOT going to go and I'm not going to demonize

fruit

, but I'm certainly not going to glorify it, so it's fascinating when you look back and see how much propaganda there is around the term fruit and I guess I'm sorry, how come We've talked about this some time ago and I've borrowed some of his thoughts, but you can't blame him for everything here.

Look, we are losing the battle against lifestyle diseases. We are getting fatter and sicker because of what we eat. We are losing the war and rapidly obesity. diabetes cardiovascular disease dementia cancer they are paralyzing us as a society the enemy is in our battle is what we eat not what we do or what we don't do the enemy I think is processed foods and I think the number one enemy is added sugar And so where does fruit fit into that equation? I don't think fruit is as

good

for you as we have been led to believe.

I was raised in a time when you were three inches and that fruit was a treat, so who? put the term fruits and vegetables in the same sentence, when did that change? I propose that our recommended fruit intake is one of the greatest marketing campaigns of recent decades; False advertising has existed not only in the last thirty years but since the beginning of time we continue to be deceived by nature and by the food industry, so with the correct information about food and, in particular, about fruits, you can make an informed decision, is the fruit your friend or your enemy, let's explore that, so look, I went out on a foraging mission recently I looked for fruit now I found an orange, you know, it's not a particularly good or great orange, It's not even very sweet, but that's all we could manage.

I didn't find anything at the local apple orchard. I then headed to my local supermarket, okay what a surprise to find all the fruit advertised as local and fresh, so I wondered what unnatural process our food industry has gone through to produce that fruit, maybe the fruit is a processed food, so So first let me define the fruit for this talk. I'll call it modern because of that. I don't want to compare apples and oranges and I don't want to be accused of singling out my daughter. Sorry, okay, so I propose that modern food is far from natural.

Modern fruit is a sweet fruit that we see in our supermarket every day. Today I don't talk at length about fruit juices or unconventional fruits that are more like vegetables, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, even nuts can fall into the fruit category, so where does fruit fit well into our story? Let's start at the beginning of time, let's start with original sin. What was God trying to tell us about the fruit? Plucking that fruit from the tree turned us from immortals to mortals. The snake announced that that piece of fruit was better for us. In reality it was so that we keep hearing that advertising message that fruit continues to be advertised as better for us than it really is so what does fruit want from us?

The fruit wants us, as animals, to scatter its seed when it is right. Your survival depends on it. Advertising advertises itself with bright colors, which are bright and sweet to attract wildlife. The fruit has not yet realized that we dropped its seed into a ceramic toilet. Have you noticed those chocolate wrappers that are advertised with bright colors, which are bright and sweet to attract humans? wildlife, so what do we want as animals from nature's fruit? We have programmed diversity. Native animals wait for the sugar content in the fruit to increase. We know that the possums will strip a tree in one night, two nights before we want to pucker and they will turn that sugar into fat for the winter programmed obesity is there for us as animals in the time of plenty, it makes us hungry, it makes us stuff ourselves of more fruit to convert into fat for the lean winter months.

The fruit is there in programmed obesity. It is perfectly natural to eat fruit that will surely make us fat, so a little more history in 1865, William Banting wrote a letter about corpulence for animals and those who tend to gain weight, avoid eating fresh and preserved fruits of all kinds. forward to Raymond Green's 1948 chapter on the management of obesity in the practice of endocrinology avoid carbohydrates well, that's a talk for another day avoid sugar to avoid more sugar and foods containing sugar, bananas and grapes that do not they would have been available locally in England in 1948, so in the mid-20th century we still had grocery stores selling us vegetables all year round and only a little seasonal fruit, so when did we increase our supply of fruit throughout the year? year?

The first food guides recommended vegetables and small amounts of seasonal fruit, but no. specific number in 1992 the food pyramid was created by the United States Department of Agriculture recommending five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables, so where did that number come from? Oddly enough, it seems newly invented. Zoey Harkin thinks the concept is coming. Of five fingers there is certainly no science behind it, so in 1991 the American Cancer Institute looked at small studies that showed some benefits of fruits and vegetables in preventing cancer and then those studies were shown to be related to the socioeconomic benefit instead of eating fruits and vegetables.

They then met with about 40 major players in the food industry and decided to create a joint venture to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables to prevent cancer. The amount of five fruits and vegetables a day was just completed at that California meeting. The Better Health Foundation was formed and gone was the food industry with its marketing of fruits and vegetables to prevent cancer. Initially well-intentioned, in 2005 the foundation changed its partnerships with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fruits and vegetables were now considered good for all health. instead of just cancer, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any real research to support that decision, the initial group created the fruit and vegetable non-profit organization in 1991 for the people, this group was formed to promote sales of fruits and vegetables . and are now proudly funded by over 300 fruit and vegetable companies, including Kellogg's Nestlé PepsiCo Monsanto and the who's who of the food industry, so in 1991 we replaced meat and vegetables with fruits and vegetables, the food industry became has conveniently taken over the marketing of the world's Cancer Institutes and the Centers for Disease Control and it's all to try to decrease cancer and poor health, that's how the job went, so here we are in 1991, cancer epic.

A nutritional study of more than 400,000 Europeans was started. The results were published in 2010. There was no conclusive evidence that consumption of fruits and vegetables in any quantity has influenced cancer rates over the past 45 years. We have indeed increased our fruit and vegetable intake as advised, however our health has deteriorated again in the same period of time. adversity diabetes cardiovascular disease dementia and cancer rates have increased modern diseases are out of control I now realize it causes a multifactorial cause, but certainly increasing our fruit intake has not solved anything in society there is a growing awareness about The role of sugar in a wide range of conditions Modern diseases are related to our sugar consumption How much added sugar should we consume?

The World Health Organization weighed in in 2015, recommending limits that limit adults to about 5 percent of total energy, or about 25 grams, six teaspoons, of sugar per person. mild adult and less for women and children sugar is found in most processed foods and in those modern processes sweet fruits have a mixture of glucose and fructose fructose has been called fruit sugar that is the source Natural is also a marketing term to naturalize it away from sugar connotations: glucose and fructose have the same number of carbon-hydrogen and glucose-oxygen atoms, but a different configuration and certainly a different metabolism, so let's look at glucose quickly.

Glucose is absorbed from the intestine directly to the brain and muscle under the influence of insulin a little a little goes to glycogen and the excess is stored as fat, there are only about 4 grams of glucose in the bloodstream at any time and Just over a teaspoon goes to fat storage under the influence of insulin. not used immediately stored as glycogen but primarily as fat each slice of bread has approximately 5 teaspoons of sugar glucose primarily glucose and the excess and is also stored as fat each apple has approximately the same 5 teaspoons of sugar as a glucose mixture and fructose Again, what we can't use immediately, the excess and stored as fat, the other half of the sugar is fructose.

Some of you may have seen my talks on this in the past and this is an abbreviated part on metabolism that was only described in 2010. Indeed, metabolism and the understanding of fructose is completely new, not in the books of text and therefore practically, the literature before 2010 is outdated and unfortunately most of the guidelines have been based on outdated evidence, that is a big problem, so fructose has a complex metabolism this is an image of a liver cell, so we put fructose in the cell in the upper right corner, a small amount is converted to glycogen, like in a cellar, the fruit is converted to alcohol, now there is a difficult path that allows the liver ferment fructose too much glucose is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease through excess fat storage the breakdown of fructose ends up with the waste product of uric acid associated with gout, but most importantly the Uric acid affects nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is essential to maintain our circulation and our health. and uric acid inhibits the production of nitric oxide, three forms of nitric oxide: a neuronal one that maintains blood supply to the brain, an endothelial one that acts as a vasodilator in our blood vessels, and an inducible form that participates in the mobility of white blood cells. throughout the body uric acid inhibits the effect of nitric oxide and decreases blood supply to the brain it is implicated in the causes of dementia and mental health without nitric oxide we lose the vasodilator effect and our blood pressure increases, we can end up with a decreased targeting cellular function poorer immunity higher infection rates and a possible role in cancer cell proliferation fructose is involved in the development of insulin resistance in the muscles and liver is a huge topic beyond this Nowadays fructose also acts as a leptin inhibitor leptin is normally secreted by fat and there is a lot of it on board and there is an appetite suppressant so fructose inhibits satiety which contributes to hunger but also It stimulates Grem Grant ghrelin, which will make your stomach rumble and all of this creates hunger.

Heard a little bit about Grillin today, probably an important pathway in Inflammation is a de novo lipogenesis in which fructose is converted into bad cholesterol particles and Ken will probably have a me for that term which we'll have a little bit later, but it's the small and dense lipoproteins which are problematic and fructose is the main initiator of them. So, when the fructose load increases, the production of small density lipoproteins increases. Those small dense particles end up in every blood vessel wall of every organ in the body, oxidize and then become inflamed, especially under the effects of polyunsaturated oils, creating inflammation throughout the body.

We know that chronic inflammation is a major factor in all modern diseases, so let's get back to modern fruit, but thenatural sugar from fruit is good for me, let's really look at the nutritional aspects of fruit, so what is the real nutritional value of fruit and how does it compare? to other seasonal foods, so we look at the antioxidants, one of the vitamins, the minerals through the phytonutrients and the sugar content itself. Antioxidants are there to decrease the effects of oxidation to decrease inflammation, that's what they determine the most, so we can take any oxidant or, in fact, we could take it. eat less sugar in polyunsaturated or in the first place and avoid that oxidation, so fruits contain antioxidants and are certainly marketed as such, so even if you want, you can eat fruit or have a cup of coffee that has a significantly higher antioxidants. then the fruit says that coffee has almost five times more antioxidant value or here is good news for you dark chocolate is more effective at around the two millimolar level so the fruit is also advertised to be rich in vitamins gram for gram The following foods have a higher concentration of vitamins than most fruits, leafy green vegetables are rich in vitamin C and spinach has approximately five times the vitamin C of an apple and broccoli has approximately twenty times more vitamin A Notice the issue of the green vegetables trailing in the fruit is not a great source of vitamin D, but those vegetables are there again, the same goes for the vitamin E vegetables again in the avocados and all the vitamin D will end up. in a good amount in fruits or vegetables with vitamin k1 again in vitamin k2, which is essential for calcium metabolism and a lot of The work that is being done now is not found in fruits or vegetables.

We are told that fruit is rich in minerals gram for gram. The following foods have a higher concentration of minerals than most fruits. Calcium. Look at those leafy greens. Leafy green vegetables are a good source of magnesium, as well as avocado and potassium. To be fair, bananas do well with their potassium content, but spinach has one and a half more. and the others are close to avocado again and apples are very low in iron. Leafy greens don't strain as much as meat, but they're certainly better than fruits. Fruits are advertised to be rich in fiber. We need fiber, right?

And again, that's a big topic in itself, but I'm not allowed to talk about it, so that's another topic for another day, so gram for gram these foods have a higher concentration of fiber than most fruits. , again, it hurts me to eat leafy greens, again, phytonutrients, although it's an interesting topic. but still, we are supposed to have very learned nutrients, mostly covered by vegetables and leafy greens, and there are certainly phytonutrients found in Barry's, but a word of warning after three months of freezing, it tends to take away from the benefit of phytonutrients, okay, sugar. Make a comparison, coke is about 10% sugar content, it varies a little from country to country, apples are 10% sugar by weight.

I'm sure the sugar will be absorbed more slowly but it's still sugar so the glycemic index may in fact be lower than coke but the glycemic load is still the same, bananas are higher, around 12% sugar by weight and up to 21 percent, depending on ripeness, avocado has dropped to 0.7%, strawberries, around four point six percent, and fruit juices from Juices are the same as soda, but without the fiber. Commercial dried fruit is just concentrated sugar and has the benefits of added chemicals. So what do I think of most of the modern fruits in the supermarket today? Well, I think they're just candy hanging from a tree. if it's sugar wrapped in a shiny package, it has low nutritional value and there are much better alternatives around it and it's more seasonal, but without the sugar there are those unconventional fruits that are fine and some berries that are low in fructose, there are plenty nutrition at the grocery store, so we should buy our green vegetables year-round and our seasonal local food, our fruit is no longer natural, it has been manipulated.

The increased sugar content acts as an excellent preservative and the decreased fiber improves shelf life and chemical carrying capacity. Used in agriculture from seed to harvest and beyond, all fruit entering Tasmania is fumigated with methyl bromide, a poison banned in many countries. Fruit juice adds chemicals. Drying fruit has added chemicals and something happens every step of the way, so we can enjoy a sweet treat. It arrives all year round with the most out-of-season look. I'm sorry to break the news. Fruit is not necessary every day. In fact, you can get away with not eating fruit for most of the year.

That's what happened for most of the last two. Millions of years have understood that the sugar in fruit will make you hungry. Fruit is present in nature to help you gorge on more fruit and any other food available at the same time, sugar is linked to obesity and inflammation, it is linked to modern diseases, so if you have the right information you can take an informed decision for me is about having my fruit fresh it is about knowing that it will make me want another piece of fruit knowing that I am getting it from my environment and it is about knowing that it will make me hungry for a few hours, but that's okay, that piece of fruit is simply doing its job.

He wants me to eat more to spread it. Look, and the food industry is just doing its job. He wants me eight more. The propagators win, so I do it. I think fruit is bad for you, well no, but fruit is clearly not as good as advertised, the advertising is a little less rotten, whether by mother nature or the food industry for which Apple with chemicals additions was not good. Snow White and maybe God was trying to tell us something that piece of fruit hanging from the tree may seem irresistible in the short term but there are long term consequences when we do something we shouldn't do there are better alternatives than taking that candy from the tree so when Whether you're next in the produce section, remember that it's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled.

Thank you.