This question really stuck with me when I first started exploring nutrition a few years ago.
After all, if something naturally tastes good to me, why would I restrict it?
At first glance, this makes sense, and I can understand why many people use this appeal to our senses to justify consuming fruit.
It’s why I don’t think it’s a huge issue to enjoy SOME fruit when it’s in season and the sun is out.
Low-moderate fruit consumption, especially when it’s spread out and not consumed daily,
is unlikely to cause metabolic issues.
However, we run into trouble when we see "reputable" voices pushing hundreds of grams of sugar from fruit and fruit juices every day, which, in my opinion, is excessive and unnecessary. (Paul Saladino for example)
Looking at fruit consumption from an anthropological perspective, things start to make a lot more sense.
Fruit was seasonally abundant in the summer, and the autumn harvest allowed people to build up fat stores in preparation for the colder, leaner months when food was more challenging to come by.
This aligns with how our body processes fructose and glucose. Fructose, in particular, upregulates ghrelin (the hormone that makes you feel hungrier) and suppresses leptin (which signals satiety). It triggers a hunger response and promotes fat storage through de novo lipogenesis (converting sugars into fat for later use).
Given this, it’s no surprise that when fruit is available, our bodies naturally push us to eat more of it to stockpile energy. This is a deeply rooted survival mechanism that served humans well during times of scarcity.
Due to our biology, we still have these mechanisms built into us. Now that we are importing fruits and have access to them year-round, it becomes a slippery slope of constant Randle cycle activation and excess fructose in our diets.
So, while fruit CAN be part of your diet, it’s essential to be mindful of how much and when you consume it.
I think a hydrating fruit outside during the summer is completely fine, and you should enjoy it, but especially if you are trying to lose weight, you should really regulate your fruit consumption.
There should be weeks in a row where you don't consume any fruit at all to allow your body to create ketones efficiently (The energy source that most of your brain prefers) and allow your self to enter deep autophagy (which chronically elevated insulin suppresses)
We should remember that our cravings for carbs are shaped by the exact mechanisms that once helped us put on fat for the winter. We don't crave fructose because it's an essential nutrient, but we crave fruits to store more energy for later.