Are there downsides to filling your 5 a day with fruit only and not eating vegetables?
Those “5 a day” guidelines currently suggest 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of non-starchy vegetables daily. 5 servings a day of combined fruits and vegetables (excluding potatoes and fruit juice) is shown to lower risk of death from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. 5 servings is more of a minimum and ideal daily portions of fruit/veg is likely somewhere between 5 and 10.
Nutritious options to consider for vegetables include dark leafy greens (spinach, kale etc.), cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts etc.), mushrooms, alliums (onions, shallots, garlic), and colorful vegetables (carrots, beets etc.)
As some commenters have discussed, fruit does contain sugar and fructose, as well as nutrients and fiber. Suggested amounts of fructose daily are around 20-50g a day depending on individual absorption. Different fruits have different amounts of fructose, but if you were to eat 5 servings a day you’d likely be at the upper limit of fructose consumption, and that’s assuming you’re only eating fructose in fruit.
To be honest 5 a day is BS. It’s fine if you’re starting out a fitness journey but you’ll come to realise you can pretty much get your nutrition from eating like 5 foods. (Here’s a random off the cuff example, may miss like 1 nutrient maybe) Lean animal protein, potatoes, Almonds, animal organ (liver) and a fruit like raisins.
However to answer your question properly no.The intent of 5 a day is to vary vegetables and fruit, but what they don’t tell you is that all fruit contain different nutrients from one another and all vegetables from one another. And they definitely contain different nutrients just based on fruit vs veg category alone.
Raisins (as well as grapes) contain small minerals like boron, vitamin C, and the such. While bananas contain higher vitamin C, and have potassium. Both contain more soluble fibre as well, which is the “glycemic slowing” fibre.
Flip to Beans and legumes which tend to contain B vitamins, tend to contain your common minerals like iron (please not that plant iron is not as reliable as animal source iron). Many plants can also contain K1 in leafy greens, which won’t be in fruits as often. Beans, legumes and veg tend to also be higher in insoluble fibre which is the stuff that is used for guy motility.
If we were to really look at a power house of vitamins we would really put high quality liver and eggs in the “5 a day” as they contain an extremely high vitamin and mineral profile… but that’s a whole other fight for the nutrition world to blind themselves to.
If fruits were as nutritious as people made them out to be, I’d be eating them in far larger amounts. Tbh I often take a couple cookies for a sugary treat over fruits.
I honestly do think they’re overrated, but definitely very much better than resorting to junk food. As someone who works out often & prefers to limit calories (just below maintenance), the main issue I have with them is the lack of protein. Primarily using eggs/milk for that but my next choice would be foods such as legumes.
I might be on the extreme side but I strictly treat fruits like “nature’s candy” and as a result, limit them. Back during my initial weight loss phase though (was borderline obese), I ate plenty.
🤦🏻♂️ why?!!!
If you want to lose weight go exercise! You need to produce ATP, increase the cells with high volume of mitochondria (muscles)! This is what reduces your fat!
A diet only with fructose is very bad! Avoid things that makes you lose muscle, like a terrible diet!