Why Do We Avoid Eating Real Fruit? Top Reasons Revealed

Médecine douce… by alpha du centaure, on Flickr
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Getting the recommended daily servings of fruit has real advantages. It can reduce disease, control weight, and provide health benefits as we age. Buying and eating real fruit can also support communities and growers and make a positive contribution to a national health crisis.

Reports from the CDC concerning how many Americans get the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables consistently reveal that most of us fall short. Yet, most Americans say they like fruit, and research providing evidence of the importance of real food nutrition is at an all time high. Are we avoiding eating fruit servings? Or do we have good intentions, but for one reason or another we don’t achieve our goals?

The answer is likely a little of both. We’ve uncovered four reasons behind our inability to get enough good, real fruit into our diet, and some real ways to avoid these traps in our own diets.

1. Deceptive Fruit Snacks

One of the biggest reasons we are missing our servings of real fruit is that we are eating foods that promise fruit servings instead. As a result, we feel like we are getting the benefit of them. The primary reason for this dietary misstep? The sheer proliferation of fruit snacks. There are hundreds of fruit snacks that look healthy and are marketed as providing fruit servings, but in fact, the first ingredient is often sugar, not fruit.

There is a growing market for packaged fruit –  it is a burgeoning sector that is taking advantage of our desire to eat nutritiously. What’s more, the pitch is working. Kids love fruit snacks, because they have billions of dollars in marketing telling them so, and snacks are ingeniously designed to wake up our taste buds and addict our brains. Moms like them too, because they appear to be guaranteeing a nutritious snack, and they assuage any guilt we may have about poor nutrition. It’s true that kids need to up their fruit intake, and fruit snacks are filling that need. But more often than not, all these foods are doing are blurring the line between fruit and candy in a way that renders it undetectable.

Packaged fruit snacks get a free pass, and they deter our ability to get real servings in the process. For example, if a snack has at least 2% in the U.S. or Canada, it can be legitimately labeled as being made with real fruit. Fruit snacks labeled as all-natural can include sky-high amounts of sugar, and none of the beneficial fiber that real fruits provide, which helps us feel full and satisfied. The more fruit snacks we include in our diet, the less room we have for real fruit, and less incentive to get them, because we think we already have. But real fruit provides benefits that fruit snacks, no matter how good their claims are, do not. Fruit has synergistic nutrients that work in conjunction with one another, and work in conjunction with other foods in a way that is advantageous to health and disease prevention. And this is something that has thus far eluded manufacturers of foods and supplements in their effort to replicate it.

2. Fake Fruit

One reason we aren’t eating our servings of fruit is that we are actually getting burned by fake fruit. Over the last year or so, much has been made about the existence of fake fruit, including, notably, fake blueberries, and the offending brands have been called out for using these fruit-like impostors.

Fake fruit can look like fruit and be marketed as such, but those blue globs can actually be cubes of partially hydrogenated oil and dextrose, not blueberries. It’s cheaper for companies to use trans fats as fruit, and it works, because we think we’re augmenting a less-than-healthy food with a spark of healthy fruit.

Fake-fruit foods can be pancake mixes, muffins, cereal, and granola bars, for starters. While front-of-label packaging on these foods may tout fruit, reading the label will reveal “made with imitation blueberries”. Avoid this fake fruit trap by throwing in a handful of frozen blueberries yourself if you are making pancakes, rather than relying on fat globs to provide the color. Do the same for cereal and muffins, or take the time to make your own healthy granola bars with real ingredients. Try these Blueberry and Maple Granola Bars from the Daily Green or our own Wild Blueberry Bars. Also, when you do buy packaged products, buy those that are reliable in their use of real ingredients, like these popular no-faux foods from Stonewall Kitchen, for example.

3. Convenience & Price 

Often, we give up a fruit serving because it’s easier to throw packaged food in our bag. A Pop-Tart®  or a Go-GURT®  won’t spoil, and you can carry it anywhere. It’s easier to pop a fruit snack into our lunch bag than to slice an apple and wrap it up. And, we tend to balk at the prices of fresh fruit on display at the grocery store. Its expense, not to mention the risk of it spoiling and the cost of that waste, doesn’t seem worth it.

But real health comes from real food, not from boxes. By limiting processed foods, it leaves more room for real. First, taking the extra time to buy and prepare fruits to have as snacks and to accompany meals is an essential habit to hone. Medicinenet.com suggests making fresh fruit bowl part of your décor, and making a point to dress up every plate with a fruit or veggie. But the best advice to combat inconvenience, especially when price is an issue, is to opt for frozen. Frozen is as nutritious as fresh and available year-round. It provides attractive price points, especially purchased in large amounts, and it doesn’t spoil, eliminating costly waste.

You can also learn how to stretch your fruit and veggie budget by downloading 30 ways in 30 days to Stretch Your Fruit & Vegetable Budget at Fruits and Veggies More Matters.

Got a convenient way to get your fruit servings? Tell us.

4. Our Brain  

Sometimes it’s the inscrutable grey matter in our skulls that’s the culprit when it comes to eschewing fruit servings. The desire for food that satisfies cravings goes way beyond just having a sweet tooth. That’s because the addictive quality of foods – especially foods that combine sugar, salt, and fat in optimum proportion – create pathways in our brains that simulate addiction and make us go back for more. It’s why we can eat an apple or a bowl or blueberries and feel satisfied, but comparable calories consumed from a snack cake only makes us want more.

This chemical reaction is no match for self-discipline. In fact, Dr. Oz considers sugar as addictive as drugs. Studies in rats show that stopping this food from entering the body can actually result in symptoms of withdrawal. Is there a solution to the strong pull of sugary foods that are edging out the fruits in our diets? There is.

– First, detox. Dr. Oz says a 28-day sugar rehab (right in your own home) will reset your body’s craving for foods and start you on a path to enjoying and being satisfied by real food again.

– Second, get healthy. Getting enough sleep, eating nutritious, protein-rich foods, and keeping your blood sugar stable by eating regularly (not starving or skipping) will improve your chance of succumbing to cravings.

– Then, choose. Don’t let Big Food dictate your behavior. It can be easier said than done, but understanding the hold food chemistry has on us is the first step to freeing ourselves from its grip.

– Finally, change: your kitchen, your shopping cart, and your kids’ lunch. After that, move into changing your kids’ lunch room, joining community efforts to support policy about food labeling and food growers, and taking a stand against the billions of dollars brilliantly spent on junk food marketing, especially to kids.


Get Your Real Fruit Servings 

Find out how many servings you need at Fruits and Veggies More Matters.

Have a Not So Traditional (Healthy) Holiday

Joanna Dogloff of the Huffington Post says that the typical Thanksgiving dinner has a whopping 2,796 calories. That might even sound a bit conservative, if Thanksgiving happens to be your favorite holiday. Fit Sugar alleges that the typical Thanksgiving meal actually comes in at 4,500, a number that truly puts the “gob” in gobble.

We know we have a tendency to overdo on Thanksgiving, but our typical holiday staples are actually quite healthy. Turkey meat is a low fat, high protein food, and favorite sides like sweet potatoes, pumpkin and carrots are fat-free, cholesterol-free, and high in vitamins and fiber. Thanksgiving is not inherently fattening and nutritionally void – it’s the appetizers, gravy, caloric drinks and choices like forgoing the greens for some extra potatoes that kill our calorie count. So how easy is it to get out of the Thanksgiving fat trap? Actually, pretty easy.

And now is the time to do it. It’s the year to fashion a not-so-traditional holiday meal – one that takes your principles of healthful eating that are in play the rest of the year into account. True healthy eaters think health 24/7. It’s part of their life. Higher fruit and veggie content, and lower fats and sugars become a way of eating, not a diet or a struggle. Just because it’s November 24, that shouldn’t obliterate your healthy habits. This year, it just stands to reason that the traditional holiday meal has evolved from artery-clogging carb fest to a bounty of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins, and portions that are in perspective.

Make Health Your Tradition

  • Fruit & Veggies More Matters has done some of the hard work of re-aligning your Norman Rockwell portrait and airbrushing in a more contemporary version of head of household – a healthy, vibrant you. They suggest 5 Ways to Take Fat & Calories Out of Your Holiday Menu. Can’t wait for those Garlic Mashed Potatoes? Go for it, they say! Use low-fat or non-fat milk instead of heavy cream and trade butter for low-fat sour cream.
  • New York Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope weighs in with Holiday Main Courses for Vegans – it begins with Curried Lentil, Squash and Apple Stew and ends with Pumpkin Tiramisù. Top that.
  • Finally, if you’re seeking a way to fill up on fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, taste, and one of the most powerful nutrition-per-calorie foods, misson accomplished: add wild blueberries to your holiday spread – they’ve got the color, taste, and tradition that is worthy of your best holiday table. Enjoy!

Got a favorite tip for a healthy Thanksgiving? Tell us!

Fall for Apples

Shine Up a Cortland, Grab a Macoun…This Favorite Fruit 
Has a Lot to Offer 

Kiwi, guava, cactus pears, acai…the longsuffering apple can get lost in the cornucopia of today’s stylish fruit choices. It’s easy to pick up a bag during apple-picking season, cook up a crisp, and forget this favorite until next year. But the list of reasons to keep apples on your year-round list is long. The apple has a reputation for warding off the doctor for a reason. Besides being universally liked, it is easy to eat and transport, it is readily available, and its nutritional benefit is rock solid.

Mom’s the Word

The apple’s iconic history is unparalleled in our culture, with its penchant for pie, and its ability to conjure wholesome visions of an apron-clad Mom. It’s nutritional history is similarly deep: famed SuperfoodRx author Dr. Steven Pratt, who helped bring the advantages of antioxidant-rich wild blueberries to the public, also gave the superfood nod to apples for their disease-preventing, anti-aging nutrients. They can’t be ignored for those interested in fighting cancer, heart disease, and Type II diabetes.

So, is the everyday apple prescription tired advice? Not a chance. Here’s why:

  • They have fiber.
  • They are rich in Vitamin C.
  • They have excellent antioxidant properties.
  • They contain a powerful dose of polyphenols.
  • They are rich in potassium.
  • They are satisfyingly high in fiber (whenever possible, eat the skin).
  • They are fat free, sodium free & cholesterol free.

Tastes Worth Telling, William

Red Delicious, Northern Spy…the variety of apples adds to the fruit’s allure. Whether you cherish sweetness or crispness, you’ve probably got your favorite. There are hundreds of apple varieties, and Maine provides an excellent region for sampling many of them. Visit a local orchard and start grazing to identify your favorite. The Maine Pomological Society (that’s right – pomology is the study of pome fruit, and apples are the most commonly known pome)  provides a run-down of local varieties you’re likely to encounter.

The time is now for enjoying the essence of apples, and if you live here in Maine, it’s practically an apple fair a day. Check the Portland Press Herald for a listing of apple festivals galore, including this weekend’s Apple Pumpkin Festival in Livermore Falls, and Downeast Heirloom Apple Week at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor taking place in October.

Cider: Apples to Apples 

It’s truly the essence of the apple. The enthusiasm for the array of apple cider blends for its connoisseurs is no less than that of oenophiles for their wine. Cider, the naturally sweet juice from apples, is particularly beloved in the Northeast. It serves as the impetus for many fairs, festivals and gatherings that focus on this drinkable treat. Cider is a unique seasonal pleasure that differs from apple juice because of its raw, unfiltered nature. (In cider, the pulp and sediment that is otherwise taken away in regular apple juice is preserved.) It may come as no surprise that cider contains all the health benefits of apples. For those who pasteurize, the process does little to affect its high nutrition.

Can you make your own? You bet. Pickyourown.com tempts those who want to try their hand at their own personal blend. The required equipment can be purchased without too much expenditure, and the result can be enjoyed, or canned for future use.

Slim Pickings

Take full advantage this fall when local apples are abundant in the Northeast – and keep them on your radar throughout the year for nutritional benefit in a figure-saving package. If you are looking for ways to bite the big apple, go au naturel for unadulterated advantage, or take your pick from these apple ideas when your diet allows for indulgence.

Good Guy Noir: Nutrition is the New Black

Whoever said black never goes out of style must have been referring to nutrition. Dark berries are certainly a runway favorite. They are high on the list of foods that provide excellent benefits to our health thanks to that dark color – it’s your tip off that you are in the presence of anthocyanins. Dark skin is a fruit UV protector, and may be the key to our protection as well, as a scavenger of free radicals that cause aging and serious diseases. So grab a bowl and head to the nearest abandoned schoolyard, back lot, or backyard, and go in search of the dark colored berry. You’ll come back with a bowlful of sweetness and nutrition that never fails to turn a serious style maven’s head in pies, in ice cream, as a jam or a vinaigrette.

Blackberry or Black Raspberry?

Both blackberries and black raspberries might be harder to find if you live in the North. While red raspberries are adaptable in colder climates, black berries are not as hardy, and grow more often in southern Maine, or in sheltered areas to the north. But being in the realm of the dark colored berry can be a source of confusion: often we refer to blackberries when we really mean black raspberries.

While they look very similar, blackberries and black raspberries have slightly different growing seasons, and are slightly different when picked. If the little white core is left on the plant at picking time, you’ll know it is part of the raspberry family – raspberries easily pull from the core, leaving the hollow fruit – it’s how we can tell if the fruit is ripe. Blackberries, on the other hand, don’t separate from the core.

While both black-colored berries provide excellent nutritional benefits, black raspberries are purported to have higher antioxidant properties. Tastes differ as well. Black raspberries will be harder to distinguish from a red raspberry whereas blackberries have a taste all their own, and tend to be sweeter and less tangy than black raspberries.

Healthy Berry

Dark berries are strong performers when it comes to antioxidant activity. As we’ve mentioned, fruit with  deeper, darker skin means higher concentrations anthocyanins. Blackberries and black raspberries also have a high skin-to-pulp ratio due to their clumping, or “bramble” fruit, which contributes as well. The result is a high ORAC score. ORAC measures the antioxidant activity in foods by using the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay, which provides information on the uptake, metabolism, distribution and activity of antioxidant compounds in cells.

Black berries also have high fiber content, owing again to their skin. They are high in Vitamin C, manganese and B vitamins, and they have high amounts of phenolic compounds. Phenols are part of the reason we consider wine as being good for our health: they can have wide-ranging benefits, including anti-viral and antioxidant properties.

Studies are currently underway to determine just how beneficial black raspberries will turn out to be. Some preliminary studies suggest they may help to slow breast, cervical, colon and esophageal cancers. You can learn more about berry health benefits.

Foraging Favorite

Blackberry and black raspberries have their challenges. They are fairly fragile, and quick to mold or deteriorate if they are crushed, and while freezing does preserve their glory, when fresh, they stay in shape for only a couple of days. And, as accessible as they are, their thorny branches can act like a barbed wire fence making picking seem more like a prison escape than summer recreation.

But these dark berries are worth the trouble. They are a foraging favorite, found copiously around yards, railroad tracks, and fences, and they grow expansively in the wild, often feeding birds and other creatures attracted to their glowing dark color. But if you prefer to forgo the thorns, these berries can easily be found at supermarkets and farmer’s markets this time of year. They work extremely well with other berries, creating a healthy synergy. Combining black raspberries with wild blueberries in a cobbler or buckle, for example, creates an uniquely surprising palate of yin and yang as well as a powerfully healthful punch.

Blackberries and black raspberries shine on their own, too, enlivening salads and adding flavor and antioxidants to smoothies, jams, muffins, cobblers, pies and wine. They make a sweet snack alone, and their fabulous dark shiny exterior enhances a cheese plate while acting as the perfect tasting accompaniment.

Go to the Dark Side! Try These Black Berry Recipes

Martha Stewart offers up Napoleons with Black Raspberries for a dark indulgence.

Food & Wine’s Marilyn Batali’s Blackberry Pie is a classic from a famous Mom who’d know.

Looking for a crisp with berry synergy? Black rocks Food52.com’s Black Raspberry Wild Blueberry & Marion Blackberry Crisp

Kick back with some homemade Blackberry Wine from the Guardian.