Hey,

It has a lot of sugar. So it is bad for us.

That would be true, if you’re eating fruits with a lot of sugar (not all are the same, berries for instance are quite low).

Many of the fruits out there don’t have all that much sugar. And we also need to understand a couple very important things:

1) Fructose (the sugar in fruit), does not affect blood sugar that much and does not spike insulin. The down side…. what we don’t use goes directly to the liver.

MYTH – Fruit will go straight to your liver and turn to fat.

Although, in excess this does happen, most of the small amounts of fruit that we eat wouldn’t contribute to that.

Most of the issues come from high fructose corn syrup, not so much fruit itself.

2) Because of many of the polyphenols in fruit (and some tannins), they don’t affect glucose the same way.

MYTH: Fruit is going to kick you out of ketosis and make your blood sugar skyrocket the same as eating cake.

There are three things in fruit that make it respond different in our body. Fructose (above), Fiber (slows down absorption), Polyphenols and tannins that actually block the carb absorption.

All this being said, if you want the benefits of the fruit (and veggies, really) without the sugar or carbs, you might be a good candidate for a “red drink.”

A “red drink” is a drink that contains the antioxidants and polyphenols (and vitamins + minerals) from fruit in a drink that doesn’t have the sugar.

The one I prefer is Organifi just because I know what they put into it and I know they don’t use artificial BS. Here’s a link for 20% off their red drink, which next to a bunch of fruit and veggies, would be my best suggestion for getting the nutrition in.

There’s only 2g of sugar (and it’s from fruit, not added).

So even if you eat fruits and veggies, its not a bad idea to increase your intake, but I wouldn’t want you taking in more than 65g carbs from fruit unless you’re very active.

So Organifi’s Red Juice is a great addition – and it’s 20% off only through this link (they have awesome green drinks too, and that discount works for those too).

What about vegetables, though. Should we opt for fruit OVER veggies?

Here’s the thing, they’re really two totally different worlds.

If you ask me, what you extract in the way of micronutrients out of MOST veggies is pretty small.

The exception is dark, leafy greens. The deeper the green, the more dense the nutritional value.

So with fruit, it’s more about polyphenols, with veggies, it’s more about fibers and vitamin k.

Obviously there are different veggies with different benefits, but the lionshare of the benefits are really coming from the fiber.

Now, obviously the benefit to veggies over fruits is that you can eat a lot more without going over your carb allowance and get nutritional value. But the downside is that the volume of food might be tough to get in.

Usually I follow a rule of thumb like this:

At least 2 different types of DENSE veggies per day.

I don’t feel like having 6-8 servings is realistic for everyone. So I aim to eat the following veggies the most:

• Asparagus
• Brussels Sprouts
• Artichoke
• Bok Choy
• Swiss Chard
• Broccoli

Those are really my “go-tos” as I feel like I can get the most bang for the buck with them.

But since recently I have been feeling like I can get adequate nutrition from a couple servings of lower glycemic fruit and maybe a couple ounces of liver per week, I don’t feel like I need to stress about the nutrition from the veggies as much, and allow myself to focus on them for what they’re truly good for….. FIBER.

Here’s my playbook:

• Berries
• Red Juice to amplify your polyphenols
• 1-2oz liver per week
• dense, green veggies with soluble fiber
• Occasional psyllium and/or flax
• Avocados

I feel like those are my rich sources of vitamins, minerals, fibers and polyphenols!

Hope this clears up confusion and helps!