People living in Mediterranean countries and following a Mediterranean diet have never considered fruit as a fattening food. On the contrary, they are very aware that the fruits are a gift that nature has given us; they are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and water, all the nutrients that contribute to our good health and happiness – without health it is difficult to be happy.

That being said, fruits, like most foods, can contribute to weight gain if you eat them in excess or prepare them incorrectly. This will be the case if you eat three bananas instead of eating just half of one, if you eat a fried banana instead of eating it raw, or if you draw your strawberries in whipped cream.

Fortunately, most of us eat fruits in their raw state and without adding anything to them, thus almost completely eliminating the risk of increasing their calories due to poor preparation. And as we are going to see now, many of the fruits that we eat regularly have fewer calories than many other foods that are common in our meals. Therefore, fruits allow us to be flexible with how much we can eat.

Most fruits are low in calories.

Some fruits are really low in calories. In this group we find melons, watermelons, papayas and grapefruits. They provide less than 40 calories per 100 grams of fruit. They are followed by the group of berries, oranges, tangerines, pineapples, apricots and peaches with only 50 calories per 100 grams.

To make it easier for us to compare fruit with other foods, let’s take as an example a slice of bread weighing about 25 or 30 grams. This slice of bread will probably have more calories than any of these fruits mentioned above, and without the richness of vitamins found in fruits. Also, as you well know, we rarely eat bread alone; most of the time we spread it with butter, margarine, peanut butter, or the like, increasing its calories. On the other hand, due to the rich flavor of fruits, we usually do not need to spread them and we eat them raw.

The nutrients of the fruit

Fresh fruit can be eaten as a main course, dessert, or as a snack between meals. Among the many nutrients that fruits contain are vitamins A and C, especially in citrus fruits. Vitamins B1, B2 and niacin are also found in fruits, although in smaller amounts. Regarding minerals, fruits are rich in potassium, between 200 and 300 milligrams (mg) per 100 grams of fresh fruit. The fruit with the highest potassium content is the banana, with about 400 mg per 100 grams of fruit. Fruits are low in sodium, which makes them the perfect food to combat hypertension.

On the other hand, fruits are low in protein and fat except for coconuts and avocados which are high in fat.

Carbohydrates (sugars) in fruit

When it comes to carbohydrates, we can separate fruits into two groups:

Group A: the fruits of this group have a content of 5 to 15 milligrams of sugar for each gram of fruit. Among the fruits of group A we find cherries, plums, peaches, blueberries, kiwis, limes, lemons, tangerines, mangoes, apples, melons, oranges, papayas, pears and watermelons.

B Group: the fruits of this group have a content of about 15 to 20 milligrams of sugar per 100 grams of fruit. Among the fruits of this group we find bananas, dates, figs and grapes.

In a separate group we could include avocados and coconuts that, although they have few carbohydrates, 10 milligrams of sugar per 100 grams of fruit, have high amounts of fat, more than 35% of their content, which makes them very high in calories.

Calculate the calories of food

Based on the above information, we can say that group A fruits provide between 40 and 80 calories per 100 grams. Group B fruits provide more than 150 calories per 100 grams of fruit. Since nutrition experts recommend eating four servings of fruit a day, you should think about these numbers when eating fruit. If you only eat group A fruits, you will be eating between 160 and 300 calories a day. Not bad! But if you only eat fruits from group B, you will be gulping down more than 600 calories. Something to take into account.

final thoughts

As you have seen in this article, we cannot say that the fruit is fattening. What we have to remember when eating fruit is which fruits belong to which group and eat accordingly. By that I mean, eat more fruits from group A and use moderation when eating fruits from group B.

Have a healthy day

Emilia Klapp, BS, RD.