Fruits on a Diet - Healthy Snacks

Many people avoid completely eating fruits or significantly decrease fruit consumption on a low-calorie diet. If you are on a Keto Diet or any similar diet with decreased carbohydrate intake, it is obvious that fruits are avoided on low carbohydrate days. But on days when carbohydrates are allowed, in at least moderation, fruits should be consumed freely.

Of course, even then, adjust the amounts according to your needs.

Published: August 10, 2021.

If you are not on a specific diet, eating fruits is highly recommended. If are on a diet, but you have cravings for sweets, take a piece of fruit - its taste, fragrance, and aroma is often more than enough to stop you from annihilating everything in the fridge :o)

Fruits can be consumed for breakfast, shortly followed by a 'normal' breakfast meal - some lean protein source with complex carbs. Some people don't like eating fruits and then 'waiting' 45-60 minutes for 'normal' breakfast justifying themselves with fear of catabolism after fasting during sleep. If you consider that low-intensity cardio early in the morning is even more 'dangerous' for muscles due to catabolism, then that fear is not justified (you do low-intensity cardio early in the morning, right?).

Also, fruits can be eaten some 30-45 minutes before daily meals, thus postponing every meal and making you eat fewer meals, or eating smaller meals.

Since calories in the fruits come mostly from complex carbs, there are no sudden changes in blood sugar levels. And when one considers amounts of vitamins, minerals, fibers, and other health-beneficial compounds, there is no other conclusion - eat your fruits!

Healthy Fruit Snack Mix

Of course, there is no reason one should not eat fruits as daily snacks. Again, even if you are endomorph on some kind of low carbs diet (for example, Carbohydrate Cycling Diet), there are days when carbs are allowed in moderation - even then, eat fruits in the first half of a day.

This is my fruits snack mix - a banana, a kiwi, a tangerine, and an apple.
Their nutritional value is given in the following table:

Food	Amount	Protein	Carbs	Fats	Fibers
Kiwi	100g	1g	11g	0.5g	3g
Banana	125g	1g	27g	0g	2g
Tangerine	75g	0g	8g	0g	2g
Apple	100g	0g	12g	0g	2g
Total:		~2g	~60g	~1g	~10g
Calories:		16 kcal	240 kcal	9 kcal	-

This snack has around 270 kcal - practically all calories come from carbohydrates. Protein and fats content is very low, while fiber content is great - around one-third of recommended daily amount for fibers. Although fruits are digested relatively slowly, 60g of carbs can provoke insulin - not even close as one good Post Workout Meal (PWM) shake, but those having issues with blood sugar levels should be careful about this amount of fruits at one meal.

If you do have problems with blood sugar levels, or you allowed a daily amount of carbs to prevent you from eating this many fruits, adjust amounts - few cherries on low carbs days is a great dessert and often more than enough to help you achieve your goals.