Fruit page

[apple]

So say Grok and his family come across a little cluster of apple trees in the height of the apple season. What is to stop them from hanging around and gorging on easy-access apples all day? I know if I were Grok, I would take the lazy way out and sit and eat apples rather than hunt...and I would probably eat in excess of 300g carbs from apples that day.

Here at PB, most of us modern Groks would never eat 4 pounds of apples in a day, especially on a lazy day. Why is that? Wouldn't it make sense that if Grok sometimes had the opportunity to eat an abundance of fruit, we could on occasion too?

So the root of my question is, what kind of effect would the occasional "fruit binge" have on the average primal blueprint follower?

[primalrob]

So say Grok and his family come across a little cluster of apple trees in the height of the apple season. What is to stop them from hanging around and gorging on easy-access apples all day? I know if I were Grok, I would take the lazy way out and sit and eat apples rather than hunt...and I would probably eat in excess of 300g carbs from apples that day.

Here at PB, most of us modern Groks would never eat 4 pounds of apples in a day, especially on a lazy day. Why is that? Wouldn't it make sense that if Grok sometimes had the opportunity to eat an abundance of fruit, we could on occasion too?

So the root of my question is, what kind of effect would the occasional "fruit binge" have on the average primal blueprint follower?

fruit is great. the reason a lot of us avoid eating a lot of it is only because we are trying to lose fat, and fruit has a lot of sugar, which causes big insulin spikes. grok and his family would most certainly park it in the situation you mentioned, but eating for him was more a matter of survival...we have more choices to make.

the 'occasional' fruit binge won't do anything to a modern PBer. prolonged fruit binging might lead to fat gain, but that's likely to vary between individuals.

[Fatkid]

Let me preface this by saying... this is solely my opinion (as should be obvious)

buuut... I'd say an occasion 'fruit binge' is alright as long as it is balanced out by the occasional 'fruit drought' ... there would be days (months even) when Grok would find no fruit at all ...

to the point of eating 4lbs of apples in one day... well here is what I think about that...

Grok was a pack animal... I doubt there was ever an occasion (save VERY rarely and only if lucky) in which the group came across a tree/ cluster of trees that had enough good/ripe apples to provide each member of the tribe with 4 lbs of apples...

also... have you ever eaten 4lbs of apples in one sitting?... maybe I'm an outlier here buuuut in my experience eating a ton of fruit (even nowhere near that much) leaves one feeling less then good... ... I'm thinking Grok would want to avoid that...granted he might have to learn the 'hard one' once or twice before he knows to only eat some fruit and not all fruit...

furthermore... for me fruit is an appetite inducer...so sitting around eating apples all day would do nothing more than make me ravenous by days end...

all that being said... there are days in which I partake in more fruit than I should... but those days are usually buffered by extra low carb days and fruit droughts and the like...

[breadsauce]

I thought the sweet, "modern" apples that we eat were the result of selective breeding and that "wild" apples are more like crab apples - i.e. sour? I'd be interested to know what naturally occurring fruits are actually very sweet?

For example, wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries are reasonably sweet but not overly so. So Grok would have eaten those and done himself / herself no harm.

But what were the original figs like? And oranges, pomegranates, bananas, mangoes etc? Were they sweet and luscious from the outset, or did they begin by rather tart, so that it would have been pleasant to eat a few but not many at once, and have become sweeter due to selective breeding / man's increasing appetite for sweet things?

I'm pretty sure that here in the UK, over 20,000 years ago, apart from berries and possibly some cherries, fruit trees would have produced a mouth puckeringly sour fruit - think sloes!

[StoneAgeQueen]

I'm pretty sure that here in the UK, over 20,000 years ago, apart from berries and possibly some cherries, fruit trees would have produced a mouth puckeringly sour fruit - think sloes!

Yes, and gooseberries! My dad grows wild strawberries in his garden and they're practically inedible!

[gordo]

Modern fruit is very, very sweet compared to wild fruit. Traditionally, apples were called spitters used to make applejack, they weren't eaten. The "apple a day" saying was in response to the temperance movement push to eliminate the apple tree. Read "The Botany of Desire" to learn more than you ever wanted about apples.

To get back on topic: Fruit is high in fructose. Fructose is toxic. Once you absorb all your liver can handle, your body stops absorbing it and it ferments in your gut. It ferments easily and rapidly. I'm sure you can figure out how this ends. LOL

Gordo

[dragonmamma]

Every year I go on a fruit-gorge when the fruit ripens on the cherry plum tree, all in one week. Every morning I'll pick a colander full of cherry plums, then I'll sit down and eat the whole darn thing! (3-4 pounds?) I consider it my annual "nature's colon cleanse". And I feel great; I just have to make sure I don't go anywhere without a bathroom!

[Balance]

I eat fruit daily but I never really gorge on it. But you also have to remember that Grok probably did a whole lot more physical labor than we did. He probably walked long distances and gathered/lifted many heavy things all day. For fun he certainly didn't watch TV or use the computer and instead he did a lot of physical activity with the family. With all the extra activity the fruit probably didn't hurt too much.

[apple]

lol, 4 pounds was just a number. I think I could pick 4 pounds of apples off a good tree, but I doubt I could eat it all. I've been in a fruit drought for a while now, so I've kind of been fantasizing about apples and grapefruit lately... I think for me, a fruit binge would be maybe 3-4 pieces of fruit in a day if I were to go absolutely crazy with it. But I can imagine if I were Grok, I would stuff myself with fruit if I found a good source! No use letting that fruit just rot on the tree when I can eat it now! Or maybe Grok just used it as bait while hunting...

As for high fructose strains of fruit: there are varieties of apples that are not very sweet, usually in the "cooking apple" category. Might those be lower in fructose?

[David_DC]

Personally I stick to Apples, bannanas and berries, but I am really frugal with them even when i do eat them and havent had any in the last week since I'm trying to lose weight. I do really love granny smith apple slices dipped in almond butter though. heaven...