Alison Whitwood <[log in to unmask]> said:
> I'm a little scared of fruit . I've had dates before and would buy a tray of
> them and eat the lot!

Rachel's response:
The quantity affects the poison!! LOL!  Sorry, just joking, although dried
fruit is very sugar dense and can affect you like poison in large amounts.
Dried fruits are very calorie, carb and sugar dense.  They are concenrates
of fresh fruit.  DATES are particularly sugar rich; ditto for raisins.

2 dates have the same amount of sugar as 1 cup of strawberries or 1 peach or
nectarine or 2-3 small apricots or 1/2 of a small pear or 1/2 of a small
apple, which is about 10 grams of carbs.  Larger apples or pears can contain
20-45 grams of carbs apiece).

1 Tbsp. of raisins =  1/2 cup of grapes, also the same amount of carbs as
1/2 cup of blueberries.

Think you'd sit down to 4-6 cups of strawberries in one sitting?  How about
10 cups of grapes?  But I bet you could eat 10 Tbsp.  (2/3 cup) of raisins
in a sitting?  I think you get the point.

If you are very sensitive to sugar it is best to avoid dried fruit or eat
them in very small amounts, infrequently.  You are less likely to overeat if
you pick low-sugar fruits, if you don't eat them when you are totally
revenous or on empty, and if you eat them with some nuts, as a snack or
after a salad and protein meal.  You probably need to eat more regular meals
and eat more protein and good fats at meals so that you don't let yourself
get so hungry that you are out of control (unable to stop) eating something.

When I eat dates (and I don't eat them daily or even every week), I limit
myself to 2-4 dates, with a much larger volume of nuts.  I can't eat dates
alone as I find the taste TOO SWEET, but the nuts help blunt that and give a
wonderful flavor.  Also, I don't sit down to dates when ravenous.  I eat
three protein rich meals a day, and one intentiontional snack (which also
contains protein and fat).  I never skip breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

If I have dates now and then, I eat them as a dessert (after a low-carb
salad and meat meal).  You might want to try that.... or avoid dates and
other dried fruits for a while and focus on low-sugar foods.  In time your
tastes will change (if you focus more on low glycemic foods, low-carb,
fibrous veggies, proteins and good fats), so that you don't want and cannot
tolerate large amounts of sugary fruit in one sitting.  It will just taste
toooo sweet (or cause gas or bloating or both!)

Alison said:
> Sugar in fruit must have the same effect on blood sugar as sweets, surely?
> Maybe the fruit has more fibre in it so doesn't cause such a peak then drop
> of blood sugar.

Rachel:
It depends which fruits you select, what you eat them with, when you eat
them (on an empty stomach, with protein and/or fat, or after a meal), and
how much you eat also.  Different fruits vary in the type and amount of
sugar they contain.  Get the Eades book (PROTEIN POWER LIFE PLAN) to get a
list of the carb content of various portions of food.
>
Alison said:
> I'm going to try eating more fruit and I'll if that helps. I've just eaten
> an organic pear after my lunch of organic lamb with organic sweet potato and
> spinach. Very nice it was too....

Sweet potatoes are very carb rich.  One small (that's a 4-ouncer, not a 10
or 12-ouncer) contains 30 grams of carbs.  Watch out for the big sweet
potatoes which can pack 60-90 grams of carbs in one sitting.  A fist sized
sweet potato, if you are small boned and not heavy, is about 4 ounces.

A typical small to medium (4-8 oz.) pear contains 20-40 grams of carbs,
depending upon size.  I would suggest that if you are going to eat a sweet
potato in a meal that you avoid having fruit with it.   Pick one or the
other to eat with a green salad or cooked greens or mixed colorful fibrous
veggies, and a protein and fat.  Eating too much carbohydrate and too much
sweet food in one meal can create adverse effects that you are unlikely to
experience if you spread your carbs out and eat small amounts of the dense
ones.

E.g, I suggest that you pick a protein food for a meal (fish, fowl, meat,
eggs, or some combination), a leafy green or mixed vegetable dish (salad,
steamed, stir fried or sauteed veggies, etc.) and either sweet potato, or
tomatoes, or low carb barbecue sauce, or a cup of berries or a piece of
fruit.   If you don't cook the protein food in fat, and if it is already
very lean, you'd probably want to add some friendly fat to your meal (nuts,
seeds, nut butter, olive oil, coconut butter, fish oil, or animal fat).

Hope you find this helpful,

Rachel