1. Eat fruit to satisfy your sugar tooth—100% guilt-free

Not all sugar is created equally. Despite what you may have heard, there is a scientifically-supported, well-understood difference between consuming sugar in the form of an apple and consuming sugar in the form of Cocoa Puffs. People have raised false alarms over fruit in recent years due to its high sugar content, but this is a misguided concern. The sugar you get from fruit comes loaded with other good stuff like fiber, vitamins, and minerals. These other substances help you digest sugar from fruit more slowly while providing essential nutrients.[1] If you’re like roughly 90% of Americans who eat only a fraction of the 1.5 to 2 cups of daily recommended fruit, you don’t need to worry about fruit being too sugary; rather, you need to increase your fruit intake substantially.[2] Huge bonus: it’s a completely guilt-free—and tasty— way to satisfy your after-dinner sweet tooth. Cut up a perfectly ripe melon or snack on some frozen blueberries to satisfy your sugar cravings in a way that will help you reach your weight goals.

2. Use fruit as a low-calorie salad topper

Salads are the stereotypical diet essential for someone trying to lose weight. But salads aren’t necessarily a healthy option if you’re loading them up with unhealthy toppers or heavy, sugary dressings. Try topping your next salad with a light homemade vinaigrette, some nuts, and fresh fruit—blueberries, strawberries or apples are my personal favorite. Compliment the fruit with a slice of low-fat cheese and voila. You have a low-calorie, healthy and filling salad that is both tasty and topped with antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber.

3. Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking juice

Fruit is great for you. Fruit juice? Not so much. Extracting juice leaves behind the good stuff—fiber—that helps keep your blood sugar from spiking when you eat sugar. Besides lacking fiber, a glass of juice contains drastically more sugar than you would get from eating a piece of fresh fruit. For example, drinking one glass of orange juice (about 21 grams of sugar) is the equivalent of drinking the sugar from three oranges (7 grams of sugar per orange). So next time you have a craving for a glass of juice, try eating a piece of fruit instead. A crisp and cold Honeycrisp or SweeTango will taste just as delicious as a glass of apple juice while containing much more fiber and much less sugar. 

4. Hit your Daily Recommended Fiber Intake with Fruit to curb overeating

Fiber is important for helping your body absorb sugar more slowly. Foods that are high in fiber help the sugar in those same foods absorb into your bloodstream more slowly. This keeps your blood sugar from spiking and falling rapidly which can cause you to feel hungry soon after eating and thus lead you to eat more frequently—which doesn’t help with weight loss.[3]The American Heart Association recommends that people consume 25 to 30 grams of fiber each day from food and not from supplements.[4]The average American gets about half the daily recommended amount—about 15 grams or so. Luckily, fruit is a great source of fiber. Snacking on one apple, a cup of blueberries, and a cup of cherries a day would help most Americans reach their recommended daily intake. This will help you feel full while supplying your body with much-needed fiber.

 Fruit is great for weight loss because it is high in nutrients and low in calories. It satisfies cravings for processed sugars, leaves you feeling full with fewer calories, and helps regulate blood sugar. It adds fiber to your diet along with vitamins and minerals that are essential to your overall health. Eating more fruit isn’t just another trendy diet; studies (like this study that followed individuals for 24 years) have shown that fruit consumption is linked to long-term weight loss and maintenance. [5] Ready to incorporate fruit into a healthier lifestyle? Get your new favorite organic apple variety delivered straight to your door.

[1]Krietsch, Beth. “Natural Sugars vs. Added Sugars: Do Our Bodies Know the Difference? .” HuffPost, HuffPost, 21 Aug. 2019

[2]Lee-Kwan SH, Moore LV, Blanck HM, Harris DM, Galuska D. Disparities in State-Specific Adult Fruit and Vegetable Consumption — United States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:1241–1247. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6645a1external icon.

[3]UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. “Why Fiber Is So Good for You.” UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/education/why_fiber_is_so_good_for_you/.

[4]UCSF Medical Center. “Increasing Fiber Intake.” UCSF Medical Center, https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/increasing_fiber_intake/.

[5]Bertoia, Monica L et al. “Changes in Intake of Fruits and Vegetables and Weight Change in United States Men and Women Followed for Up to 24 Years: Analysis from Three Prospective Cohort Studies.” PLoS medicine vol. 12,9 e1001878. 22 Sep. 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001878