How Many Pieces of Fruit Can I Have Daily?

[Shannon Bradley-Colleary]

So far I've really enjoyed all the food I've cooked. But want to make sure I'm not overdoing it in the fruit category. Yesterday I had what amounts to a cup of fruit -- a mix of grapes, plums and cantaloup. Later I had a whole apple. Is that an acceptable amount of fruit. This morning I had a banana with a tablespoon of cashew butter (God help me I love it.) I'd also like to know how much cashew or almond butter is allowed daily? Thanks!

[ShannonM816]

The meal template recommends not more than two fist-sized servings of fruit each day, with a meal rather than on its own. If you occasionally have a little more, it's not the end of the world, but do be sure you're not letting fruit take the place of vegetables, protein, or fat. 

Nuts and products made from them are okay to have, but they're not an ideal fat source because they don't have a great omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, not to mention for many people having too much of them causes some people digestive upset. A serving size is about the size of your thumb. Ideally, try to limit it to a serving every other day or so. Again, if occasionally you have a little more, no big deal -- like if you make a batch of sunshine sauce one week (recipe: http://meljoulwan.com/2009/07/21/sunshine-sauce/ -- you can sub whatever kind of nut butter you have on hand instead of sunbutter), you might have more than usual that week, and that's okay, but try not to have multiple servings of them every day. 

The meal template can be downloaded here if you need it:  https://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/. 

[SugarcubeOD]

Fruit is recommended to be 0-2 fist sized servings a day eaten with a template meal, not on their own for best results.

Nuts and their products are recommended to be limited (think a closed handful of whole nuts every other day at most).  

[STACEYRAE46]

If we eat more of the lower glycemic fruit, would it still be bad? Especially if it doesn’t bring out the sugar dragon..?

[ShannonM816]

It doesnt matter what the glycemic index is. We recommend that you follow the meal template for each meal. If you're eating enough vegetables, protein, and fat, you probably aren't going to want extra fruit. 

Fruit is not as nutrient dense as vegetables. It still has nutrients, and it's still a healthy thing to eat, but we want you to get the most bang for your buck, nutrition wise, and for that, you need to be sure you're eating plenty of vegetables. Protein and fat provide different sorts of nutrients that you don't get from fruit or vegetables, so you need to be sure you're getting enough of them. Fruit is like bonus food, it adds a little sweetness to help balance out flavors, it tastes good, it can add to your meals, but you don't need a lot of it.

Having said that, these are just recommendations. You could eat nothing but fruit every day and say you'd done a whole30 -- but we think you'll feel a lot better at the end of 30 days if you try to follow the meal template. 

[SugarcubeOD]

15 hours ago, STACEYRAE46 said:

If we eat more of the lower glycemic fruit, would it still be bad? Especially if it doesn’t bring out the sugar dragon..?

I just want to mention, fruit is not 'bad'.  We don't assign values like that to food - there's more or less healthy, and food that more or less helps you get to your goals but there is no good and bad food and I definitely didn't say that fruit was bad... Just that it's recommended to limit and to eat with meals for the best results.

[STACEYRAE46]

Got it! Thank u.. small hill to climb for me since I lived on fruit, before whole30 ☺️

A small sacrifice, to limit my intake..