Surprising Side Effects of Not Eating Fruit, Say Dietitians

1. If your idea of fruit is sugar-coated Froot Loops or a bottle of 5% “real fruit juice,” you’re missing out on an orchard full of good nutrition—vitamins, minerals, fiber, flavonoids, polyphenols, and other unfamiliar-sounding compounds that are actually incredibly good for you. You’re also setting yourself up for some unwelcome side effects when that fruit bowl on your kitchen counter is empty.

Fruit is a sweet treat, which may be why you’re avoiding it—the fructose, you know, natural sugar. Bad. Right? Not at all. Or maybe you’re just not eating fruit because you think it’s too expensive or goes bad too quickly, so it isn’t worth your time or money to put it on your grocery list. But let us prove you wrong.

Fruit is a high-fiber, antioxidant-rich super plant food. The American Heart Association recommends eating 4 to 5 servings of fruit every day. The American Cancer Society’s nutrition guidelines for cancer prevention advocate including fruits (and vegetables) with every meal and for snacks.Why the emphasis on fruit? Because research shows that when your body goes fruitless, it may go through some unhealthy changes. Here are some of those rotten side effects of making fruit forbidden, say nutrition experts. And for more on how to eat healthy, don’t miss Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians.The danger with cutting out an entire food group like fruit is replacing it with something less healthful. If you’re filling up on vegetables instead of fruit, that’s a good choice. But what if a lack of fresh fruit to satisfy your hunger nudges you toward the fast-food drive-thru?

It’s not just the fact that fruit displaces unhealthy foods that make them good weight-loss foods. Fruit is rich in water and fiber, which helps us feel full and can stop us from overeating. A study in the journal Appetite demonstrated just that when researchers compared how consuming an apple, applesauce, and apple juice before a meal influenced satiety. Results showed that eating the apple before lunch reduced food intake by 15% or about 187 calories and affected satiety much more than the pureed fruit or the juice—all due to the fiber in the solid fruit.

For more diet mistakes you may be making, check out 30 Worst Things You Can Do If You’re Trying to Lose Weight.You know how your muscles feel 12 to 48 hours after strenuous exercise, but do you know it has a name? DOMS. It stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. If you avoid eating fruit (for example, if you’re following the low-carb keto diet and don’t even eat low-carb fruits), you could make your DOMS worse and longer-lasting.The best fruits for reducing DOMS seem to be berries and cherries. One study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that blueberries effectively reduced inflammation and exercise-induced muscle damage from a strenuous leg workout. In the experiment, 10 women drank either a blueberry smoothie or a placebo 5 to 10 hours before a workout and another 12 to 36 hours after the exercise. By measuring blood biomarkers of oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity up to 60 hours after exercise, researchers found that the blueberry smoothie accelerated muscle recovery to speak strength, with a faster decrease in oxidative stress occurring at 36 hours post-exercise. Other research noted in Antioxidants in Sport Nutrition involving runners suggests tart cherry juice minimizes post-run muscle pain, delays time to fatigue, and promotes muscle recovery.