Fruit Diet Success

Fruit Diet Success
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Fruit diets come in a variety of forms, as some people simply increase their daily intake of fruit, while others eat fruit exclusively. Fruit contains many vitamins and minerals, along with having low caloric values, so eating more fruit can help you to remain healthy and lose weight. Different people will experience different levels of success with a fruit diet, depending on the person's body type and the other foods that he eats.

History

A true fruit diet calls for you to consume only fruits for a predetermined period of time. EveryDiet.org refers to these individuals as fruitarians and considers this group as a subgroup of vegans. Fruitarians only consume the fruit, seeds and nut portions of a plant, while ignoring things whose harvest would kill the plant as a whole.

Features

To fruitarians, fruit means eiting things like apples and oranges, in addition to things that you might consider vegetables such as peas, squash, pumpkins and beans, since you do not have to kill the plant to eat these items. Many will also eat eggs, grains and pasta in order to balance the diet a little more.

Benefits

Although many start a fruit diet to avoid killing plants, you can lose weight when you follow this diet. The CDC reports that fruit features a low energy density, so it will make you feel full even though you have not consumed many calories. This means that you will create a calorie deficit when you consume fruits -- the key to long-term weight loss.

Considerations

You should always consume vitamin supplements if you follow this diet, as many nutrients do not exist in fruit. According to EveryDiet.org, you should look into calcium, iron, riboflavin, vitamin D and vitamin B-12 supplements when following a fruit diet, since you will have shortcomings. You might also have low energy levels, since you will not eat enough carbohydrates with this diet.

Warning

Since you will deplete your body of many essential nutrients, you will face the risks involved with this process. Vitamin B-12 protects the function of your nervous system and it must bind to protein in order to provide you with this benefit. Afflictions like Crohn's disease and anemia can also occur if you fail to get the proper nutrients into your body while following this diet.

References

Article reviewed by GlennK Last updated on: Nov 21, 2010

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