Fructose Content In Fruit

Good day!  I am about 6 months into the paleo lifestyle, have been crossfitting for a couple years, loving it, and seeing great results.  I have been following a lot of your literature and what I love most about paleo is that it is undeniably the ultimate way to lead a healthy life. I love that it proves its findings on a cellular level, you just can’t debate that!!   I am torn now though because as an athlete I am getting mixed reviews on fructose. I’m reading its toxic and mostly useless and harmful to the liver.  But in your paleo for athletes book a lot of stage 1-3 suggests fruits with high glycemic load. Can u shine some light on this for me? of everything I read an hear I always standby you and Robb Wolfe most.

Thanks, curious and confused fan #1,350,785 : )

Dr. Cordain’s Response:

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your kind words about the Paleo Diet. Unless someone is overweight, obese or has any symptoms (high blood pressure, abnormal blood lipids, type 2 diabetes) of the metabolic syndrome there really is no need to restrict fresh fruits.  At my website, I list the fructose content of all common fruits (here).  You can see that most dried fruits are quite high in fructose and should be eaten sparingly by most people.  Some fruits like tomatoes, lemons, limes, avocadoes, apricots and grapefruit are quite low in fructose and typically even overweight or people with the metabolic sydrome need not restrict these fruits.

Cordially,

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus