How much fruit a day

[stulewie]

Hi everyone my name is Stuart mid 40's with type 2 diabetes. Is it ok to have a banana, apple and tangerine after having a salad for lunch at work? Or is this too much sugar to take in one go?

 

[grovesy]

Welcome.
It is probably too much but only by testing, will be sure.

 

[Martin Canty]

If you stick to berries, they are kinder to your BG

 

[Copepod]

Welcome to the forum stulewie. The only way to know for sure how your salad followed by 3 pieces of fruit meal is to test your blood glucose level before eating and two hours afterwards.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

A banana and apple and a tangerine are likely to total something like 60g of carbohydrate all together. Much of which would hit my system quite rapidly (though everyone varies). As others have said the only way you can tell whether a meal choice is kind to your BG levels is to test before eating and then at 1 hour or 2 hours after eating. What you are looking for is your 'peak BG' the greatest difference to the reading before eating and then to choose meals where that difference is as small as possible, hopefully less than 3-4mmol/L different. Good luck with it!

 

[sunny sanghera]

I guess if you give the extra insulin to cover the fruit it should be okay when I eat a banana I just give abit extra insulin and that seems to work but as your type 2 am not sure if same applies

 

[Mark Parrott]

I wouldn't have 3 fruits together. That would be too much for me. I can tolerate bananas, but they must be slightly under ripe. Never had an apple or satsuma since diagnosis. I regularly have berries with yoghurt for breakfast with no affect on BG.

 

[SB2015]

As others have said. Test review adjust. Have a look at the stickie at the top of the new members bit. Only by testing would you know what is happening after different foods, but I stick to one piece of fruit in a day and only after eating other things first. Otherwise my BG will definitely spike pretty soon after eating it.

 

[SadhbhFiadh]

Hi, and welcome.
I can have a half apple with yogurt, but fruit on its own, no I couldn't. Three fruits would send my sugar star-ward!

 

[Maz2]

I was told by my GP when told I was high risk to have a maximum of three pieces a day (had previously been having 6 or 7 which GP said was far too much). I was also advised here that that was too much. A friend of mine was told not to eat three pieces of fruit in one sitting but to space them out.

My Diabetes Prevention Programme Facilitator told me the advice now is max two pieces. However, as people have said here it depends on the person and what is right for one is no good for another. I tend to have a max of two now and sometimes only one.

 

[Mark Parrott]

Generally, when they talk about the 5 a day thing, it is translated as 2 pieces of fruit and 3 veg. This is not just diabetics. Though really, the 5 a day thing was made up. It was worked out that the British couldn't eat more than 5 fruit & veg a day.

 

[Dave W]

Fruits are generally high in sugar content stulewie and what you are eating after you salad is an awful lot of sugar. Here's some data about the sugar content of some fruits and in most if not all the carb content is more or less all sugar. These are sugar content from 'CoFID' and glycaemic index from 'Diogenes.' Bottom line is that if you want to scoff fruit (and you should eat some), strawberries and mandarins will push up your BG less and slower than others

Apple (eating) 11.6gm/100gm GI 38 GL 4
Mandarin Oranges - 8.2gm/100gm GI 42 GL 2-3
Blueberries - 9.1/100gm Gi 70 GL 59
Strawberries - 6.1/100gm GI 40 GL 2
Green Grapes - 15.2/100gm GI 46 GL 7
Red Grapes - 17.0/100gm

 

[graj0]

Or is this too much sugar to take in one go?

To be 100% sure, you'd have to test to see what effect it will have. We all react differently, no one size fits all unfortunately.

100 gm Banana has 23gms of carb
100 gm Apple has 14 gms of carb
100 gm tangerine gas 13 gms of carb