It is fairly typical that, when I am in a social situation and introduce myself as a nutritionist, the first question I get asked is a variation of, "Is _____ (insert random food here) good?"
Here's the deal;
There is no one food (unless you have an anaphylactic allergy to it) that will make or break your health.
Labeling food "good" or "bad" sets us up to focus on depriving ourselves or punishing ourselves and I haven't seen either of those approaches work well when we are pursuing long-term wellness.
I often see fruit labeled as "bad". Too much sugar. Red alert. Wait, what?!?!? Can we unpack this for a minute?
All fruit falls under the macronutrient category of carbohydrate. Yes, there are naturally occurring sugars in fruit. Some have a little and some have more. Putting that in context, you'd need to eat more than 4 full cups of strawberries or 3 full cups of raspberries or 3 1/2 pears or 2 large nectarines to equal the carbs in one half of a whole grain bagel.
The low-carb and no-carb craze has spread damaging messages about fruit and caused many of us to avoid it in an effort to avoid carbs. Unfortunately, when we avoid this group of food, we also deprive ourselves of all of the incredible vitamins, minerals, plant compounds, antioxidants and fibre that fruit provides us.
Some fruit are higher in natural sugar and therefore carbs. Some fruit is lower. There is a wide variety of options to suit your caloric needs and safely manage your energy & blood sugar without having to ditch this category of food completely.
Personally, I love how fast, easy & convenient fruit can be as a snack, or a base for my morning smoothie with a scoop of Profi Protein, Greens Powder and my favorite non-dairy milk. If you've been avoiding fruit because you are afraid you will be consuming too many carbs or too much sugar, I'd encourage you to re-visit your relationship with fruit.