Getting Fat on Fruit
Published 7.21.2016Fruitarians (people who eat only fruit) and "Raw till 4" (RT4) followers (a vegan high carb, low fat diet created by a Youtuber named Freelee the Banana girl, which is not based on any science) like to claim it's "the fat you eat is the fat you wear," so if you don't eat fat, then you can't gain weight. In order for the subsequent analysis to make sense, I have to give a brief explanation of what the RT4 diet is. Basically, followers eat raw fruit for breakfast and lunch, and then can have a cooked high carb low fat vegan meal for dinner. The conceit is that you don't need to count or restrict calories, in fact, followers are exhorted to, "smash in the calories," so long as they are carb calories.
In fact, the recommendation is to try for 1000 calories per meal. That's a lot of fruit. To get that many calories from fruit, RT4 leaders push followers to eat relatively calorie dense fruits, such as bananas and dates. Demonstrated dinners tend to be kilos of potatoes. Although not a requirement, many followers tend towards so-called mono-meals, where they eat huge amounts of a single food. No allowance is made for height or age— all followers are exhorted to eat the same amount.
Followers of Raw till 4 who do gain weight (and they are legion, all you need to do is search Youtube) are accused of cheating on the diet or of eating animal products, but this is not the case. It is possible to be pack on weight eating only fruit.
It is true that the body does't tend to use carbohydrates (carbs) to create fat except in cases of extreme overfeeding (eating excess calories). That's because (in very simple terms) it costs the body more energy to convert carbs to fat. Protein, intake of which is typically quite low for fruitarians and RT4 followers, is also generally not stored. Fat, on the other hand, don't need to be processed at all to be stored. All that has to happen is for the liver to package the fat molecules in cholesterol (because blood is mostly water, and fat (like oil) and water don't mix. Fruitarians and RT4 fans eat very low fat diets— but they are not eating NO fat diets. Most fruit may be low in fat, but many fruits do contain some amount (and I'm not talking avocados here, which some might not realize are fruit, but all probably know are high in fat content). In the case of overfeeding, all of that fat would get stored.
Running the numbers
As this topic arose again in an online conversation at the Carb-sane Asylum recently, I decided to take a look at the numbers:
Note: Obviously, potatoes are not fruit, but I included potato in the list because it's a dinner staple of those following RT4— at least if their Youtube videos about their meals are to be believed.
The table above makes it clear there can be fat in fruits, though the amount varies quite a bit. Some of the fruit listed probably seems a bit exotic— durian and jackfruit aren't commonly available, at least in US markets. However, they can be had with ease in Asia, and as many RT4 folk seem to journey to Thailand to meet other RT4 vegans and feast on fruit, out of curiosity, I decided to look up the nutrient content of the two commonly mentioned fruits consumed on these trips.
Portions of 100 grams (g) are the common standard weight used for comparison, although 100g of fruit can be more or less than a single. The average medium sized banana, for instance weighs 118 g, so 100g of banana would be slightly less than a single serving, at least as most people reading this would understand the word serving.
Fruitarians and RT4 followers, however, have a different definition of serving. For them, in a "mono-meal" breakfast of bananas, as many 10 bananas might be consumed— whether as a giant smoothie or as multiple individual fruit. The column labeled "Fruit eaten" is the total weight in g for typical fruit meals demonstrated in videos. If someone eats 10 medium sized bananas for breakfast, they ingest 1050 calories, 32 of which (in round numbers) results from the fat content of the bananas. If this hypothetical person decides to have a giant banana smoothie for lunch, then (assuming they don't add additional calories and fat by adding soy milk rather than water to liquify the smoothie) they'd ingest another 1050 calories with another 32 calories from fat.
In fact, just to keep things simple, let's assume that our hypothetical vegan has decided to visit "banana island," which just means that for some amount of time, only bananas are consumed. That means that another 10 bananas (for a total of 30 for the day, an actual site exists) will be ingested. In total, 3151 calories (again round numbers) and 96 calories from fat will be eaten.
If the number of calories expended by our hypothetical person each day, through exercise and just existing, is less than 3151 calories (and for most women and many men, that will be the case) then the body has to do something with those extra calories. The easiest thing for the body to do is store the 96 calories of fat in fat cells. Depending on just how great the overfeeding is, some of the excess carb calories may be turned to fat and stored as well. In the reference listed in the link above that discussed de novo lipogenesis (the process that produces fat from carbs), to get any significant increase in the creation of fat from carbs overfeeding needed to be 50% or higher.
In other words, if you require around 2000 calories (which might be typical for a young female of average height and activity), but instead are forcing 3000+ down your throat a day (50% more than required), you might well be causing your body to turn the excess carbs into fat for storage. The numbers would be even worse for smaller women. Veganism does not negate the energy balance. Worse, de novo lipogenesis occurs in the liver, which means the fat created may get stored there— the very worst possible outcome.
I chose 30 bananas to simplify the math, but a similar calculation could obviously be done for other fruitarian or RT4 menus. Bananas aren't the lowest fat fruit, but neither are the highest fat fruit. In fact, it looks like heading to Thailand and scarfing down meals of durian might be the fastest way to get fat on fruit— though that seems highly unlikely for most. I've never had durian, but my understanding is that it has a… er… distinctive odor that isn't everybody's cup of tea,
You can get fat eating fruit if you eat more than you expend. The energy balance always applies.
Vegans or "plant-based" eaters like to tout their way of eating as a way to eat great volumes without gaining weight without counting calories. And if you eat normal amounts of less calorie dense foods (such as vegetables) this in fact works for many people. It worked for me. However, if you consistently eat a surplus amount of food, you will gain weight on any diet. Avoiding animal products and eating only fruit doesn't change that fact.
Disclaimer
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- Veganism does not negate the energy balance.
- Vegan doctors denial doesn't help
- Vegan kids need supplements
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