Does fruit make you obese? big fat lies...

Credit: http://artemistics.files.wordpress.com

 I recently came across a very disturbing article by UK 'nutritionist' Zoe Harcombe, the article was titled "Fruit is fuelling the obesity epidemic" and it aims to warn anyone who needs to lose weight, away from eating fruit.

Readers of my blog will know that I promote fruit as nature's wonder food for health and beauty, it is one of our most fundamentally nutritious foods and contains many essential vitamins and anti-oxidants, it is also our healthiest source of carbohydrates.

Zoe's provides no scientific sources or citations for her statements and therefore I can only conclude that she has some strange hidden agenda to stop people eating fruit. She tells us that she is 'horrified' when she hears of parents trying to give their children fruit and offers us trite statements from non-nutritional experts about how giving fruit juice to a child is akin to offering them Coca-Cola or beer!

She claims that fruit has little nutritional value and so is not worth it's 'fattening' properties.

Let the debunking begin!

The images of the data aren't very clear in the video so I have reproduced them here:

Vitamins in Beer

Vitamins in Coca-Cola

Vitamins in fresh Orange Juice

So is fresh fruit juice really as bad as berr and soda? I think not.

Zoe also says that fruit is basically un-nutritious and is only good for Vitamin C and Potassium. Let's see how wrong she is:

So this is the data for a snack of mangoes I often have in the afternoon. Just 2 mangoes - a mere 400kcal. Wow is that 242% of my pro-vitaminA, 72% of my folates, alsmost half of my B6 and 60% of my Vitamin E (plus a generous whack of Vitamin C).

So this is the vitamin data for a Canteloup melon, which is quite a small melon and at less than 300kcal just a snack. But what a nutritious fruit is is: 918% of pro-vitamin A, almost half my folates, good amounts of the B vitamins and a huge helping of Vitamin C.

This is the mineral data for my melon snack, as you can see for a snack of less than 300kcals if has a good selection of minerals too.

Here's the vitamin data for a small meal of 5 nectarines, plenty of vitamin A, B3, C and E

Here's the vitamin & mineral data for my favourite breakfast smoothie of oranges and mango. Oustanding amounts of A, Folates, B1 and C, super amounts of B5 and B6 and good amounts of B2, B3 and E.

Plenty of bioavailable Calcium, Copper and Potassium, Good amounts of Magnesium and Manganese. Good ratio of Calcium to Phosphorous 2:1 (meat is high phosphorous and low calcium which causes calcium loss from the body)

As you can see Zoe's statements about fruit are simply untrue.

Obesity is well researched and the causes remain the same; high-fat, high-refined sugar junk food diet, alcohol and lack of exercise.

Family expenditure on fruit and vegetables has decreased while spending on junk foods, soda and alcohol has risen [Family Spending Survey 2003-2004] as quoted in this recent Daily Mail article 'Blowout Britain'

In beauty,
Star XOXO

Luxurious pineapple pancake dessert | fat-free, raw vegan

This decadent dessert is really simple. You need:

1 fat pineapple slice per person (removed skin and hard core)
1 scoop of Sexy Fat-Free Raspberry Ice-Cream per person
1 handful of your favourite juicy berries per person
A handful of raspberries (fresh or defrosted frozen) person
2 soaked dates per person

First make your raspberry ice-cream following this recipe here and set aside in the freezer to firm up slightly.

Next make a raspberry sauce by pureeing your raspberries and dates into a sauce using a blender or food processor.

Now assemble your dessert. Grab a nice plate and place one pineapple slice on each plate - this is your 'pancake'. Now fill the hole in the pineapple pancake with a generous handful of yummy berries. Take your ice-cream out of the freezer and place a big scoop on top of the berries. Now drizzle your raspberry sauce over the yummy wonder.

Facelift Nutrition Facts

Pineapple is an excellent source of Manganese, Vitamin C and Folic Acid. It also contains an enzyme called Bromelain which is a well known anti-inflammatory and can help the body to shed fat.
NB Pineapple alert! For those of us not blessed with a tropical climate be aware that your pineapple will be unripe and very acidic. Please sit your pineapple somewhere warm and allow it to turn completely golden yellow with no green on it at all, the leaves should be brown and crispy too. Only use ripe pineaple unless you like mouth ulcers, sore teeth and a 'geographic tongue'. You have been warned! Watch my 'How to avoid "pineapple mouth"' video


Raspberries are rich in anthocyanins, particularly Ellagic Acid which has been shown to exhibit anti-cancer and anti-tumor abilities. All berries contain fabulous anti-oxidants which are our anti-ageing best friends!

Bananas are wonderful for giving us steady energy from Carbohydrates, they also contain good amounts of the amino-acid Tryptophan which the brain can convert into Seratonin - the feel good hormone. Bananas have an excellent Potassium/Sodium ratio. They are also a high-fibre food which helps keep the colon nice and clean, a clogged colon shows up as puffy skin, outbreaks and urgh the dreaded cellulite so eat those bananas for beauty!

Fruit Nutrition: Calcium

If you haven't already noticed, all the Facelift Foods recommended by me are all plants. You won't find any mention of meat, fish, dairy or eggs, why? In all the research and experimenting I have done plus a stack of anecdotal research in the form of personal stories of rejuvenation around the world this is the one thing that consistently came up - the higher the diet in fruit and leafy greens AND the lower it is in animal products the younger, slimmer and more gorgeous you will be. You will also be much healthier and way less susceptible to degenerative conditions and diseases.

I strive for excellence not mediocrity so I apply this research directly to my own life, not in any small doses but all the way; hence my diet being exclusively made up of the very best Facelift Foods - Fruit and Salad. That's it. I am not a fan of labels but one could refer to me as a raw vegan or specifically Low Fat Raw Vegan.

In this world of semi-health those of us who choose to be super-healthy, sexy, gorgeous and vibrant are seen as the weird ones and we often get questioned about where some of our nutrients come from (again how weird? we all know how nutritious fruit and veg are and yet those eating burgers, chips and cake washed down with beer do not get questioned about their nutritional status - which will always be appalling!). So to appease those who thirst for facts I am creating a series of blogs and vlogs to educate on the most common nutrients as questioned.

Today we look at Calcium. Shout out now if you know the best sources of Calcium...

• Did you say dairy? Sorry but dairy is nowhere near the best source of Calcium. Don't worry it's just food industry brainwashing, let me show you the way.
• Did you say green vegetables? You are partially right as they are a good source but we will get to why they are not the best
• Did you say nuts like almonds and tahini? Sorry, just as bad as dairy for a few reasons.

So who said fruit? no one? Did anyone know that fruit is one of the best, if not THE best, source of bio-available calcium?

I have work to do..

Dairy = Bad source
There is HUGE list of reasons that dairy is not the best Calcium source, here are just a few main ones:
1. Too high in fat (fat increases Calcium loss from the body)
2. Wrong ratio of phosphorous:Calcium (high levels of phosphorous increases calcium loss from the body)
3. Hard for the human body to digest (its is designed for a baby cow with no less than 4 stomachs!)
4. It is pastuerised (cooked) rendering it even harder to breakdown and assimilate
5. Cow milk is full of bovine growth hormones and pus and blood (ok this is not stricly a reason why it is not a good Calcium source but I felt it needed a mention. I don't want to have to down a couple of pints to ensure my Calcium inatake when there are better sources available, don't you agree?)

Green vegetables = A good source but not the BEST
They do contain bio-available Calcium but..
1. you would need to eat HUGE quantities to get the recommended amount of 700mg a day, I worked out that I'd need 1.5 kilos (!!) of broccoli each day to fulfill my requirements. That's a lot of greenery and what about young children who are usually not big fans of green vegetables?

Nuts & Seeds = Not a good source
1. Tahini is high in fat, to get your 700mg of Calcium from tahini you would have to eat 170g of it a day which would also give you over 80g of fat!! high fat diets cause Calcium loss from the body
2. To get enough Calcium from almonds you would need to eat 250g of them a day which would also give you 133g of fat!! To rely on nuts and seeds to give you Calcium is like to rely on Vodka and orange to give you vitamin C. Could you even eat that many almonds in one day?

Ok now we've debunked those sources, what's left?

FRUIT!!
Did you know that oranges are an amazing Calcium source,  plus they come with high amounts of other nutrients such as Folic acid, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and high amounts of the vitamin B complex.
Just 10 oranges (1 pint of juice) provides 600mg of Calcium.
My morning smoothie of 10 oranges and 2 mangos provides my entire intake of 700mg of Calcium.
Because I also eat leafy greens (in normal sized protions, not 1.5 kilos) I often get way over the recommended intake of Calcium. Yesterday it was over 1000mg (which is how much a breasfeeding lady requires)

For more information on the calcium in fruit, watch this video: