In hot weather, people often lose their appetite. Coupled with the desire to lose weight, many women simply replace their regular meals with fruit. The reporter recently spoke with some female friends who consider a "fruit diet" fashionable and found that among those over 18, about 30% suffer from anemia. When the reporter consulted experts for an analysis, they concluded that this phenomenon is related to their high fruit intake and low meat consumption, or even using fruit as their primary food source. Experts point out that while fruit does play an important role in our diet, with a recommended daily intake of at least 100-200 grams for a balanced and healthy diet, the problem is that many women go to the extreme, using fruit as a meal replacement and completely abandoning the necessary intake of protein, fat, and starchy foods. Ms. Feng, who replaced her meals with fruit to lose weight, later fainted.
The reporter has a friend, Ms. Feng, who lives in Shuikou. After giving birth, she started to gain a bit of weight, but in the reporter's opinion, compared to her former frail appearance, she merely looked fuller and more womanly.
Not sure whose idea it was, starting last June, she began replacing her three daily meals with fruit. After three months, Ms. Feng's body fat did decrease, and she gradually returned to her original figure. This gave her great confidence in her weight loss plan. She became more and more fond of this fruit-based weight loss method. By the end of last year, Ms. Feng's weight had dropped to 44 kg. For her height of 1.65 meters, this was clearly underweight, 5 kg less than her pre-pregnancy weight of 49 kg. Just as she was happily enjoying the praise from colleagues and friends, Ms. Feng found herself frequently dizzy. Sometimes, when she would squat down and then stand up, she would feel the world spinning, and her vision would even go black. She didn't know what illness she had contracted.
Shortly after returning to work after the Spring Festival this year, Ms. Feng was busy with her work when she heard a colleague from the next office calling her to take a phone call. As she suddenly stood up, she collapsed heavily to the ground. Colleagues immediately rushed her to the hospital. During the examination, doctors found that Ms. Feng's hemoglobin level was only 3.4 grams, far below the normal range, indicating severe anemia. The doctor said that if this continued, it could be life-threatening.
Later, through medical treatment and a change in her diet, Ms. Feng's hemoglobin levels gradually recovered. When the reporter recently met Ms. Feng, she told them her weight had returned to 51 kg and she no longer experienced dizziness or blurred vision. She said she would never again believe in using a "fruit diet" for weight loss, because a healthy body is the most important thing. Eating fruit is healthy, but it shouldn't be a regular meal replacement.
Regarding Ms. Feng's case, the reporter interviewed Dr. Li Feng, a well-known nutrition expert and head of the Medical Aesthetics Center at Huizhou Xiehe Hospital of Southern Medical University in our city. In response to the reporter's questions, Dr. Li Feng said that from a nutritional perspective, eating fruit is indeed beneficial to health, but it does not mean that being healthy requires only eating fruit. A healthy body needs a full range of nutrients to be maintained. Fruit does contain very rich nutrients, such as carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, as well as bioactive substances beneficial to human health, like carotenoids, bioflavonoids, anthocyanidins and proanthocyanidins, and organic acids.
However, other nutrients that the human body needs, such as life-sustaining protein, are present in very low amounts in fruit. If a person does not eat meat or soy products and tries to get their daily required protein solely from fruit, they would need to eat at least 9,000 grams to meet the body's needs. Such a fruit intake is difficult for any woman to achieve.
At the same time, the non-heme iron in fruit is not easily utilized by the human body. Long-term use of fruit as a meal replacement will inevitably lead to insufficient intake of protein and iron, causing anemia and a weakened immune system. She emphasized to the reporter that indeed, some women today pursue a "fruit diet" for weight loss and treat it as a fashion trend, but they fail to realize that this approach swings from one extreme to another. Damaging one's health for the sake of weight loss, even to the point of being hospitalized, is not worth it.
Dr. Li Feng suggested that although many women may not feel like eating during the hot early summer due to "summer heat," the intake of staple food is still necessary. While consuming a certain amount of staple food, it's also important to supplement with protein-rich foods like fish, meat, and eggs. The intake of vegetables should be even more than that of fruit. Only by combining these foods and scientifically adjusting the dietary structure can we provide the body with sufficient and comprehensive nutrition. People with anemia should eat more iron-rich fruits and vegetables.
In the interview, Dr. Li Feng stated that iron is one of the most abundant metals on Earth, yet surprisingly, more and more people are now iron-deficient, and iron-deficiency anemia patients are also very common clinically. She told the reporter that once the body lacks iron, it affects the synthesis of hemoglobin. Patients may experience symptoms like a pale complexion, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, tiredness, and a rapid heartbeat with minimal effort.
She recommended that to supplement iron, city dwellers should preferably use iron pots for cooking, especially cast iron ones. Additionally, from the perspective of a balanced diet, women should drink more iron-rich juices and less tea, as this allows for the absorption of some iron from the juice. Of course, eating iron-rich vegetables like spinach regularly can also help prevent anemia.