Many people in our diabetes community want to know : can diabetics eat fruit? And if so, how much? We asked dietician and diabetes educator Louise Ferreira to share some tips.
All about fruit
Fruits are a great source of many essential vitamins and minerals like potassium, vitamin C and folic acid, as well as fibre. These nutrients are important in disease prevention, good gut health and the maintenance of healthy skin and hair. If you are living with diabetes, you can and you should eat fruit. Here’s how to ensure it doesn’t spike your blood sugar.
Can diabetics eat fruit?
Fruit can be eaten fresh, frozen, canned, dried and juiced. It is wise to eat fruit whole and fresh – here’s why:
- Juice: When squeezing the juice from a fruit, you leave behind a lot of the fibre and special nutrients and create a refined carbohydrate.
- Dried: Drying fruit makes the portions appear smaller, so you may be tempted to have a helping more than one or two ‘portions’.
- Canned: Canned fruit is often preserved with extra sugar and should be avoided.
Fruit portion control
In general, most people should be eating 2 to 3 fruit portions per day. (Remember that every person is different, and if fruit spikes your blood sugar every time you eat it, you must listen to your body.) Each fruit portion contains 15g of carbohydrates for those who are counting carbohydrates to calculate insulin doses.
One fruit portion is:
- 1 small to medium fresh fruit;
- 125 ml (½ cup) of canned fruit or fruit juice; or
- ¼ cup of dried fruit.
How to choose fruit portions
Apple, with peel | 1 small (120g) |
Apricots | 4 medium (150g) |
Banana | 1 small (80g) |
Cherries | 12 (100g) |
Figs | 2 large (100g) |
Fruit salad | ½ cup (125ml) |
Granadilla | 6 large (200g) |
Grapefruit | 1 medium (230g) |
Grapes | 15 small (100g) |
Guava | 2 large (300g) |
Kiwi fruit | 1 large (110g) |
Mango | ½ small (½ cup) |
Orange | 1 medium (180g) |
Papaya, cubes | 1½ cups (175g) |
Peach or nectarine | 1 medium (180g) |
Watermelon | 1 slice (250g) |
Watermelon, cubes | 1 and 1/4 cup |
Naartjies | 2 medium (150g) |
Strawberries | 1 and 3/4 cup (300g) |
Pineapple | 3 thin slices (125g) |
Pineapple, cubes | 3/4 cup (125g) |
Prickly pear | 2 large (180g) |
Pear | 1 small (100g) |
Prunes | 3 small (25g) |
Plums | 2 large (150g) |
So there you have it: can diabetics eat fruit? Yes, if they are careful about portion sizes and if it doesn’t spike their blood sugar too much.
What to read next?
10 tips for a healthy diabetes meal plan: All the information you need to start your healthy diabetes diet.
Our free Meal Plans: Download the meal plan that works for you – low carb, vegetarian, budget and more.
Healthy alternatives for diabetics: Swap out the food that spikes your blood sugar for these delicious healthy alternatives.
Photo by Naveed Pervaiz on Unsplash
Nature is better than a middling doctor.