Can you eat too much fruit? Absolutely! Although it would be very difficult to eat too many vegetables, a common mistake made by health-conscious people is over-eating fruit.

For years, Beyond Health has recommended limiting fruit consumption to two pieces of fruit per day and avoiding fruit juice altogether. Although fresh fruit is a good source of nutrients, it is also high in sugar, and sugar, even from healthy sources, can be deadly if you get too much of it.

Excess sugar has innumerable negative effects on the body, including feeding candida and other pathogens in the intestines. High blood sugar is also a primary cause of both aging and disease, and it plays a significant role in heart disease.

When levels of sugar in the blood are too high, fats and proteins in the body can become “sugar-coated” – a process called glycation. As explained more fully in Raymond Francis’ Never Feel Old Again, glycation causes body tissues to lose their natural flexibility and stiffen. When this happens to blood vessels, the heart has to work harder to pump the blood through them, which increases blood pressure as well as the risk of injury to blood vessel linings.

Too much sugar also damages blood vessels through inflammation and oxidation. According to Dr. Paul Lynn, an alternative physician in San Francisco, CA, this causes “rust spots” particularly in artery linings. As these injuries get patched up with calcium and cholesterol, atherosclerosis (or “hardening of the arteries) develops.

Eating excessive amounts of fruit also creates blood sugar spikes, creating a stressful, emergency situation in which massive amounts of insulin are produced to force sugar into the cells, and the sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight” system) is activated. One effect of the sympathetic nervous system is the constriction of blood vessels, which increases blood pressure. This is why a high carbohydrate meal can provoke a heart attack in a susceptible individual, and why studies have found associations between fruit and fruit juice consumption and chronic high blood pressure.

Next time your doctor gives you a blood test, ask him or her to measure your Apo A and Apo B (apolipoprotein A and apolipoprotein B). Apo B are small, dense fat particles that are not usually measured along with cholesterol, but they are extremely important. Caused by too much blood sugar, Apo B causes oxidative injury to blood vessels. Apo A controls Apo B.  If you’ve got too much Apo B, especially in relation to Apo A, you’re ingesting too much sugar from fruit or other sources, endangering your arteries!