Can Fruit Make You Fat?

Q. Recently, one of my coworkers said that eating too much fruit can make you gain weight because of its high sugar content. Is this true?
-- Anonymous

A. Not unless you eat two or three large watermelons or a peck of apples on top of a regular day's worth of food. You'd have to stay pretty darn determined about fruit eating to do any real damage to your waistline. Look at the math: To gain a pound of weight from food, you need to consume 3,500 calories more than what your body uses. To gain a pound from fruit alone, you'd have to eat about 54 apples, 875 strawberries, or 18 cantaloupes. And while it's true that 100 extra calories a day can leave you 10 pounds heavier at the end of a year, chances are that most people's weight gain comes from piling on foods that aren't fruit. (That afternoon Snickers habit you picked up? That's about 280 calories per bar.) Fruit is full of water, fiber, polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals, and it puts a lot of bulk in your belly for not a lot of calories. That makes it a diet buddy, not a diet saboteur.

Q. A friend told me I shouldn't drink any liquids within 30 minutes of eating because the fluid interferes with digestion by diluting digestive juices. But I thought that you were supposed to drink small amounts of liquid to aid the breakdown of food. What can you tell me? -- Judie, via e-mail

A. Water and food make a great pair for your dining and digestive processes. Think of the trip your food makes from your mouth to your stomach as a ride on a water slide. The water that splashes down the slide works as a lubricant, so you have a fast, fun ride. If the slide were dry, you'd be stuck, thanks to friction, and it would take longer to make a splash. You and food work in a similar way.

Another water bonus? Frequent flushing with H2O fights bad breath by keeping smelly bacteria from stagnating near your oral cavity (where everyone can catch a whiff).

Our final tip is this: Get smarter friends.

Q. Is there any help for interstitial cystitis? Can it be controlled or eradicated? I haven't heard much that's hopeful. -- Anonymous

A. Interstitial cystitis (IC), is one of those chronic conditions that can be as frustrating as it is painful, but the important thing is that you don't give up in trying to find a way to manage it. Also aptly referred to as painful bladder syndrome (PBS), it can give you a constant urgency to urinate along with bladder pressure, bladder pain, and sometimes pelvic pain. Symptoms can range from mild burning or discomfort to severe pain. PBS is likely caused by a defect in the lining of the bladder that mixes up the signals that usually tell you when you need to empty it -- that's why you feel the urgency to "go" but get no relief from going.

Although there isn't any one cure, there are many treatment options, and people who stay committed to working with their doctors often find that the pain subsides. Relief sometimes starts with dietary changes, including drinking more water and cutting out carbonated drinks, caffeine, alcohol, citrus foods, tomatoes, and other dietary irritants. Doing pelvic exercises such as Kegels and lowering stress have also been shown to reduce symptoms.

If those aren't enough, the next step is OTC pain relievers. These are a fine way to manage occasional pain, but a regular diet of ibuprofen or acetaminophen can hurt your stomach more than it can help your PBS. If you're popping the OTCs regularly and are tempted to exceed the label recommendations, talk with your doctor about a prescription. Some meds offer pain relief, and others may help repair the bladder lining. Another option: A nerve stimulation machine called a TENS unit helps reduce symptoms for some people.

What about surgery? So far, it doesn't appear to help. But here's the real bottom line: When there are a lot of options in medicine, it usually means no one choice works well for almost everyone, and we don't know enough about what causes this condition.