According to nutrition expert Dr. Michael Mosley, a certain fruit could hinder your weight loss efforts and should be avoided.

The NHS recommends eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but if you’re trying to lose weight, you may want to avoid one type of fruit and vegetable altogether. Dr Mosley, who developed the Fast 800 diet and popularized the 5:2 diet, claims that bananas aren’t as beneficial for weight loss as you think.

While he acknowledges the importance of eating fruit and vegetables, he advises dieters to eat no more than seven portions a day. “Fruit is great if you’re healthy, but if you need to lose weight, you might want to switch to less sugary fruits like apples and berries,” he told sbs.com.au. Some fruits are very high in sugar, such as mangoes, which can contain up to 45 grams of sugar per fruit.

Instead, Dr Mosley recommends opting for lower-sugar fruits like raspberries, a cup of which contains about 5 grams, reports the Mirror. Responding to a comment on social media in 2021, Dr Mosley further explained: “A banana has the equivalent of about three teaspoons of sugar, but also three grams of fiber. If you eat the peel, there’s even more fiber. Berries, apples and pears are fine. But limit tropical fruits like mango, melon and pineapple. Go easy on the bananas.”

If your goal is weight loss, Dr Mosley also recommends avoiding “anything you can buy at a petrol station, namely highly processed foods and convenience foods that we all know are bad for us but that we eat in astonishing quantities anyway.” He added: “If it’s heavily advertised, in garish packaging and full of fat, sugar and salt, it’s likely to affect our health and mood – and not for the better.”

If you are trying to lose weight, the NHS recommends reducing your daily calorie intake, which is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men, to 1,400 for women and 1,900 for men.