NOTE: Most of my caucasian and foreign friends can’t stand the smell of durians, so this post may not apply to them. I remember on a trip with a basketball team from the USA a few years ago, our coach, a 6 foot 4, 120kg man ran out of his hotel room like he saw a ghost after we left durians in there as his “birthday gift”.

I have always suspected that durians are not that fattening. Beacause the causes of fat storage are more often the hormonal response of the body to the food, rather than the raw number of calories, durians don’t seem to be as “fattening” as people think.

It is a fruit, it is rather fatty (like an avocado) and it has fiber. These factors slow down the release of sugar into the blood stream, making the insulin response (that causes fat storage) less.

So I actually asked one of our coaches Chris, to dig around and see what he could find out about the glycimic index of durians.

Hey good news! In the 2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study was done Titled: “Glycimic index of common Malaysian fruits”.

They tested durian, papaya, pineapple and watermelon. Turns out durians had the lowest GI among them all at about 49. Probably due to its high fat content which slows the speed of gastric emptying. That is within the “Low GI” category (below 55)

While GI is not the whole story, with Glycimic LOAD and Insulin LOAD (which take into account portion size) being better indicators, it shows that durians are certainly not the the evil that many people think they are as long as you keep portion size in check.

It’s certainly not an “unlimited” food like meat or veggies, but it can certainly fit into the lifestyle as part of a “cheat meal” or for a person who is already fairly lean or carb tolerant.

But no matter what, hearing that durians aren’t evil should make our individual personal training and fitness bootcamp clients happy!