Most of us love to have fruits; particularly the seasonal ones and it is good to have them because nature has provided us with plenty of nutrients in this form to load our body’s immune system and to prepare it for the next season. Fruits are the most natural and nutritious food available because they contain good amounts of fruit sugars like sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Our body uses these sugars to energise different body cells. Seasonal fruits also help us build a stronger immunity while also keeping the body alkaline.
So, how do fruits help our immune system?
Apart from fruit sugars they also contain a variety of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that all contribute to a stronger immunity, better gut health, and also help your body run its vital functions every day. We have seen many people just live on fruits. They may not eat a proper meal but prefer having fruits, all day long. But, there is always a right way and a wrong way to eat any healthy food. The same applies to fruits. Here are instances where we are eating these highly beneficial fruits in the wrong way:
Since it is mango season, we see many people eating mangoes with their meals or immediately after a meal. When you do this, the fruit reaches the stomach and starts decomposing with food which is already in your stomach. In this process, your stomach has to produce more acids to digest. The fruits on top of your food, start decomposing. As the fruits stay in this acidic medium they lose most of their good properties as well as vitamins and nutrients. To avoid any kind of indigestion, we have to understand that the correct time to eat a fruit is on an empty stomach or in the morning or at least an hour before your meal during the day. Doing so ensures that your fruit digests and reaches your intestines by the time you eat your next meal.
The correct way to eat any fruit is in its whole form. We have seen many people bragging about drinking fruit juices daily but we need to understand that when we juice a fruit we remove most of it fibre and the blending or juicing process also destroys most of the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Also, the fruit in its juiced form reaches our stomach too quickly, because we often gulp it down. When we eat a whole fruit it mixes with our saliva that contains digestive enzymes which further helps us break down fruit sugars in the right way. Whereas, if we just have a glass of juice, the saliva doesn’t have enough time to break down the sugars. In many cases, people have an overload of fructose in their body and sometimes that can lead to hyperglycemia, high uric acid etc. So, always eat a fruit in its whole form, because you need the fibre for digestion, to prevent constipation, and to maintain your probiotics.
Fruits have antioxidants, alkaline, and detoxifying effects on the body, and that can only be felt if it is had on an empty stomach. The alkaline dose of fruits helps keeps our pH balance in check. But when it is mixed with food, it becomes highly acidic and putrefies in the stomach. This is why many people bloat up if they follow a meal immediately with a fruit.
It’s very important to savour fruits that are local to your geography, country, and the state that you live in. Given that fruits that are exotic or don’t come from your country, they are plucked from the tree much before they ripe, so, they don’t have the complete nutrition as they are intended to have. They are then sprayed with pesticides. Thus, you end up consuming a fruit with fewer nutrients and more pesticides.
A way to escape this is by sticking to your local produce. You can surely have other fruits as well in moderation, but stick to local and seasonal fruits to get maximum benefits. Eat your fruit, but eat it the right way!
Deepika Rathod
Chif Nutrition Officer, Luke Coutinho Holistic Healing Systems.
The writer is a clinical nutritionist with a focus on healthy lifestyle choices.