From the sheer variety, to the versatility and the nutrition they can offer, fruits really are amazing.
This is somewhat a fruit appreciation post. Which is going to cover why we should all eat more fruit, the benefits of fruit and how underrated it really is.
Top benefits of fruits
Fruits have many benefits to them, you don’t need to be a nutritionist to know that though. Let’s go through some of the top reasons why we should eat more fruits starting today.
Fruits are the easiest type of food to digest
Fruits are among the few foods that digest between 15-50 minutes. Meaning if you opted for a mono fruit plate for breakfast, your digestive system will thank you for it.
That being said, it’s best to eat fruit on its own, as most other foods take longer to digest, therefore complicating the process. Also with different types of fruits come different digestion times and rules for combining that should be respected.
For instance, if you wanted to benefit from the quick digestion, you’d eat watermelon on an empty stomach, and not combine with any other fruits, as it takes 15 minutes to digest.
Fruits contain lots of fibre
Fruits are a natural source of dietary fibre, which helps keep you regular, lowers cholesterol, and helps with weight control.
The RDA for fibre is 25 to 35 grams, of which a significant amount can be consumed in a morning smoothie.
Fruits are rich in natural, structured water
Depending on what you research, you may have heard that drinking water isn’t actually the best way to hydrate yourself. In fact, the water sourced from fruit is considered “structured” meaning it’s more hydrated.
This is due to the water from fruits and vegetables being packed with fibre to help water be absorbed by, as opposed to flushed through, the body.
They are nutrient dense
Fruits pack a nutritional punch. You’d know this by the amount of fruits that pop up on our nutritional advice posts.
For instance, Kiwis & Oranges give you 100% of your RDA effortlessly. A handful of dried white mulberries can give you 25% of your RDA of iron.
Seriously, fruits are the real deal, it’s crazy how it isn’t normalised to eat bigger quantities, more often. Why we don’t have fruit trees in city streets I’ll never know.
They’re the most versatile food
Fruits have to be the most versatile food group on the planet. Think about it.
You can use bananas as an egg replacement for cakes, pancakes, as chips, a smoothie thickener, nice cream, banana bread; You can cut up a mango and enjoy fresh, juiced, dried, or in a chutney…
My typical fruit intake in a week is bananas (as they are or smoothies), fresh kiwis and oranges, dried mulberries as a snack and frozen berries in smoothies.
You can enjoy fruit on its own or in salads, as the star of the show or an undertone, the list can really go on; there really isn’t a limit for what fruits can do.
Check out this green smoothie recipe.
They’re the healthiest snacks
Not to mention fruits are the healthiest snack you can enjoy. Compare them to sweets, that are calorie dense and null in nutrition. Fruits are literally the opposite.
You can enjoy fruits as a pre and post-workout snack, and benefit from the nutrition, hydration, sweetness and fibre.
Fruits have so much variety
If your fruit bowl only consists of just apples, pears and bananas you’re doing it wrong. Get yourself a variety of fruits, mother nature has a great way of seasonally bringing my favourite fruits into rotation at different times of the year.
The oranges and kiwis I typically enjoy year round were subbed for nectarines and mangoes during this summer season, I just couldn’t resist!
They’re sweet and also healthy!
Fruits are naturally sweet, juicy, rich and hydrating. Did I mention they’re also great for your overall health?
Why wouldn’t you want to eat more fruit? For me eating fruit in the morning is a genuine treat, I’m eating juicy sweet goodness… Maybe it’s just me, but I never warmed up to morning oats once I got into the habit of eating fruit to break-fast, once you get into the fruit breakfast routine it’s hard to lower that standard.
Is the sugar in fruit healthy though?
Contrary to the common misconception, no, fruit sugar is not bad for your health. Fruit, when consumed in its raw form with fibre and all, is completely safe to consume.
The misunderstanding comes from those who consume fructose as an isolated sweetener, or fruit-containing products that aren’t going to be as nutritionally sound as the raw fruit.
Should we eat more fruit?
According to Healthline, fruit intake is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, are affordable, and easy to digest. I feel it would be a crime against humanity to not tell them to eat more fruit.
We should all be making an active effort to improving our lifestyle and a simple change that we can all start with is consuming more raw fruit. Try a fruit bowl for breakfast, one of my favourites is a grape, apple and kiwi plate.
Hopefully you enjoyed my post on why we should all be eating more fruit. Be sure to share this article with a friend if you enjoyed it, stay blessed.
