Fruits and Your Diet

Fruits and Your Diet 

by Anna Wagner (Guest Author - FIT Major in Fragrance and Cosmetics) & Dr. Shamil 

Having a balanced and colorful diet is essential to maintaining your health. And one of the most important components to that diet should be a daily intake of fruit. Fruits supply our diet with a rich array of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber. These nutrients are important in supporting cell growth, maintaining organ function, and fighting off disease and cancer. Beyond that they help in managing body weight and aid skin health and appearance.

First it is important to understand healthy fruit intake; like any other food moderation is key. And how much you should eat will depend on your age, sex, and level of physical activity. Young children should eat around 1 cup a day, women around 1½ to 2 cups a day, and men 2 cups per day. If you are more physically active you should aim to eat more. You should also combine your fruit intake with an assortment of vegetables, as they contain nutrients like iron that are harder to find in fruits.

There are thousands of varieties of fruit grown in the world- there are 7500 of apples and 10,000 varieties of grapes alone! They all have their own nutritional value and it is important to eat a variety through the week. Here is a short list of some of the healthiest fruits and how they can benefit your health.

Pineapples are very rich in vitamins, antioxidants that fights cell damage. They also contain a substance called bromelain, which can help reduce inflammation even reduce tumor growth.
Apples have a great mix of antioxidants & flavonoids and are full of dietary fiber. A study found that an antioxidant called quercetin found in apples helped reduce cellular death.
Mangoes have great benefits used both internally and externally for your skin. They are full of beta-carotene and vitamin A which enrich skin health.
Cranberries are great for dental health as they help prevent bacteria from clinging to your teeth; they have even been found to help slow tumor growth! Cranberries can significantly reduce the chances of urinary tract infections.
Grapefruits are one of the healthiest citrus fruits. High vitamin C content boosts your immunity, helps burn fat, and reduce risks of cancer.

There's some controversy on whether fruit aids in weight loss. Since they contain natural sugar and carbohydrates many believe they’ll help pack on pounds, but the opposite is true! Studies have shown those who are overweight and ate fruit lost more weight than those who didn’t. The fiber in fruit also helps to decrease spikes in blood sugar after eating them. Elevating blood sugar spikes throughout the day can induce weight gain. This means you won’t experience the same type of spikes and weight gain that eating candy would cause.

Fruit’s ability to blunt blood sugar spikes is also beneficial in reducing the risks of getting type 2 diabetes. When your blood sugar level rises, your pancreas reacts by creating more of the hormone insulin. But repeatedly subjecting your body to this can lead to insulin resistance and further increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. That’s where eating whole fruits comes into play. The fiber in fruit slows the rate of absorption of sugars, making them a great substitute for processed sugary snacks.

How you eat your fruit matters too, whole verses drinking it as a juice. Drinking fruit juice or smoothies may be faster to consume and provide a good and “fast” source of energy, but if you are trying to lose weight drinking fruit juices is not a clever idea, it is much better to eat a whole fruit. Drinking a juice involves no breaking down of the fruit in the body, hence you lose its slow sugar-releasing benefits. Also, juicing leaves behind the pulp and the skin, where most of the fiber content is. Fiber is essential in making you feel full longer, and by removing it your body will not have anything to buffer the sugars.


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