When To Eat Fruit

Welcome Vida Juicers to another episode of Wellness Wednesday! I’m so happy to back from a wonderful vacation and time well spent with relatives in Canada, a shout out to all in London, Ontario! It was great and I enjoyed all my time with you, including our talks and actions in wellness!

Today we will be talking about fruit, more specifically when to eat fruit. I love fruit especially the variety during the summer and there’s no doubt that eating fruit is important for our overall health and well being. They are Mother Nature’s ultimate multivitamin and a powerhouse of antioxidants and enzymes. Yet, did you know that there are optimum times and strategies of when to eat fruit? It’s not as simple as putting fruit into our mouths whenever we feel like it. We will discuss proper times to eat fruit that your whole body will thank you for with less digestive problems and tons of energy. Here is the major rule about eating fruit:

Fruit should be eaten alone or with other fruit on an empty stomach.

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up and for many years, fruit many times was a dessert or eaten with lunch. Not a good idea. The digestion of fruit uses specific enzymes and is a very quick process, but the simple sugars contained in fruit need time to be completely absorbed by your body. When eaten alone your stomach can more easily process all of the nutrients, fiber and the simple sugars. When fruit is combined with other foods it will often sit in the gut and ferment causing indigestion, heartburn, burping and other digestive discomforts. Maybe now you can remember experiencing these issues.

Exceptions

A tiny amount of healthy fats consumed with fruit will facilitate fat-soluble vitamin uptake, such as adding almond butter or coconut oil to your fruit smoothie. Ideally, it is best to consume fruit alone. However using a small amount of fruit, such as an apple, as a sweetener for a green juice or green smoothie should not create problems.

Best Times

Fruit is a carbohydrate, which means that it is converted to simple sugars for immediate energy. Essentially, when these sugars are not used they are converted and stored as fat. To fully utilize this energy, when to eat fruit is around these times:

Breakfast because you are breaking your night’s starvation cycle and the stomach is fully empty. As a mid-morning snack, between breakfast and lunch. You can do this with a fruit salad, an apple, other fruit, or a fruit smoothie. Anytime between meals; aim to have fruit about 1 hour before a meal or 2 hours after your meal.

Pre or Post Workout is another fantastic time to eat fruit right before or after that workout. Our bodies will use fruit sugars for immediate energy and for refilling depleted energy stores.

Worst Times

Like previously mentioned, when energy from fruits is not used, it leads to weight gain. For people striving for weight loss it is best to avoid eating fruit before bed. A good rule of thumb is not less than 3 hours before lights out. Also during a weight loss plateau if you’re really struggling overcoming weight loss it may be a good strategy to employ a no fruit or at least not after lunch rule. While trying to lose weight eat berries and melons, lowest in sugar and carbohydrates.

Can I mix fruits with other foods?

You can mix fruit with yogurt or salt as long as you do not have any digestive problems like indigestion or acidity, which hopefully you don’t because you’re following all the excellent content here and are eating healthy. You can also mix fruits like pineapple, oranges, melons, berries or pomegranate with salads if you like. There is no harm in mixing berries and dry fruits with cereals either.

Following these strategies you will gain the proper nutrients that fruit, nature’s candy, will offer to your health and well-being. You will avoid most digestive problems, feel energized, promote weight loss and you’ll look and feel fantastic because your body will be fully absorbing all the vitamins, fiber and healthy carbohydrates that it needs to function in good health. Hopefully you have enjoyed this video about when to eat fruit, give us thumbs up and share this video with your friends.

Thank you for joining me today and remember juice strong to live long!