#VIASWEATFUEL | The truth about fruit...
Eat your fruits and vegetables...!
Everyone knows fruits are "healthy" or supposed to be, but are they really? I mean, they come from plants so they're considered real, whole foods and we as humans have been eating them for a long long time.
Not to mention the convenience, some people like them to "nature's fast food" because they're so easy to grab on the go and prep.
And then there's the juicing craze.
However, there have been increasing challenges to the health effects of fruit in the past few years especially in regards to its high sugar content compared to other whole foods.
We can all agree that sugar is bad, and there are plenty of research to support this, but what about the sugar in fruit?
Good news is that the fructose content in fruit, while existent, isn't high enough to really cause harm (unless you eat it in large amounts which is pretty impossible to do with just fruit considering how filling it would be).
Speaking of filling, fruits can technically help with weigh loss since they easily make you feel full which will prevent you from eating other (unhealthier) foods.
Fruits also contain large amounts of important nutrients, such as fiber (so important for digestion), vitamins, minerals and various antioxidants (immune system!)
Even though fresh whole fruits are healthy for most people, where does this put fruit juices, smoothies and dried fruit?
Fruit juices
Many of the fruit juices you see on the market are made from concentrate and mixed with water and added sugar, they're not even "real" fruit juices! Even if you find 100% real fruit juice (where they squeeze the fruit right in front of you), it's still not entirely recommended. Because you're not digesting the whole fruit (fiber & meat), you end up consuming a large amount of sugar in a short period of time (pretty much like drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage). Liquids also dont fill you up for very long which means you'll get hungry very soon (so that juice you just drank was just a lot of unnecessary calories)
Dried fruits
Dried fruits on the other hand, you have to be careful with. Some are very high in sugar (check the back label) and while they contain fiber, the nutrients usually aren't there anymore so we'd say proceed with caution.
Smoothies
Smoothies, we'll give a green light because it is just blended fruit so you're getting the nutrients (most of it at least) as well as some fiber. Plus, it'll leave you feeling full and satiated. Just don't add any extra sugar!