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MMost of us know that eating fruit every day is a great way to stay healthy. The Australian Healthy Eating Guide encourages us to eat two servings a day. Indeed, their energy content is relatively low and their richness in fiber, antioxidants and certain phytochemicals may have beneficial effects on health.
Eating fruits regularly helps prevent major diseases such as heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes and obesity. It can also improve the health of the brain.
Despite the benefits, less than half of Australians eat enough fruit. To try to make it easier to eat fruit, make the most of what we eat and avoid waste, it's important to consider what is the best stage for eating fruit, from harvest to over-ripening.
Fruits vary in nutritional quality
The fruits contain a range of nutrients essential for health, ranging from energy-producing nutrients (mainly carbohydrates with a little fat and protein) to vitamins, minerals and fiber. The amounts of these nutrients however vary from one fruit to another.
The predominant sugars vary. In peaches, plums and apricots, there is more glucose than fructose. The opposite is the case in apples and pears. The glycemic index and the effect on glucose (glucose) of fruits vary considerably.
With regard to vitamin C, relatively high amounts are found in strawberries and citrus fruits compared to bananas, apples, peaches or pears.
Passion fruit contains more phosphorus, an essential mineral used to release energy, than papaya. However, the opposite occurs in the case of calcium, the most common mineral in the human body.
According to a recent study, increased consumption of some whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes and apples, has significantly reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But eat oranges, peaches, plums and apricots had no significant effect. However, that does not mean that they are bad fruits.
Sometimes fruit combinations work better than each individual fruit. Blends of orange juice and star-shaped fruit juice had greater antioxidant capacity than pure juices.
Even some stages of fruit ripening have shown better health effects. Bioactive compounds are chemicals naturally found in fruits. They are not technically nutrients but seem to have beneficial effects on health. These are found at higher levels in green jujube (unripe) (red date) than in ripe fruit.
See also: Harvard study on sugary drinks and premature death could spell death knell
Green or yellow bananas: is maturity important?
Fruit ripening involves a range of complex chemical processes. These cause changes in color, taste, odor and texture. In general, fruits are tasty when ripe, but this is not always the case. Guava, for example, tends to be more attractive when it is partially ripe.
Unripe fruits usually contain more complex carbohydrates, which can behave like dietary fiber and break down into sugars during ripening. Unripe bananas contain higher levels of resistant starch (which we can not digest, but may be a prebiotic that serves as a food for microbes in the gut), which is associated with reduced cancer risk of the intestine. This decreases during the ripening process.
With regard to vitamins and phytochemicals, the researchers found the opposite. Vitamin C level decreases during the early stages of cherry development, but increases in the early blackening of fruit and pigment anthocyanin accumulation. Glucose and fructose levels, the main sugars found in cherry development, increase during ripening.
However, excessive ripening results in a loss of nutrients after harvest. This is also related to fruit tarnishing, softening, and a general loss of sensory acceptability.
Impact of treatment
Fruits can be processed by canning, freezing, drying, chopping, crushing, mashing or juicing. Fruit processing can improve shelf life, but it can also lead to nutritional losses due to physical damage, long-term storage, heating and cold injury.
Usually, fresh cut fruits, such as fresh fruit salad, have the same nutritional qualities as individual fruits. However, canned fruit salad may contain added sugar in the form of syrup and preservatives, which may be a less healthy option.
Eating whole fruits rather than drinking juice seems to be linked to better health. A study that gave participants whole fruits before a meal revealed that they ate less than they drank juice. In addition, people consuming whole fruits appeared to have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, although other studies suggest that juice containing added sugar might be the real problem.
It is also likely that some treatments, such as juice extraction, help to increase the availability and faster absorption of nutrients useful in fruits. The benefits of this have to be weighed against the sugar being more available, too.
So which one to eat?
The nutritional qualities of the fruits vary and it is difficult to predict which fruit would be the best. Generally, the more fruits you have in your diet, the better. For many fruits, eating fresh at the proper ripening stage may be more beneficial, perhaps more for taste than for nutrition.
Overripe fruits can still be good to eat or easily turn into smoothies, juices or used as ingredients, for example in banana bread. Eating an overripe fruit like a banana does not mean you are bringing more sugars into your body because the total amount of carbohydrates in the fruit does not increase after harvest.
Although fruits (juice, dried or canned products) high in sugars and, in some cases, preservatives are not as good as whole fruits, it is better to consume fruits in this form than to consume them. at all.
But fruits alone can not do all the work. It is important to choose foods belonging to all of the basic food groups of the Australian Healthy Eating Guide in order to derive the maximum benefit of the fruits for your health.
This article was originally published on The Conversation by Senaka Ranadheera, Duane Mellor and Nenad Naumovski. Read the original article here.
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