Fruits are obviously familiar foods and are loaded with water, natural sugars, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and dietary fibers.
Fruits are a necessary part of the diet and we have learnt to consume fruits by either eating them whole or drinking them as juices. And fruit juices are easily available as well. It can be made at home, bought from stores or bought from fresh juice vendors. So, what’s better? Whole fruits or fruit juices?
The answer is that whole fruits are always better. This blog explains why they are better and talks about why fruit juices are unhealthier.
THE COMPOSITION OF FRUIT JUICES
When fruit juices are blended, many nutrients like dietary fibers, some minerals and vitamins are completely lost. Packaged fruit juices undergo extra processing to kill any harmful bacteria and this just ends up eliminating even more nutrients.
What usually remains is the taste that the fruit brings, the water and the sugars. At the end of the day, fruit juices are just liquid calories with minimal nutrients and no fibers.
HOW THE BODY HANDLES FRUIT JUICES
Since fruit juices are just water and sugar, the body absorbs this very quickly, leading to a spike in blood sugar levels. This is counterproductive, especially for those who are on a fat loss diet.
- Since blood sugar levels have shot up rapidly, the body releases more insulin to convert those sugars into fat and glycogen.
- And since this process takes the sugars and accumulates that into fat, blood sugar levels will drop again which just makes you hungry once more.
Therefore, by consuming fruit juices, which are just liquid calories, there is a poor regulation of blood sugar levels with increased calorie consumption and fat accumulation.
THE EFFECTS OF EATING WHOLE FRUITS
Most of the nutrients in fruits are mainly found on the skins (in many cases) and in the pulp. The fleshy portions also contain many nutrients but most are still on the skins and in the pulp. Therefore, by eating fruits whole, we get our money’s worth of all the nutrients.
Also, our body processes whole fruits differently from fruit juices:
- When we eat whole fruits, the body takes some time to break these nutrients down, mainly because of the dietary fibers that are bound to the natural sugars in the fruits.
- This means that the body will take longer to absorb the sugar and store that in the blood. And the most important advantage of this slower digestion process is that those sugars can now be used as a source of energy, instead of the body accumulating that as extra fat.
The conclusion is that eating whole fruit is always better for fat loss. So, eat your fruits, eat balanced meals otherwise and keep your liquid calories in check while you progress with your fitness goals.
