Busting common myths about fruits

When the weather gets hot outside, all we can think about is a cool drink to lower the temperatures. We feel like eating light meals and end up making our meals fruit-heavy. But this can be a dangerous route to take.

There are several tall tales we hear about fruits, both good and bad. Here is a low-down about everything you need to know, as told by Scroll.

Mix it up

Despite the number of nutrients that fruits have, it is impossible to have a balanced diet by solely eating fruits. We miss out on several nutrients like Vitamin B12. This is why following a fruitarian diet can be dangerous. This kind of diet is like veganism but involves consuming only fruits and cereals.

We need to add cooked food to our diet because we are not like other animals. We need to cook our food to get optimal benefits from it. Our bodies spend lesser time to digest food, so we need to cook it. It can lead to indigestion or else.

What’s the right time to eat fruits?

One very common myth we hear about fruits is that it must be eaten before meals. That way, it is easier to digest and is less fattening. This is completely untrue. Our stomach digests food as it gets, irrespective of the order that we eat it in. It all is broken down so that the nutrients are absorbed by the intestines.

Melons to the rescue

There was a popular saying in ancient Spain that said “Melon in the morning is gold, in the afternoon it’s silver and at night it kills you.” But this is totally untrue. Have a few slices of melons any time during the day to immediately bring down your body temperature. Since it is more than 95 per cent water, it is a good way to hydrate your body in summers as well.

Juice vs fruit

There is a big difference in consuming it in the fruit form and making it in a juice form. When we eat the fruit whole, it has more fibre content than the juice and thus is more beneficial. Extracting juice from it results in decreasing its nutritional value.

When you consume juice instead of the fruit, you also consume more sugar. If you are having the fruit, you will stop at just one orange. But one glass of juice will have 4-5 oranges and additional sugar that went into making the juice.

Detoxifying juices?

As much as brands like to claim it, there is no such thing as a ‘detoxifying juice’.  Its just a marketing gimmick. Your body needs more than just a juice or a smoothie to detoxify itself! It is impossible to remove all the toxins from your body just by drinking juices.