If you’re one to eat a grape and then tell the next ten people you meet that you’ve had a healthy day, this one’s for you! You’re probably familiar with the tremendous benefits of eating fruits regularly – prevention of disease, better digestion, better hair and skin, and an overall improvement in your health. Why then, do most of us still turn away the fruit bowl?
They not only nourish you inside and out, they also do the same for our planet! There are an innumerable products and chemicals manufactured every minute to do just what fruits can do for us minus the toxic waste and large carbon footprint. Fruits are wholesome, beautifully packaged, and 100% biodegradable. How can you argue with that?
There’s so much we don’t know about fruit, and so much we ought to remind ourselves of in order to eat our fruits correctly and get the most out of nature’s sweet-treats.
First and foremost, eat what is in season, (this also applies to your veggies). Our environment provides us with everything we need to sustain ourselves and live a healthy life. As individuals, be aware of what your environment is saying to you, and listen to it. For instance, watermelons are summer fruits and also the environment’s way of telling us to drink more water. Other summer fruits include: apricot, blackberry, cherry, fig, grape, guava, lime, mango, papaya and strawberry.
When it comes to juices, make sure that you’re drinking a juice that has been cold pressed. An electrical juicer breaks the fruits too much, wherein most of its nutrients are lost, and you’re left with another sugary drink, and a false sense of being healthy.
Eat your fruit first thing in the morning, (only 2 types of fruit at a time) and 20 minutes before breakfast. This is because when you wake up, your stomach is in an alkaline state, which helps to absorb nutrients from the fruit more efficiently. Furthermore, eating a fruit in the morning gives you an instant boost of energy and is also good for digestion because of its fibrous nature.
If you don’t see an improvement in your skin immediately, the remedial qualities of the fruits are probably attending to vital organs in your body that require the nutrition more, so just keep at it and you will see results soon enough.
Skin benefits arising from fruit can be classified under the following heads:
For young, glowing skin
Apple, kiwi (also boosts you immune system), banana (for skin elasticity), lemon (bleaches the skin, but that doesn’t define beauty), papaya, peaches (moisturises the skin and regenerates skin tissue), apricots and lychee (both have anti-aging properties) and pomegranate contain vitamins and other nutrients that make your skin appear supple and bright.
Acne
It is commonly known that poor digestion causes pimples. Fruits in general, help with digestion, but here are some fruit that can directly tackle acne formation, whether ingested or applied topically: lemon, plum (high in fiber), pineapples (natural gentle exfoliate), mango (clears skin and unclogs pores), strawberries (contain salicylic acid and protects against UV damage) and oranges (dries out acne). Rather than buying an expensive pimple treatment that contains chemicals, that are not good for you or the environment, switch to these organic and healthy alternatives.
Anti oxidants found in certain fruits reverse free radical damage
When we eat junk food, free radicals are let out in our blood stream. Foods that have high anti oxidant properties allow the free radicals to attach onto them preventing cellular damage and even cell mutations. Papaya, red grapes and apricots have antioxidant properties and are highly recommended for preventing diseases.
