Fruit is good for you, we all know that. Most fruits are a great source of fibre, potassium, vitamin C, folate and the list go on. The nutrients in fruit help guard against disease, lower rates of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. But if you wanted to maximize the health benefits of fruits, you just got to know how and when to eat them.
A lot of studies suggested that fruit should actually be eaten alone or with other fruit on an empty stomach. Because when fruit is eaten, your digestive process works speed up, different enzymes are releasing to digest the fruit, which detoxify your system and supply you with a great deal of energy for weight loss. Also, since simple sugars contained in fruit takes relatively more time to be completely absorbed by your body, so when fruits are eaten alone, your stomach can process all the nutrients, fibre and the simple sugars contained in the fruit easier.
So what will happen if you ate fruit right after a meal? Because of the complicated mechanism of fruits digestion, what you consumed will be held in the stomach for too long and end up rot and ferment in the gut. You thought your heartburn, burping and other digestive discomforts are caused by the large meal? Truth is, it could be the fermentation that upset your stomach. If the situation is left uncontrolled, it could even lead to other health problems that stem from the digestive system.
It’s actually pretty easy to follow the rule of eating fruit on an empty stomach. Since you usually eat 3 main meals a day, the best time to have fruits is in between meals, that is 1 hour before a meal or 2 hours after your meal. Avoid eating fruit close to bedtime because the sugar in fruit can spike up your energy, and keep you awake when you need your sleep.