Do you have trouble eating fruits and vegetables? This is not an isolated case, as many other people have the same problem, and find it very difficult to consume the quantities of these foods recommended by healthy nutrition guides, to the point that they end up giving up trying.
Fruits and vegetables help us stay healthy because they contain many nutrients (vitamins, minerals), fibre and bioactive compounds (substances that are technically not essential but have health benefits) without having many calories, explains Dr Emma Beckett, an Australian food and nutrition scientist.
Therefore, “adults should try to eat at least five servings of vegetables (or approximately 375 grams) and two servings of fruit (about 300 grams) every day,” stresses this specialist.
In general, people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables because they have other culinary preferences or eating habits; because of the perishability of plant foods (the time it takes for them to start to degrade); because of the higher cost and lower availability of some of these foods; or because of the lack of time and/or culinary skills to prepare them, according to specialists.
Advantages and disadvantages
Drinking fruits and vegetables in juices or smoothies can help overcome some of these barriers, although the food context always needs to be considered, explains Beckett, an associate professor of nutrition, dietetics and food innovation at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia.
She explains that juicing or blending can help to disguise flavors we don’t like, such as the bitterness of vegetables, and hide imperfections such as bruises or soft spots in vegetables in general, and that its preparation does not require much culinary skill or time.
According to Beckett, vegetable juices and smoothies offer good nutrient density relative to the cost of food, and can also retain the nutrients and bioactive compounds in fruits and vegetables and even increase them, because in some cases they can include parts that we don’t normally eat, such as the skin.
As for potential drawbacks, she notes that juice contains lower levels of fiber than whole fruit, a plant component that is important for gut and heart health and promotes feelings of fullness.
In addition, juices and smoothies release natural sugars from other structures in the fruit, the so-called ‘free sugars’, a type of substance whose consumption the World Health Organization recommends limiting in order to maintain good health, she points out.
On the other hand, some dietary guidelines, such as the Australian one, warn against consuming fruit juices too frequently or in excessive quantities, because they can be high in calories, low in dietary fibre and can even damage teeth, she adds.
Beckett recommends moving away from a reductionist approach to nutrition, in which foods and drinks are judged based on assumptions about a few isolated characteristics, such as their sugar content or specific vitamins.
If we eat a varied, balanced and complete diet, we do not necessarily have to worry about some foods having less fiber than others, according to this nutritionist.
“The place juice occupies in your diet depends on what you are eating and what drinks you are replacing by drinking it. Whether you prefer to eat fruits and vegetables or drink them depends on what works best for you and how it fits into the context of your diet and your life,” she concludes.
Healthier juices and smoothies
“The ideal is to eat the whole fruit because if we make juice or a smoothie out of it, its natural sugars, fructose, are released more quickly into the bloodstream when consumed, generating an insulin spike that promotes, among other things, weight gain,” says Fran Sabal, executive director of the School of Emotional Nutrition (ENE) and nutritionist expert in emotional management.
“Now, if you like to drink smoothies, the solution would be to add proteins and healthy fats instead of making them with only fruit,” recommends the director of ENE.
For example, “to make a healthier fruit smoothie that helps regulate insulin,” Sabal suggests “adding, as protein, milk or vegetable dairy products made from nuts, but not from oats or rice, which are carbohydrates and increase sugar levels even more.”
Sabal adds that a fruit smoothie can also be enriched by adding natural yogurt, as well as a dried fruit, flax and chia seeds or even coconut oil, as healthy fats.
“Another alternative is to add dietary fiber, such as that provided by vegetables. This way, you can better balance or compensate for the sugar contained in fruits,” she points out.
She points out that unlike fruits, vegetables can be consumed in the form of a smoothie without any major problems, since their sugar content is very low, so they can be taken in both versions: whole or blended.
Fran Sabal recommends “drinking the vegetable smoothie slowly, even chewing and imagining that it is a solid, if possible, since this way saliva is produced, which is the beginning of the digestive process.
For this specialist, “taking smoothies is not a recommendation, but rather an option for those who are more accustomed to taking them, or who take them for practical reasons.”
Furthermore, “a juice or smoothie is not healthier because it contains more fruit, as the proportions of each fruit it includes are also important. If you are going to add several fruits, you will have to equalize the quantity of each one of them,” she specifies.
“The ideal thing is to prepare the shake at home and with natural and fresh ingredients because the packaged product has sweeteners and sugars, which increase its caloric content,” she concludes.
#increase #consumption #fruits #vegetables
