Fruit are the perfect food, they say, the perfect nutrition. It requires very little energy to be digested and it fills the body with energy and ‘wakes up your brain’. It consists mainly of fructose, water and fiber – a perfect combination to digestive health. But do we know how to eat fruit the right way and get the most nutritional benefits out of it?

Fruit passes quickly through the stomach and is processed mainly in the intestines. If you eat fruit at the end of the meal, it will stay in the stomach for much longer than it needs and will start fermenting. This causes heartburn and a feeling of bloating and gas.

We should eat fruit on an empty stomach, as the first food of the day. The fruit passes through the stomach, releases fructose which turns to glucose very easily, giving you a boost of energy. The rest goes down and keeps the intestines busy. It’s the perfect nutrition to start the day.

Don’t be tempted to use substitutes in the form of canned or bottled juices. Many of them contain very little fruit juice anyway, and many beneficial vitamins are destroyed in the process of heating and cooling the juice.

If you’d rather drink than eat first thing in the morning, do your body a favor and invest in a juicer. Make your own, fresh, with no additives glass of juice that is full of vitamins and has the nutritional value of 3-4 servings of fruit.

Another trend speaks to the American way of life. Drinking cold soda while eating.
Wrong, says a recent e mail. We should take our cues from the oriental civilization. They drink hot tea during meals.

The fats we eat at the hamburger joint, the greasy French fries, get a cold wash from the soda. The fats solidify and make it difficult and longer to digest. If we drink hot beverages it would help to break down the fat and move it out of our system much faster.

Two adjustments that are not too difficult to make and may result in a better nutritional intake, and a healthier body.