00:00The TV6 Health Watch is brought to you by Alive, giving you more minerals and vitamins than leading brands.
00:06Distributed by H&J Enterprises Limited.
00:17Mangoes, bananas, pineapples, purports, oranges.
00:21There's no shortage of fruit to choose from.
00:23But while many of us enjoy fruit, are we making it a regular part of our daily diet?
00:28Fruit is important for us to eat every day because fruit is really the original food of humans.
00:36It provides our bodies with energy to move, with fiber to keep our bowels moving,
00:45with hydration from water content, along with vitamins and minerals,
00:51as well as antioxidants that helps our body to cleanse and heal itself.
00:59For example, fiber.
01:02One orange has more fiber than a slice of whole wheat bread,
01:07along with the hydration that we get from it, a little sugar for energy,
01:13as well as lots of antioxidants, vitamin C, and other vitamins and minerals.
01:18From vitamins and minerals to fiber and other nutritions,
01:23fruit can offer several benefits as part of a balanced diet.
01:26But that raises another question.
01:29How much is enough?
01:30The amount of fruit that each of us needs in a day is dependent on your activity levels.
01:39So if you're sedentary, then less fruit or moderate fruit intake,
01:44like one serving of fruit a day, one to two servings of fruit per day, would be adequate.
01:50For children, for example, who are very active all day,
01:55up to three to four servings of fruit, a serving being about half a cup.
01:59So a child can have about two servings of fruit, two cups of fruit per day.
02:05And then there's the sugar.
02:07Elias says some people avoid a fruit because they believe its natural sugar makes it unhealthy.
02:12Some people do avoid fruit because of the sugar intake,
02:16because the sugar in fruits, when we digest fruits,
02:21it is broken down into glucose and fructose,
02:24two types of sugar that your body can use.
02:28So even the natural sugar from fruits can elevate your blood sugar when taken in excess.
02:37So do you have to avoid fruit completely?
02:41Well, it would depend on your current level of blood sugar control and your metabolism.
02:46If you are actively working on lowering your blood sugar because you've been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes,
02:56then restricting your fruit intake to the lower sugar fruits.
03:03For example, in our local fruits, some of the lower sugar fruits would be five fingers,
03:10our local flowers, our local plums, our local cherries,
03:17Pomsitae.
03:19Those would be some of the lower sugar fruits that you can still enjoy,
03:23along with the imported berries, which tend to be the lowest in sugar.
03:29How we consume our fruits can also make a difference.
03:32A glass of juice may seem like an easy way to get your daily fruit intake,
03:36but is it really the same as eating the whole fruit?
03:39To get the full benefit of fruits, it is definitely better to eat whole fruit than to drink fruit juice.
03:50Fruit juice does not provide the same nutritional benefits as eating whole fruit.
03:56Whole fruit comes along with fiber, vitamins, and minerals that would slow down
04:02how rapidly the sugar is released into your bloodstream.
04:07Elias says the key to getting most of the benefits from fruits is variety.
04:12So the key is variety.
04:14Variety is the spice of life.
04:16Of course, in our local fruits, we have fruits that are known for specific benefits,
04:25like popo helps with digestion,
04:29and the high fiber will help give you great bowel movements.
04:34Pineapple, for example, also high in vitamin C, fiber,
04:41and is known to have enzymes that help with healing,
04:45if you are healing from any sort of injury or recovering from surgery.
04:51And for someone who doesn't regularly eat fruit,
04:55making a change doesn't have to be complicated.
04:57An easy way to add fruit into your daily diet would be smoothies.
05:05So blending your fruit into a meal that would also combine it with maybe some nuts and seeds,
05:15maybe some yogurt, to make a balanced meal in a glass.
05:19Adding fruit to your breakfast, having it as a snack, or blending it into a smoothie,
05:24a simple way is to make fruit part of your daily diet.
05:27Rather than searching for one perfect fruit,
05:30mixing it together and make whole fruit a regular part of your everyday meals.
05:35I am Charlotte Kisto with tonight's Health Watch.
Comments