Is it Healthy to Eat Fruit before Breakfast?

Fruit is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. It is packed full of vitamins and minerals, and it contains good sugars for energy, fibre to keep you feeling full and water for hydration. Although fruit is great for your body whatever time of the day you consume it, there are many people who believe fruit gives the most benefits when eaten on an empty stomach first thing in the morning.

Whole fruit or juice?

Certainly one of the key benefits of fruit is the large water content it contains. Around 95% of fruit is water, so your body benefits from its excellent hydrating properties. A great way to ingest the high water content is by drinking the fruit as a juice.

Although the whole fruit will keep you feeling full for longer with its high fibre content, the juice of a fruit can be digested more quickly, helping your body to absorb the goodness faster. In fact, fruits are digested initially in the intestines, where the sugars are absorbed. This lets the nutrients flow into the bloodstream where they are carried to the rest of the body.

Why fruit is best eaten on an empty stomach

Fermented sugars from fruit left in the stomach can cause health issues such as heartburn, trapped wind and gas, stomach ache and other digestive discomforts. These problems are simply due to you not having eaten the fruit properly at the right time. For these reasons it is always best to eat fruit before breakfast and at other times of the day when our stomachs are empty, such as between meals. With this in mind, it is best to allow at least 2 hours to pass after eating a meal before snacking on fruit, or eat the fruit 1 hour before a meal.

The health benefits of fruit

Eating fruit brings many beneftis. It contains so many the vitamins and minerals, which help to strength your heart, blood cells and veins, protecting you from heart disease. Fruit also helps to thin the blood, preventing heart attacks and blocked arteries.

Some particularly useful and important components of fruit include fibre, healthy carbohydrates, potassium, vitamin C and folate. These are nutrients that are best absorbed on an empty stomach and you will not feel the benefits if you eat fruit at the same time as other foods or right afterwards.

Improve your digestion

Fruit is one of the best foods you can eat to improve your digestion, especially when it is eaten on an empty stomach before breakfast. If you eat a breakfast with toast, coffee, rich cereals, meats and dairy products, all these foods stay in the stomach for many hours, slowing you down and making you feel sluggish.

Fruit is an excellent alternative breakfast choice as it quickly absorbs into the body giving you energy without making you feel heavy and slow. Fruits help to actually clean your body from the inside out, which is a perfect way to start the day feeling fresh and energised. Fruits act as natural cleansers for the whole body. By eating only fruit for breakfast you detoxify your body’s cells quickly, which is excellent for both your physical and mental health.

The best temperature for fruits and juices

Although eating fruit and drinking fruit juice is always a good idea and beneficial for the whole body, eating and drinking them ice cold can cause the absorption process to slow down as the components of the fruit have a higher level of viscosity. The best way to eat fruit and drink juice is at room temperature or even slightly warm as the body is far better able to digest the fruit at this temperature.

Canned fruit

While all kinds of fruit are good for you, it is always best to eat fresh fruit and juices rather than canned fruit. This is because stored fruit might have other ingredients added to it to bring the nutritional benefits down, such as sodium and refined sugar.