Fruit is the perfect food and medicine because, among other properties that will be discussing in this section, contains all the essential minerals for our body. The fruit was the only food of primitive man until he began collecting wild plants for vegetables, later learn to develop weapons and begin to hunt animals.

Today, the fruit has been relegated to the role of dessert and eat when the stomach is already full, the fruit waits his turn to be digested and starts a process of putrefaction that makes us feel bad in many cases, in addition to miss many of its properties in that improper digestion. Ideally we have to eat fruit between meals, as a mid-morning breakfast or as a snack, or at least 30 minutes before or 2 hours after lunch. Then it will refresh us,  it provides their water and healthy sugars, avoiding other unnecessary foods and less healthy and we get to the next meal without having an excessive hunger.

Oranges. Photography by Fr.Antunes. Creative Commons Licence.

The proper ripening of the fruit on the tree is essential because if it doesn't ripe correctly some of their health benefits are lost and not only this but, in the case of citrus, if they not fully ripen on the tree will contain harmful acids. 

It is also very important to take as fresh fruits as possible, ie, freshly picked, and they have to be of the season and the terrain in which we find ourselves, because that are those that most benefit our body at all times of the year and this will benefit our planet too if they manage to avoid unnecessary transport.

Also keep in mind that the skin is a big part of their property because it is the area exposed to the sun, however, currently a lot of insecticides and fungicides very toxic are used so that if we can not acquire organic fruit or cultivate ourselves, keep in mind that you have to wash fruits thoroughly before eating and in the case of some fruits without skin, such as strawberries or strawberries if we can not get organic, unfortunately consumption should be avoided since the toxic products used over the crop come into the fruit and can not be removed by washing the fruit.



Fruits contain vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber, in the next section we will see the detail of each and its salient properties. They are refreshing and provide us with its natural sugar, which is usually a mixture of glucose and levulose, a sugar directly assimilated by humans that has nothing to do with refined sugar after being processed that becomes a dead food, irritating to the body, without any of the vitamins and minerals containing beet juice or cane sugar that it is extracted. It has nothing to do the natural sugar with saccharin that is extracted from coal tar chemical and that is a real poison for the kidneys. Let's talk about the properties of the fruit, but did not want to lose the opportunity to highlight what is harmful for our body consumption of refined sugar and saccharin.

Watermelon. Photography by mynameisharsha. Creative Commons Licence.

  • All fruit sugar which is constituted solely by levulose are allowed for diabetics
  • The fruit has an alkalizing action in our body, which increases the secretion of digestive juices and regulates the course of bile. 
  • It is also a natural diuretic, clarifies and increases urine volume, helping the body to eliminate toxins. 
  • Almost all fruits, especially if you eat their skin, have a laxative effect due to the cellulose they provide (some exceptions are astringent plants such as quince and medlar, which would be used to stop a case of diarrhea). 

Article written by Shauri.