Eating the whole fruit gives you access to most of the potential benefits of this food group. Packed with fiber, antioxidants, and other essential nutrients, it can help prevent heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer.
Smoothies can be healthy if they are not loaded with added sugar. However, it must be taken into account that they provide less fiber than whole fruit, since part of it is lost during mixing.
Also, since liquids are less satisfying to the appetite and are easier to ingest than solids, smoothies are usually associated with a higher number of calories than one and even two pieces of whole fruit.
Eating certain whole fruits can significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Regular intake of blueberries, grapes, prunes, apples, and Persians has shown research to reduce the chances of contracting this disease by 23 percent.
Instead, drinking canned fruit juice every day has just the opposite effect. Like sugary sodas, industrial juices increase the risk of diabetes by 21 percent. One of the main reasons is the spikes in blood sugar that the concentrated sugars in these kinds of drinks can cause.
Although it is not yet clear which nutrients in whole fruit are those that offer protection against diabetes, one thing is clear: the best way to eat fruit is in its natural state. That includes the rind or the skin if it is edible.
Smoothies are a good alternative, but under certain conditions. You have to combine them with whole fruit, they should not include added sugars (preparing them yourself is the safest thing to do) and you have to watch the total number of calories so as not to eat more than we can burn.