When is the best time to eat bananas, oranges and berries?.. Experts Reveal Health Benefits of Ripe Fruits!

Waiting for blackberries to ripen can boost the fruit’s immune-boosting properties, and variegated bananas are the sweetest variety.

And not leaving oranges in the fruit bowl for too long could, in theory, guarantee eating citrus fruits when vitamin C levels are at their highest.

In this regard, experts tell MailOnline which fruits should be eaten ripe – and why.

Wait until the blackberries are ripe and juicy.

It is believed that blackberries improve with sufficient ripeness, but not only because they become a flavor enhancer.

Summer berries also contain more compounds with antioxidant properties.

This effect is due to an antioxidant called anthocyanin, which gives it its dark purple color, explains Tai Ipetwe, a registered dietitian based in London.

These antioxidants are found in other dark, red, or purple berries, and the darker the fruit, the more antioxidants it contains.

“When the berries ripen, antioxidant levels quadruple, but the mechanism is not as clear,” Ibetoye said.

Increased levels of antioxidants can help your body deal with disease, according to Ibetoye.

She said: “Antioxidants help fight free radicals, harmful substances in the body that can cause disease, such as heart disease.”

However, there is one caveat. According to registered dietitian Dr. Duane Mellor of Aston University in Birmingham, our bodies don’t absorb this type of antioxidant very well.

“If you look at the purple pigments in berries, they’re very large molecules and they’re not easily absorbed,” he said. “While they can contain a lot of antioxidants in fruit, they’re not always available to us.”

For this reason, the amount we can absorb from fruit is very small.

But blackberries also bring a host of other health benefits. It is also rich in vitamin C and potassium.

Dr. Mellor emphasizes that eating foods of different colors is the key to getting a mixture of these compounds.

ripe orange

Just like the antioxidants found in blackberries, oranges also get a boost during the ripening stage when they produce more vitamin C.

“It’s not clear why this happens, but vitamin C levels can increase due to weather or fruit ripening,” Ibetoye said.

According to a 2017 Nigerian University study published in the International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology, it was found that the vitamin C content of oranges was highest when they were “semi-ripe” and then decreased slightly when they became “half ripe”. the fruit is “ripe”.

The same pattern was observed in lime, but the concentration of vitamin C was lower.

However, according to Dr. Mellor, vitamin levels continue to increase in peppers and pineapples.

Vitamin C plays a vital role in protecting cells, maintaining skin and bone health, and promoting wound healing, according to the NHS.

However, changes in vitamin C are very minor and unlikely to have a noticeable effect on your health.

But how fruit is stored and cooked is important when it comes to vitamin levels.

Dr. Mellor said, “Because fruit slowly dies and decomposes in cupboards or the refrigerator, vitamin C will be broken down.” “Vitamin C is higher than in old potatoes. The same goes for apples. That’s why you should store things in the refrigerator. , so they don’t decompose in the same way.”

But you don’t have to worry too much about the vitamin C content of fruits and how ripe they are, because one orange, ripe or overripe, is more than enough.

“You don’t have to worry too much about how ripe the fruit is, as all fruits contain healthy vitamins, but how you prepare your food is important,” Ebitwe said. Vitamin C is soluble in water, so its content in foods will be significantly reduced by boiling.

Instead, Ibetoye says we should eat fruits and vegetables raw or steamed because this cooking process preserves vitamin C.

The best of bananas

Not only does the flavor and texture change as the banana ages, they also become more sugary.

Like all fruits, bananas break down starch into simple sugars like sucrose, glucose and fructose when they are ripe.

They are more easily absorbed into the bloodstream, which can lead to spikes in blood sugar, according to Debra Williams, a registered dietitian in private practice.

This makes bananas the perfect snack for anyone looking for a quick source of energy for exercise.

Although increasing the sugar content does not change the calorie content of the fruit, this can be a problem for people with diabetes.

“This is something to consider if you have diabetes, because ideally you should eat carbohydrates that are digested slowly. Diabetics are best eating unripe bananas,” Williams said.

She said that, unlike the sugar content, the mineral content of bananas rarely changes during the ripening process.

For example, green bananas contain the same amount of potassium as yellow bananas.

But unripe bananas are higher in fiber and resistant starch, carbohydrates that feed the good bacteria in your gut.

“With green, unripe bananas, you get a variety of semi-digestible carbohydrates that can be beneficial for gut health,” Mellor said.

He suggests eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, but recommends avoiding too many sweet and very ripe tropical fruits due to their high sugar content.

Source: Daily Mail