Is mixing fruits and vegetables in your smoothies bad for your health
Packed with nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants, smoothies are easy to consume on the go and keep you satiated for long
Health and wellness has gained prominence over the past few years and eating nutritious food is the easiest way to join this bandwagon. People no longer subscribe to the idea of eating boiled veggies and are looking for easy to make and tasty recipes that can be whipped up in a jiffy.
Enter: smoothies and juices. They are packed with nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants and with the right combination, can be delicious as well. They are also easy to consume on the go and keep you satiated for a long time. But a recent trend on the ‘gram suggests that mixing fruits and veggies in a smoothie can be bad for your health. While is it best to take things on social media with a pinch of salt, we needed to know how can something that is usually touted to be extremely healthy, be bad for you?
Dietician Garima Goyal says, “Mixing vegetables and fruits is a controversial topic. They have different digestibility index and mixing them is linked with potential gastrointestinal disturbances.”
Another school of thought suggests that our stomach is equipped to handle foods that vary in textures and digestibility indexes, with no repercussions.
The bases of most of our meals, fruits and vegetables have nutrients like vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. They act as antioxidants and help rid your body of harmful substances, called free radicals, which cause diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc. Both these groups are rich in fibre, which helps keep you satiated, control blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol levels. They also contain carotenoids that keep the eyes healthy.
Goyal goes on to explain that upon ingesting foods, different enzymes are released by the gut and it doesn’t differentiate between the foods. The time that fruits and veggies take to digest also differs. Fruits take about two hours to digest while vegetables take four to five hours. “All enzymes have extremely specific actions and there is very less evidence on the negative implications of combining foods,” adds Goyal.
Further explaining this theory, Eileen Candy, HOD nutrition and dietetics, Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, says, “There is no any scientific evidence that supports the theory that eating fruits and vegetables together causes harm to the body by building up toxic substances or getting converted into fat.”
People with a sensitive gut can face an occasional bloat or gassiness when they consume fruits and veggies together, so they should consume them separately. But experts agree that there is no harm in mixing some apple or berries in your smoothie, as it allows you to access all the nutrients.
