How much should we eat?
It is true that fruit is very healthy and has unique nutritional properties, with high amounts of vitamins and fibre. Neverthless, it also contains sugar, most of it in the form of fructose. Fructose has a higher relative sweetness than sucrose, which means that the sweet taste sensation is higher. That doesn't necessarily correspond to something negative; it just means we tend to eat more because it tastes so well.
Fruits are not all the same, they have different weights and forms so it is very difficult for most people to know how many strawberries, figs or oranges they should eat every day. If we are advised to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day we must know exactly what we are talking about.
So here it is, a list with equivalent portions of the most common fruits containing approximately 12g of carbohydrates.
- 1 medium/small banana 1 slice of melon or cantaloupe
- 1 kiwi 4 loquats
- 1 fig 3 apricots
- 1 apple 2 tangerines
- 1 orange 2 plums
- 1 medium pear 2 clementines
- 1 peach 24 cherries
- 1 persimmon 16 small strawberries or 8 big
- 1 small custard apple 16 grapes
- 1 slice of pineapple 1/3 mango
Be healthy,
