Fruits play a significant role in our health and disease prevention. Fruits contain plenty of nutrition constituents, such as sugar, vitamins and minerals, as well as some active substances which are beneficial to human health. A large number of scientific researches show that eating fruits regularly can significantly lower the risk of some chronic diseases such as cancer. What's more, fruits also contain a lot of antioxidants, which can delay the aging process of the cells.

However, nutritionists point out that, although people eat fruits every day, there are some errors they should pay attention to. And the most obvious one is that few people know the right time to eat fruits. Nowadays, eating fruit after a meal has become a daily habit for many Chinese people. However, they rarely realize that such a habit may bring harms to their health.

Eating fruits before a meal will be helpful for the absorption of nutrition.
There is a common misunderstanding about the right time to eat fruits among Chinese people. Many people tend to regard the fruits as a dessert after a meal. However, they do not know that the organic acids in fruits will interact with other minerals in the food, which will affect the digestion and absorption process of the body. What's more, the pectin in fruits has the function of absorbing moisture and increasing the moisture levels in stomach, so eating fruits after a meal will increase the burden on the stomach.

The right time to eat fruits is one hour before a meal or two hours after a meal. There are a lot of advantages to eat fruits before a meal. Firstly, as many ingredients in the fruits are water soluble, eating fruits before a meal can improve the absorption of the nutrients in the body. Secondly, fruit is low-calorie food. The average calorie of fruits is only 1/4 of that in the flour with the same weight. Eating low-calorie food first can help you control the total calorie intake in the whole meal. Thirdly, as many fruits are easily oxidized and decayed, so eating fruit first can shorten its residence time in the stomach and reduce its degree of oxidation, so as to eliminate the possible adverse effects on the body.

Research shows that fruits contain a kind of antioxidant called as "anthocyanin", which has the function of killing leukemia cells without hurting the healthy cells in the body. However, we should remember not to eat fruits before you go to sleep at night. It will bring some pressure on your stomach and affect your sleeping quality. Never ignore these issues and think that eating fruits is a small business. Only by eliminating these errors can we cultivate a good habit of eating fruits correctly.