Eating fruits and skipping main meals seems like a healthy way to detox your system and keep your digestive system healthy at night. Rich in fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, fruits are indeed a healthy choice to fill your body with essential micronutrients and boost your immunity. However, is it a good idea to have a plate full of fruits only and skip the cooked meal of vegetables, bread or rice? Here’s what a nutritionist had to say. (Also read: Drink fennel and sugar candy water on an empty stomach for these amazing benefits)
People dissatisfied with their weight loss journey often go on extreme diets and special fruit diets. But can eating just fruits and skipping other important food groups like proteins, fats, carbohydrates affect your health?
Is it a good idea to eat fruit at dinner?
“It’s sad when you hear someone say something about food and decide to blindly follow it without knowing what effect it can have on your body. Here’s what I believe are the most common myths today. Breaking down whether you can eat fruits in dinner or not. Dinner should be light but balanced. Traditionally, Indian dinner includes pulao, khichdi. And eat millet dosa to complete the protein content. But when some day you decide to start eating only fruits for dinner – you are basically yours. Starve the body,” nutritionist Juhi Kapoor said in her recent Instagram post.
“I wouldn’t suggest the average person consume only fruit at dinner, including those with no underlying medical conditions. We think of wheat as having carbs and sugar, but fruit also has carbs and natural sugar. I generally suggest consuming fruits at breakfast or as an evening snack, but one can definitely consume some portions at dinner. It is our main meal when the whole family sits together and it is okay to consume small amounts of fruits along with other options. It is important to pay attention to both micro and macro nutrients. One can meet one’s daily nutritional requirements only with a balanced diet, be it cereals, pulses, milk and milk products or fruits and vegetables, says K Bhardwaj, chief dietician, Zydus Hospital, Ahmedabad.
Bhardwaj says that there is no major harm in eating fruits at dinner, but in such a situation it is important to take balanced nutrition in other meals. “If one skips breakfast and lunch and has only fruits for dinner, it is definitely not advisable,” says the nutritionist.
If one is having early dinner around 7 pm and feeling hungry before sleeping then having apple or nuts is a good option
healthy dinner options
Kapoor says depriving your body of much-needed nutrients can eventually lead to deficiencies, hair fall, dull skin and bone loss and recommends eating a balanced dinner and lists some options:
- Khichdi and vegetables
- Dal and rice
- Millet Khichdi
- Millet Dosa and Sambar
- milk porridge
- Egg Pulao
- Egg Curry and Rice
- Omelette with Chapati and Vegetables
- bread, vegetables, pulses
- bread vegetable and curry
Kapoor recommends eating Indian foods as they are ‘intelligent and healthy’.
