Do you have questions about nutrition? Send them to us at comer@lavanguardia.es, our nutritionist Aitor Sánchez will solve all your doubts.
Is peeled tomato digested better? (Cristina Jiménez, reader)
Hello Cristina. We could say that almost all fruits and vegetables are better digested without skin, but we should not fall into a simplification.
The skin is one of the parts of the vegetables that has the most fiber and can sometimes contain a higher proportion of slightly different fibers than those found in the “meat” or the pulp. But to assume that they are an indigestible product would be a mistake.
We unfairly regard vegetables as indigestible when they actually make a very small part of the general population unwell. Many patients do have problems digesting the skin of aubergines, tomatoes, pumpkins… But it would not be responsible to conclude that they are for everyone.
To talk about good digestion, it makes much more sense to talk about cooking methods, and in this case we could say that fried or poached vegetables are heavier, while if they are microwaved, cooked, roasted, boiled or steamed they are digested. better.
Finally, remember that in the event that the skin of the vegetables feels good to us, it will be interesting to be able to incorporate it into our diet.
Hello Aitor. I have thought about having juices and fruit for dinner for a while to counteract the excesses of summer. It’s a good idea? (Yolanda Serrano, reader)
Hello Yolanda. This measure to counteract not very healthy good habits is usually common, but it is not the best approach.
As we have commented once in the office, dinners are a main intake in our gastronomy, which is one of the few opportunities we have to include vegetables and a source of protein in our diet. If we limit ourselves to incorporating only fruit, when else are we going to do it if not at lunch and dinner?
There is nothing wrong with having only fruit for dinner sporadically, but it would not be a guideline to prioritize to recommend for dinner.
In addition, by eating only this food, the feeling of a not very satiating dinner can remain and then we end up compensating with even worse habits.
I would invite you to consider a summer without many restrictions, but in which you also do not assume that you are going to have excesses that later you have to compensate. It is much more interesting to insert good habits instead of assuming that everything is lost these weeks.
