News reports tell us that we need to increase our consumption of fruit and vegetables to 7 portions, possibly even 10, in order to ward of illness. ‘This is incorrect, we should increase our consumption of vegetables, particularly green leafy veg – but we should only have 3 portions of fruit a day’ says Celebrity Nutritionalist Marisa Peer,   ‘Fruit is very high in fructose and when we eat too much, we store the excess as fat. Furthermore, too much sugar is very ageing for the skin’.

Here are Marisa’s tips for getting your health on track by eating the right way…

1) Sugar is ageing

Sugar is your enemy. It ages your skin because it attaches to collagen and makes skin stiff, with pronounced nose to mouth lines and makes your body store fat. This includes fruit sugar in the form of fruit juices dried fruit and more than 3 pieces of fresh fruit. Too much sugar in any form including fructose (fruit sugar) changes the collagen in our skin and accelerates ageing by depleting the bodies natural store of collagen, leaving skin damaged, prematurely old, saggy, baggy and with deep lines and wrinkles.
The body converts all sugar including fruit sugar to glucose -we need some glucose, as it serves as the main source of fuel for our body. However, too much glucose feeds depression and anxiety ages the skin and make you more likely to get diabetes or fatty liver. New studies say we should have no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar daily. In truth we should only have 3 teaspoons – which is not a lot at all – and vastly increased if you eat 7-10 servings of fruit. Researchers also recently found a link between blood sugar and Alzheimer’s disease. It appears that high blood glucose levels lead to a decreased level of brain activity in the hippocampus. Since the hippocampus is important for memory and learning, a decrease in brain activity here can make Alzheimer’s more pronounced.

2) You shouldn’t have more than 2 or 3 pieces of fruit a day

Today’s news groups fruits and vegetables equally. Vegetables are far more important than fruits they have more vitamins and more antioxidants and we should have up to 7 daily servings of vegetables and only 3 of fruit. Fruit is still a sugar and too much of it pushes up insulin levels. Fruit juice is not a good food at all. Starting the day drinking the juice of 5 oranges or having a big fruit salad is unhealthy. Fruit is seasonal and has to be shared out – it was never intended to be eaten in large amounts . (If you think you are getting an abundance of vitamins in fruit juices think again, fresh juice is almost always pasteurised, juice made from concentrate has been heat treated so all the vitamins have been damaged. Juice is not a great food – it’s too high in sugar…)

Marisa Peer ‘s book, ‘You Can Be Younger’ is being published on 3rd April 2014, priced £11.18 from Amazon, and is packed with anti ageing nutritional tips. For commentary in fort

With kindest thanks to Marisa Peer