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Fruit nutrition facts

Why fruits?

Fruits are nature’s wonderful medicines packed with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and many phyto-nutrients (Plant derived micro-nutrients). They are absolute feast to our sight, not just because of their color and flavor but help body keep fit and healthy!

1. Fruits are low in calories and fat and are a source of simple sugars, fiber and vitamins which are essential for optimizing our health.

2. Fruits provide plenty of soluble dietary fiber which helps to ward of cholesterol and fats from the body and to get relief from constipation as well.

3. Fruits contain many anti-oxidants like poly-phenolic flavonoids, vitamin-C, anthocyanins. These compounds, firstly, help body protect from oxidant stress, diseases and cancers, and secondly, help body develop capacity to fight against these ailments by boosting our immunity level. Many fruits, when compared to vegetables and cereals, have very high anti-oxidant values which is something measured by their "Oxygen Radical Absorbent Capacity" or ORAC.

4. Anthocyanins are flavonoid category of poly-phenolic compounds found in some "blue fruits" like blue-black grapes, mulberries, acai berry, choke-berries, blueberries, blackberries, and in many vegetables featuring blue or deep purple color. Eating fruits rich in blue pigments offers many health benefits. These compounds have potent anti-oxidant properties, remove free radicals from the body and thus offers protection against cancers, aging, infections etc. These pigments tend to concentrate just underneath the skin.

5. Fruit’s health benefiting properties are because of their richness in vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, anti-oxidants which helps body prevent or at least prolong the natural changes of aging by protecting and rejuvenating cells, tissues and organs in the human body. The overall impact! Fruit nutrition benefits are many. You are protecting yourself from minor problems like wrinkling of skin, hair fall, memory loss to major ailments like age related macular degeneration of retina in the eyes, Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancers, weak bones (osteoporosis)… and the list of fruit nutrition benefits never ends!

Here is an impressive list of fruits with complete illustrations of their
health benefits and nutrition facts:

Acai berry	Apple fruit	Apricot
Banana Fruit	Black currants	Blueberry
Cantaloupe	Cherry fruit	Chokeberry
Cranberries	Dates	Durian fruit
Grapes	Grapefruit	Guava
Jackfruit	Kiwi fruit	Lemon
Loquat fruit	Lychee	Mango fruit
Mangosteen	Mulberries	Orange fruit
Papaya fruit	Peaches	Pears
Persimmon fruit	Pineapple	Plums
Pomegranate	Raspberry	Sapodilla (Sapote)
Strawberry	Watermelon

How much fruit nutrition should be included in our daily diet?

Recent research study sugests that one may eat any servings of fruits daily. It is recommended to eat at least 2-3 servings of fresh fruits every day.

One serving is about 250 gm of cleaned edible portion of the fruit excluding discards like peeled skin, seeds etc.

Include seasonal fruits in the daily diet. Variety of fruit's type, color, and flavor should be encouraged to get maximum health benefits. Yellow and orange color fruits are rich sources of α and β carotenes, zea-xanthins and crypto-xanthins, while blue, black colored like black or blue-berries are good source of poly-phenolic anthocyanin anti-oxidants.

Selection of fruits

For best fruit nutrition benefits go for organically grown variety. Many "wild" varieties of berries and "tropical tree" fruits have still not treated with any kind of fertilizers or chemicals and can be readily purchased from local farm owners. Organic fruits tend to have smaller in size but feature special flavor and richness in vitamins, minerals and stuffed with numerous anti-oxidants.

In the store, however, choose fruits that feature freshness, bright in color and flavor and feel heavy in your hands. Look carefully for blemishes, spots, molds and signs of insecticide spray. Buy whole fruits instead of section of them (for eg. buy whole small size watermelon instead of a section of big size melon).

How to use fruits?

First thing you need to do soon after shopping is; wash them. Rinse them in salt water for few minutes and then wash in cool running water till you are satisfied with complete cleanliness. This way you ensure that the fruit you eat is rid off dust, sand and any residual chemical spray. Eat them while they are fresh because, certain fruits have very short shelf life and also, the health benefiting properties of fruit declines with time.

If you need to store them, place them in plastic wrappings or in zip pouches to keep them fresh for short periods until you use them. Eat fruits as a whole without any additions to get their original flavor and taste.

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