Add Fruit to Your Diet

Healthy eating is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Fruit is essential to our diet, as it is high in vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and fiber. Here are some easy-to-follow suggestions to get more fruit into your diet and to improve your overall well-being.

Steps

  1. Consider the impact on your health. Eating fruit as part of your daily diet can help you maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of heart disease, strokes and some cancers. Also, fruit contains a great variety of vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates and fiber. So, eating the right combinations of fruit is particularly good for you. For instance, an apple is high in fiber but low in vitamin C, but if you add an orange and some strawberries, then you will get all the vitamin C you need for that day.
  2. Consume 5 portions of fruit a day. Many countries have national or regional programs in place to encourage everyone to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day (and often more). See "External Links" for a guide to portion sizes. A glass of fruit juice counts as one portion, but drinking five glasses will still count as just one portion. If you aim for about a third of your diet to be made up of fruit and vegetables, then you're well on your way to a healthy diet.
  3. Have fruit for breakfast. Adding sliced banana to your cereal or dried fruit to your porridge (oatmeal), or whipping up a fresh fruit salad are all brilliant ways to brighten up breakfast. Grabbing a handful of blueberries and raspberries can be extremely beneficial, as apart from the usual benefits of fruit, they also contain antioxidants which reduce DNA damage. This includes things such as slowing down the skin's aging process, and helping to prevent skin damage from the sun; a good start to any day.
  4. Use Make a Chocolate and Jam Covered Banana. Fruit is the perfect food for on-the-go and can easily replace biscuits, Make Buckwheat Cakes and chocolate as your snack of choice. Fatty and high sugar snacks are low on essential vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre and can lead to poor digestive health. So keep some fruit in your car, in your bag or on the desk at work to dip into to beat those mid-morning, or mid-afternoon energy lows.
  5. Be careful of fruit labels. Lots of food manufacturers are keen to push the fruit content in their food, so as to make you think that the food is great for you. But be careful; not everything with 'fruit' in the title is as it seems. Remember to check the frozen fruit desserts for their fat and sugar contents. Canned fruit in fruit juice is usually fine, but beware of tinned fruit in syrup, as the syrup can be full of sugar.
  6. Try eating 5 a day for a week. See just how good it makes you feel.
  7. Eat your favorite fruit within 20 minutes of waking up. Your body goes into starvation for almost 8 hours during sleep. Eating fruit within 20 minutes of waking up rehydrates your body and furnishes it with low GI carbohydrates that keep your metabolism fired up throughout the day.

Tips

  • Always combine any lifestyle eating program with exercise to get the most benefits for your health.
  • Buy yummy fruits! Mangoes and fresh pineapple are a whole lot more exciting than the usual apple or banana. When you see an interesting fruit, you will be more inclined to eat it instead of the nachos you were thinking about.
  • Try one new fruit per week. You may find that you like exotic fruits, also. If you have a food co-op or farmer's market, the people selling the food often know how to prepare it and may give you a sample. If you have more fruits you like, it's easier to eat 5 a day and easier to find good fruits in more seasons.
  • Wash and slice and package fruit for grab-n-go convenience as soon as you get home from the store. Some fruits are already grab-n-go (like apples and bananas), but melons take a bit more work. If that work is already done, you and the kids are more likely to eat it up rather than watch it rot.
  • Try a fruit shake for breakfast. Throw a fresh banana, some frozen mixed fruit, yogurt, and fruit juice in a blender and mix until smooth. Voila! A quick healthy meal on the go.
  • When you add fruit to your diet once in a while add a sprinkle of sugar.Fruit punch or juice is not healthy even though it has fruit in it.For kids try not to give them sour fruits but as they get older try to give them fruits that are new to them.Carry around a bag of fruits that are small like grapes,strawberries,oranges,etc. Add your fruits into breakfast,lunch, and dinner or have it as a snack.Fruit candies are not like fruit just like what I said about the fruit punch hey contain sugar and sweet flavorings.When you get a chance,ask your doctor what fruits in your diet are most likely to help you make your body better.When you are a senior citizen your most likely to have tasted all the fruits but as for babies do you want you to introduce them to Fruits then blend it in a blender and remove any seeds and remember some fruits taste like they contains sugar but the fresh fruits are naturally free from sugar.I hope I helped.
  • Always keep the fruit bowl full. It will encourage you to pick at it instead of at the snack food packages.

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Sources and Citations

  • VideoJug A video on adding fruit to your diet. Shared with permission.
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