How Much Fruit Nutrition do We Need in our Daily Diet?Research studies recommend that one may eat any servings of fruits daily. It is also recommended to eat at least 2-3 servings of fresh fruits every day.
Include seasonal fruits in your daily diet. Variety of fruits’ type, color, and flavor should be encouraged to get maximum health benefits. Orange and yellow colored fruits are rich sources of ? and ? carotenes, crypto-xanthins and zea-xanthins, while black, blue colored like black or blueberries are good source of poly-phenolic anthocyanin anti-oxidants.
Choice of fruits
To gain maximum fruit nutrition benefits eat organic produce. Many wild varieties of berries and tropical tree fruits have still not treated with any kind of chemicals or fertilizers and can readily be purchased from local farm owners. Organic fruits tend to be smaller, however, they feature special flavor and richness in minerals, vitamins and stuffed with numerous anti-oxidants.
In the store, however, prefer fruits that feature freshness, bright in color and flavor and feel heavy in your hands. Look carefully for spots, blemishes, molds, and signs of insecticide spray. Buy whole fruits rather than section of them for example, buy a small size watermelon instead of a section of big size melon.
Dry fruits
Dry fruits are great source of nutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Consumption of some dry fruits daily adds to the overall bioavailability of nutrients. Try raisins (dried grapes), figs, apricots, dates, tamarind etc. which are indeed very good in calcium, iron, zinc, manganese and selenium. In addition, combining dry fruits with some fresh fruits would help you get vitamin C which in turn favors absorption of iron inside the stomach.
How to consume fruits?
Excepting some fruits like berries, try to cleanse them soon after shopping. Wash them in salt water for few minutes and then wash in cool running water until you are satisfied with complete cleanliness. This way you ensure that the fruit you eat is rid off sand, dust, and any residual chemical spray. Eat them while they are fresh as certain fruits have very short shelf life and the health benefiting properties of fruit decreases with time. If you desire to store them, place them in plastic wrappings or in zip pouches to keep them fresh for short periods until you utilize them. Eat fruits as a full without any additions to get their original taste, flavor, and to acquire maximum fruit nutrition benefits.
The term one fruit serving of about 250g of cleaned, edible-portion of the fruit, excluding discards like seeds, peel etc. is very true as far as your health is concerned; try it in your daily food intake.
Fruits are nature’s wonderful medicines packed with minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidants and many phyto-nutrients (Plant derived micronutrients). They are total delight to our sight, not just for the reason of their flavor and color but also help you to keep your body fit and healthy!
