Fruits are a good for getting vitamins and minerals, fiber, and even your daily water intake. Because different fruits contain different vitamins, it’s important to eat a variety of them. Here are some benefits of different fruits:
- Oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, mango, pineapples, cranberries and strawberries have lots of Vitamin C, which helps your immune system and helps with healing wounds.
- Apples, pears, and raspberries are some of the fruits that are highest in fiber, which keeps you full and can lower cholesterol.
- Bananas and cantaloupe have potassium, which your body’s cells, tissues, and organs need.
- Blueberries, pomegranate, goji berries, and guava have antioxidants that can lower your risk of cancer.
When choosing fruit, go for fresh fruit that is in season first. Frozen fruit is the next best. Canned fruit should be your third choice, but make sure that it’s not in sugary syrup (a lot of them are!). A little bit of dried fruit is OK, but it can have a lot of calories in a small amount and you miss out on the water in fruit.
Here are some ideas to get more fruit into your daily diet:
- Add sliced banana, strawberries, or blueberries to your breakfast cereal
- Have a fruit smoothie for breakfast with banana, fat free yogurt and other fruit
- Add fruit to your mixed salad at lunch, like apples, pears, or oranges
- Choose a piece of fruit as a snack between meals instead of chips or crackers
- Make a fruit salad for dessert