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Fruits in Your Diet
Let’s face it.
Including fruits in our diet is difficult because they not
easily available when and where we need them. On top of this,
fruits can be quite expensive, especially if you start talking
organically grown ones. Luckily for us, common fruits are very
affordable and available in most supermarkets, so it is up to
us to make sure we bring them along wherever we go. |
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Health & Fitness |
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The American
Diabetes Association and the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and
Food Pyramid came out with a guideline to dispel some
myths about including fruits in your diet.
It's
Mainly Carbohydrates
Nearly all the calories from fruits are from sugar. |
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Fruit raises
blood glucose just like all that have carbohydrates. Other
healthy sources of carbohydrates are starches, milk, yogurt
and non-starchy vegetables. Nutritionists recommend that these
healthy foods play a central part of the meals and snacks you
plan and eat.
Packs Nutrition and Health Punch
Fruits are packed with important nutrients that we don not get
enough of, such as potassium, folate (folic acid), Vitamin A,
Vitamin C and fiber. These are the nutrients that give fruits
their nutritional punch. Research also shows that when people
eat enough fruits, they have less chance of having a stroke or
getting heart disease. People with type 2 diabetes are at
greater risk for these two problems. So, eating fruits may
just be one more way to prevent them.
How Much is Enough
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid strongly advise
eating 2 cups of fruits every day if you eat 2,000 calories a
day.
A medium-to-large apple, for example, equals about one cup. Of
course, if you eat fewer calories, you can cut back by half a
cup (to 1 1/2 cups). Conversely, if you eat more calories, eat
1/2 cup more (to 2 1/2 cups).
To keep your blood glucose levels even, spread out your fruit
intake throughout the day. For example, instead of eating a
whole bowl of grapes or cherries in one sitting, portion the
fruits into smaller bags, or use smaller sized fruits
throughout the day.
Fitting the
Fruit into Your Day
Cut up a bunch of fruits and keep them readily available for
your family in the refrigerator. Serve a piece of fruit with
your breakfast cereal. Berries with skim milk or yogurt for a
quick breakfast shake are standouts and easy to prepare now
with very convenient blenders. Top cold cereal with a serving
of fruit or toss in chopped apple or a handful of raisins when
you cook hot cereal.
Make a piece of fruit part of your lunch – you do not have to
be fancy, a banana is a great start. You can even toss in a
few slices of apples in your favorite salad to give it a
healthy crunch.
Take some fruits with you to work or if you go on a road trip.
Keep dried fruits with you for a quick snack or pack it for
all-day outings. Bake an apple. Top it with yogurt.
Variety, Variety, Variety
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid also recommends
that we eat a wide variety of fruits to get all the nutrients
we need: a banana in your cereal at breakfast, a tangerine at
lunch and a serving of berries at night.
Below is a chart of the different contributions fruits make
towards meeting our needs. For example, we know that oranges
are a great source of Vitamin C; bananas offer potassium; and
berries add a few grams of fiber. But did you also know that
kiwi, mango, papaya and star fruit offer different benefits?
In another
recent study on animal cells, researchers found that cherries
contain a natural chemical called anthocyanins, which had been
found to increase the amount of insulin the beta cells make in
the pancreas. However, anthocyanins also found in red grapes,
strawberries and blueberries, have not been studied in humans.
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines suggests choosing fresh, canned,
frozen and dried fruits instead of drinking fruit juice. That
will add more fiber to your diet. Although you can surely buy
canned fruits packed in its own juice or with or without sugar
added, plain frozen fruits with neither syrup nor sugar are
still a better choice.
If you do choose to drink juice, make sure it is 100 percent
juice with no added sugar. Pack even more nutrition into juice
by selecting one that is fortified with calcium and Vitamin D.
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Fruits by
Nutrients |
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Nutrients
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Fruits |
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Vitamin A (carotenoids)
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Oranges,
Mangos, cantaloupe, apricots, red or pink grapefruits,
canned plums |
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Vitamin C
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Clementines,
oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, kiwis, strawberries,
papaya, cantaloupe |
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Folate
(Folic Acid) |
Oranges,
orange juice |
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Potassium |
Bananas
(most types), dried fruits, oranges, orange juice,
cantaloupe, honeydew melon |
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Fiber
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Berries,
(most types) dried plums (prunes) apricots and figs, pears |
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