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Healthy Fruits

Healthy fruits, rich in nutrients and antioxidants, are sweet and satisfying.

Fruit is a great replacement for candy and pastries--especially candy and pastries that we regret after eating (they never seem to really taste as good as expected!). Healthy fruits are more satisfying and frequently just as sweet.

For more ideas, see this list of fruits that names common culinary fruits and their close relatives.

Getting Started

Super Fruits

Smoothies

Dried Fruit

Getting Started

Here are a few tips for getting more fruit into your daily diet. Remember that all fruits are healthy fruits!

Favorites
What are your three favorite fruits?

On your next shopping trip, buy one of each. Then, for three days, eat one each day.

Afternoon Break
At work, try a fruit in mid-afternoon, instead of soda pop or snacks. Fruit provides a longer-lasting energy boost and is more filling. An apple works well, but so can any of your favorite fruits.

Unfamiliar Fruit
How about trying a fruit you've never had before? Pick one out at the grocery store. Some ideas: kiwi; kumquat; mango; pear; plum; tangelo

Strawberries
Here's what's great: fresh strawberries with plain, unsweetened yogurt.

Fruit Juice
Bottled fruit juice can be healthy when it is "100% fruit juice" with no sweeteners. Pick out a healthy bottled fruit juice that interests you.

More here on how to choose a healthy fruit juice from bottled, canned, and boxed juices.

Super Healthy Fruits

Pomegranate
Sweet-and-tart pomegranate juice has the highest antioxidant potency of any juice in the supermarket.

The health benefits of pomegranate juice include preventing atherosclerosis and fighting cancer. One clinical study used just 1.7 oz. daily of commercially bottled pomegranate juice to demonstrate the reversal of atherosclerosis.

It's likely that such a powerful source of antioxidants is beneficial to everybody.

Look for 100% juice without additives. (How to choose a healthy juice.) Here's my review of Lakewood Juices pomegranate juice.

Blueberries
The blueberry is a common fruit with an uncommonly high ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) rating—that is a measurement of antioxidant potency used by the USDA to rate foods. Blueberries are available fresh or frozen (for the best potency) and in juice. Here is an article about the health benefits of blueberries:

Life Extension Magazine: Maintaining Youthful Cognitive Function With Blueberries

Smoothies

Juice Bar
Go to a juice bar. Two national chains are Smoothie King and Jamba Juice. Also, natural food stores frequently have juice bars.

Buy a smoothie: fruit pureed in a blender, often with fruit juice, frozen yogurt, sorbet, milk, or soy milk.

Go several times and try different smoothies until you find one you really like.

Make Your Own Smoothie
Make your own smoothie in a blender. You could try to duplicate what you liked at the juice bar, or experiment. Ingredients that work well in a blender: bananas, strawberries, pineapple juice, orange juice. Just add ice, water, or yogurt if it gets too thick. Stay tuned for more on smoothies on this web site.

Dried Fruit

Organic Dried Fruit
Natural food stores often have a good selection of dried fruit. Organic dried fruit has not been treated with sulfites (sulfites cause allergic reactions in some people). Look at the dates, figs, prunes, and raisins. Which appeal to you?

Raisins
Dried fruit is a healthy substitute for candy. Remember taking raisins to school? If you haven't eaten raisins lately, try them again.

Dates
Try deglet noor dates: each are as sweet as a piece of candy but healthier. The more expensive medjool dates are thick and fleshy, with a distinct taste reminiscent of chocolate.

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