Although most fruits are sweet, they tend to be relatively low in calories. Better still, they are a good source of fiber and are packed with nutrients—especially Vitamin C.
On reason that the much-talked about “Mediterranean Diet” is considered to be so good for the heart is because it includes plenty of fresh fruit. The World Health Organization recommends that everyone should try to eat at least five portions of different fruit or vegetables each day.
A portion of fruit counts as a single fruit, such as an apple or orange, a cup of small fruit such as grapes or raspberries, or a glass of pure fruit juice. You can include dried, tinned, and frozen fruit as part of your quota, but tinned fruit is often sweetened in syrup, and contains less vitamin C. Whenever possible, buy fruit that has been canned in its own juice without added sugar. Fresh fruit and juice provide most of our daily intake of vitamin C with citrus fruit (oranges, lemons, grape fruit and tangerines) being the most important source.
Other top vitamin C providers include Kiwi Fruit, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants mangoes and papayas. Fruits with orange or deep yellow flesh, such as apricots, mangoes and cantaloupe melons, get their color from a yellow orange pigment called beta carotene, the plant from of vitamin A. Other carotene pigments such as lycopene are found in red fruits, and these along with beta carotene are thought to protect against free radicals and possibly cancer. Fruit is rich in potassium, especially bananas and dried fruits. Potassium helps to regulate blood pressure. It works in tandem with sodium to regulate the body’s fluid balance.
