What Are the Best Fruits to Eat?
It's hard to imagine that one of the most simple pleasures in life could be so, well, healthy! Our pretty little food pyramid tells us we should eat buckets of fruits and vegetables every day. The reality of this is that a lot of people do not consume healthy foods.
We've traded our grilled foods still smelling of ash and charcoal for deep fryers, our leafy greens and succulent fruits for french fries and a large shake. Part of this shift may be due to a lack of knowledge as to the super healthy qualities of some of the world's tastiest fruits.
Oranges
Okay, so oranges are high in vitamin C, which not only helps keep you well, but fights off scurvy! YARR! Oranges are a great snack because they're easy to peel and eat, simply tear away a section and chomp away. They're also a source, like most plant matter, of dietary fiber. Slow down on the Metamucil, just grab some oranges and go!
There are four different kinds of oranges:
- Valencia - these are the oranges that are squeezed and blended for that morning glass of OJ. Sweet, huh?
- Blood Orange - these oranges are slightly more red, even a little bit purple. The juice is also a rich shade of dark red.
- Persian - the bitter orange.
- Navel - Mutated freak offspring of the orange plant, these oranges have a conjoined twin of fruity goodness attached to their base directly opposite the navel.
Oranges make a very nice snack, day or night, young or old. Everyone needs to be alert to the possible effects of scurvy!
Strawberry
Tantalizing treat when dipped in chocolate, sweet and juicy, strawberries are gamergirl's favorite fruit. Compared to Blueberries, the strawberry comes ahead nutritionally speaking ina few areas. A cup of strawberries contains more than four times the amount of vitamin C of blueberries, and twice the potassium. That and they're just way more delicious.
Blueberry
These little blue berries are great in pancakes and muffins, but did you know they're great for keeping your memory sharp too? You read it right! Besides being big in vitamins, blueberries were fed to lab mice in a study, which found that the brainpower of the mice did not diminish as fast as those on a normal diet.
Blueberries are also helpful to keep your urinary tract healthy, are a good source of potassium, and are super tasty.
Pomegranates
The pomegranate is revered as a symbol of righteousness, and also the damnation of Persephone through Hades' trickery in Greek mythos. Whereas the fruits mentioned above are all fleshy or completely edible - the pomegranate is the precise opposite.
To eat a pomegranate, you score the rind all the way around down the middle. then, crack the pomegranate open over a bowl of cool water. From that point, you begin pushing the seeds out of the rind, throwing the rind away. Funny enough, the meat of the pomegranate is the rind - the seeds are the only part you eat.
Pomegranate is very high in vitamins, antioxidants, and tart flavor surpassing even lemons. Drinking pomegranate juice reportedly reduces your risk for heart disease, so sprinkle some pomegranate seeds in your cheerios every day.