Fruit Nutrition - Almost everyone loves fruit and fresh fruit is the most nutritious kid available. Sadly though, the produce section at your local grocery store is probably the smallest part of the store. There are many nutritious and exotic fruits that you may never find in your local grocer, but if you look around town, you can probably find independent produce stands that have a wider variety of delicious fresh fruit.
Fruit Nutrition - Listed below are some of the more popular fruits and their nutritional values and benefits. Let's start with the avocado:
Avocado - Many people don't know this but the avocado is considered a fruit. One of the best things about an avocado is its potassium content. An average avocado contains over 800mg of potassium and 1000 IU of vitamin A. It also contains lots of fat, but don't worry because most of it is good monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. In the 35 grams of fat in one cup of avocado 23 of those grams are monounsaturated and 4 are polyunsaturated. Plus, they taste really good in salads.
Grapes - One cup of grapes contains 105 calories and they are a great source of vitamin c. They also contain 1.6 grams of fiber and are a handy snack that can be easily put in a brief case or purse.
Mango - Mangoes are a good source of fiber as the contain 3 grams of the stuff for your average sized piece of fruit. They also contain a huge amount of vitamin a. One average mango contains 8060 IU of vitamin a, 320 mg of potassium and 20 mg of calcium. Mangoes are notoriously hard to cut without getting your hands all sticky. Learn how to slice a mango properly here.
Peaches - Peaches are a great source of vitamin c and an average size on only contains 37 calories. They are also a good source of vitamin a and potassium and contain 1 gram of dietary fiber to help keep things moving through the system.
Strawberry - Strawberries can be used in so many different ways and they are one of the most popular fruits and are also very low in calories. One cup of strawberries contains only 45 calories. They are also a great source of dietary fiber as that one cup has 3 grams of fiber in it.
Oranges - In Florida where we live, oranges are referred to as liquid sunshine. Oranges are a nice all around quality fruit that contain 70 mg of vitamin c, 3 grams of fiber, 237 mg of potassium and 52 mg of calcium per orange. If you need more calcium, why buy an expansive supplement when you can just eat an orange?
Tomatoes - Yes, here's another one of those fruits that you though was a vegetable. Sorry, a tomato is a fruit. They high amounts of vitamin a (2364 IU), potassium (396 mg), calcium (32 mg) and phosphorus (62.7 mg). Tomatoes go great in salads, dried and used for sauces and just eaten plain or with some dressing.
Watermelon - People love watermelons on a hot summer day. How many times have you been to a picnic and after the main meal, out comes the watermelon. One medium sized slice of watermelon has 1050 IU of vitamin a, 332 mg of potassium, trace amounts of zinc, manganese, and copper, and 23 mg of calcium.
Kiwi - One kiwi contains lots of fiber (more than 6 grams), 588 mg of potassium, 53 mg of magnesium, 147 mg of vitamin c and they have a very unique taste. Kiwis go great in fruit salads, smoothies and eaten alone.
Keep coming back to the fruit nutrition page for more updates on delicious, nutritious fruit.
