As it’s national plum day this week (random, I know), I thought we’d chat about fruit.
Did you know that strawberries aren’t actually berries? In fact, they’re not even fruit! In order to be fruit, they need to have seeds on the inside whereas strawberries clearly have them on the outside.
Regarding our health, one of the first pieces of advice we hear is to eat our 5 a day. Unfortunately, not all fruit is crated the same – some fruits contain more vitamins, minerals, and fibre whilst others contain more sugar. For example, melons tend to contain a large amount of water and sugar whereas berries are famously dense in micronutrients. Aim for lower sugar, high-fibre, nutrient-dense fruits such as berries. However, berries obviously cost more.
In order to combat this, you can buy frozen berries. There’s an idea that fresh is better, but that’s not always the case. Frozen fruits and vegetables tend to retain more nutrients when being frozen and also, are cheaper to buy because they’re not going to perish. You can then leave them out to defrost or blend them into a smoothie – the latter of which is perfect for those in a rush. Simply blend up a smoothie the night before ready to go or pop all the ingredients together in the morning so you can take the smoothie with you.
Another way to avoid the high-sugar content of fruit is to eat more veg. We’re always told to get in our 5-a-day, but you can weight this more in favour of vegetables to save on calories.
A key myth to be aware of is that some fruits and vegetables have ‘negative’ calories – meaning that when you eat them, you burn more calories than they give you. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. No food contains negative calories, so we just need to manage the calories that they do have with our lifestyle.
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