What is one of the best ways to get all the nutrients you need in a day? Eating a lot of fruit! Fruits are perhaps the healthiest dietary options, and the USDA Food Pyramid guidelines state that five to nine servings of it should be consumed every day. This quota isn’t hard to fill, considering the wide variety of fruits available in grocery stores. Fruits are chock full of the nutrients that the body needs, and the amount of calories in fruits are low as well. All in all, there are no downsides to making fresh fruit a part of your everyday diet.
Making Poor Choices Challenging
It is difficult to make a poor choice when it comes to fresh fruit—all types of fresh fruit are extremely healthy. However, certain fresh fruits might be considered healthier options than others, simply because the calories in some fruit are less than those in others. Being able to distinguish the high calorie fruits from the low calorie fruits can be helpful to those on low calorie diets; otherwise, there really is no need to count the calories in fruit.
Fresh Vs. Frozen
Some fruit choices can be deceiving. While it is true that there are very little calories in fresh fruit, the same cannot always be said of frozen fruit. A half a cup of fresh strawberries contains a mere 26 calories, while a half a cup of frozen strawberries contains 122 calories. The difference is in the sweeteners—fresh strawberries have natural sugars to make them taste delicious, while frozen strawberries are full of other sugars that make them higher in calorie.
The same can be said of canned fruits and of dried fruits as well. The calories in fruit that has been canned or dried are higher due to the syrup and sugar used to preserve them. Raisins, otherwise known as dried grapes, are one of the highest calorie fruits, with 217 calories per half-cup serving.
A Sweet Treat
Substituting fresh fruit for dessert is a great way to lower your caloric intake. However, be careful of what you put on top of the fruit. Adding whipped cream, cool whip, and sweeteners can increase the amount of calories from food you consume. Fresh blueberries alone contain 42 calories per half cup, but sweetened blueberries contain 193 calories per half cup. If you want a treat that’s sweet and light, opt to top your fruit with fat free cool whip or Splendid.
It is not difficult to reap the benefits of fruit—you just need to learn how to make healthy choices. People who consume lots of fruit have a lower risk for heart disease and cancers. Choosing fresh fruit over frozen, dried, and canned fruits is a guarantee to health.
More On Nutrition Tips
Filed Under: Nutrition Fact Tagged with calories in fruit
Browse Nutrition
Food Nutrition
Nutrition Fact
Nutrition Information
Nutritional Analysis
Nutritional Supplement
Sports Nutrition
Most Popular Nutrition Tips
The Importance of Following Food Nutrition to the Body
Finding Help for Your Condition Through Nutrition Software
How to Find the Right Fast Foods Using a Nutritional Analysis of Fast Food
How to Get a Food Nutritional Analysis of What You Eat Everyday
General Information About Nutrition Analysis Programs and The Options Available
No comments:
Post a Comment