Once you develop the habit of eating healthy, you’ll look forward to fruits that are a sweet treat, rather than the baked goods composed mostly of sugar and lard. They leave you more refreshed and actually have flavor, unlike some of the cardboard tasting treats you were used to eating. When you need a boost in the afternoon and a sweet snack sounds like it would hit the spot, try a medjool date stuffed with a teaspoon of organic unsalted almond butter. Medjool dates are large and super sweet. The combination will boost your energy level without spiking it, then suddenly dropping.
Get a cool summer frozen treat that’s both healthy and yummy.
How does a frozen chocolate banana sound? Pretty delicious, but also pretty fattening. Don’t worry these are made with dark chocolate, and each one is less than 100 calories. These are the perfect summer snack and made by cutting a banana in half. On the cut side, slip a Popsicle stick into the center to create your banana pop and freeze. When it’s frozen, it’s time to melt mini dark chocolate chips. Hold the banana over the bowl and spoon two teaspoons on each banana half. It should harden immediately and create this delicious treat you’ll want to have ready when hunger hits.
Fruit is getting a bad rap.
You hear lots of celebrities talk about cutting out the fruit from their diet because of the sugar, but it’s still a great diet choice in my book. You’ll be more apt to eat an apple rather than celery if you’re hungry for a candy bar and find it fills the bill. A sugary sweet slice of watermelon will keep your sweet tooth satisfied. While it’s true, there’s sugar in fruit, it comes in a package that contains other benefits, such as fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. Blueberries contain anthocyanins to help prevent colon cancer and mangoes have a substance that prevents, slows and stops the growth of both breast and colon cancer cells.
Fruit is great for a snack before working out.
You’ll get plenty of fuel and energize your body when you have a fruit snack before you exercise. A study that compared sports drinks to eating a banana before cycling at top speed, found the banana superior in several ways. It triggered the release of dopamine faster and provided far more nutrition than the sports drink. Raisins, the grandmother of grapes—actually, it’s more like the reverse, but grapes are so shriveled!—did just as well as bananas, but had even more minerals and the prebiotic inulin.
Just because fruit is good for you, it doesn’t mean you can go overboard. Try to stick with just two servings a day, but when you have a huge work load that requires a little more energy, one more piece of won’t hurt and may really help.
You’ll get antioxidants from fruit that can keep your skin looking younger and keep you healthier by protecting the cells from damage, including sun exposure and pollution.
If you’re counting carbs, the number vary from fruit to fruit. Bananas and grapes are on the high end with cantaloupe and berries on the low side.
The best way to have fruit is whole fruit. Juice doesn’t fill you as much and has less fiber. A cup of juice has far more calories than a cup of the fruit it came from.