Fruits for a Healthy Diet Plan - Calories in Fruit

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Diet Recipes made with Healthy Fruits

Come here my little kumquat!  It's time to break out the bananas, strawberries, melons and starfruit.  

Candy is dandy but fruit makes a diet rootin' tootin' good!  And unlike candy, fresh super foods are ultra low in caloric content while providing fat-free energy to the body.

It contains other health benefits too such as supporting the digestive track functions. Because most specimens are spiked with fiber grams, it assists in ridding the body of harmful toxins, pushing out the refuge that wasn't used amid the digestive process.

Fruit not only helps keep the old digestive track healthy, Mother Nature packs it with vitamins such as C which helps protect you from sickness by building your immunity. And that's an important factor amid dieting time as the body is placed at a higher risk for illness when caloric values are suddenly trimmed.

This is just one wise reason why it's a good idea not to over-trim daily values.

And no one knows better, than Mother when it comes to healthy goodness.

These super foods can also assist your weight loss plan by filling you up, in part due to their fiber gram content. They even work to satisfy that nasty sweet tooth during those moments when the appetite seems to be raging. 

Dieting Tips for Fruit

While fresh is almost-always your best choice, canned, frozen and dried should also be welcomed guests to your kitchen pantry. Ensure that frozen varieties have been packaged without added sugar and that canned are packed in their natural juices. This will assist in keeping the caloric values to a minimum.

If you drain the natural juices from the canned varieties, don't toss. Fill ice trays and freeze, then pop into reduced-sugar varieties of juices. Or add to dessert recipes - or make a heavenly sauce for your main dish by heating in a pan, then thickening with cornstarch and water. This sweet glaze also goes very well with reduced fat varieties of ice cream and frozen yogurts.

How low is fruit in caloric values?

One cup of blueberries, raspberries or blackberries contains about 75 while fresh whole strawberries are about 45 per cup. Enjoy a medium-sized banana for about 100 and any variety of melon for about 50 per cup.  Apricots are exceptionally low in values; it takes three to equal the caloric values of 1 cup of melon.

If you happen to find yourself with a bumper crop of a particular specimen, make some fresh preserves or jams. You can control the amount of granulated sugar added to the product, which in turn reduces calories.

Tips, Shelf Life

Many varieties will freeze quite well including pineapple chunks, strawberries, sliced peaches, and most berries.

While bananas aren't a great candidate for freezing methods, they can be chilled to an almost-frozen state in the freezer with the peeling left in place - for about half an hour. Slice and enjoy or blend with reduced fat milk and your favorite flavoring extracts.

Rather than spreading your toast or bread with full-blown jams and margarine, mash ripened fruit into a 'butter' and use instead of the fattier spreads.