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Publication #FAR8036

 

Keeping Fruit In Your Diet1

Linda Bobroff2

Broadcast 2006:

Those of us who love fruit find it hard to imagine that so many Americans eat far less fruit than is recommended for good health. But national surveys show it to be true. Somehow they manage to resist the wonderful textures, aromas, and flavors of melons, berries, apples, bananas, mangoes, and all the other fruits available in this country!

When offering your children something sweet, consider fruit instead of candy or cookies. Fruits provide vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals, which promote good health and help reduce risk for heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Fruits that are rich in potassium, like bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew, plantains, and prunes and other dried fruit, help reduce risk of high blood pressure.

MyPyramid, USDA's food guidance system, recommends that we eat a variety of fruits each day. Real fruit juices are good to drink in moderation, but most of our daily fruit intake should be as whole fruit. Canned and dried fruits provide needed nutrients and can be handy and economical. When choosing canned fruits, select those canned in juice rather than syrup.

To increase fruit in your family's diet, add berries or cut-up fruit to the morning cereal, serve a piece of fresh fruit or a few pieces of dried fruit as a morning or afternoon snack, and add fruit slices or berries to a garden salad. Let your imagination (and some good recipes) help you get the fruit your family needs for a healthy diet.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/253.mp3

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References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). Fruit and vegetable consumption data and statistics. Retrieved August 3, 2007, from http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/5ADaySurveillance/displayV.asp.

USDA. (2005). Chapter 5: Food groups to encourage. Retrieved August 3, 2007, from http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter5.htm.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR8036, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 253. Published April 2009. Revised April 2009. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Linda Bobroff, associate professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.