THAT ADAGE ABOUT AN apple a day keeping the doctor away was sound advice, pointing up the importance of fruit in our diet. But it`s a bit out of step with the times. Eating a single piece of fruit a day-whether an apple or a banana on your morning cereal or a handful of grapes at lunch-is nowhere near adequate, experts say.
”What we recommend is that people eat two to four servings from the entire group (of fruits and vegetables),” says Eileen Newman, a nutritionist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ”What we`re actually eating is about one to one-and-a-half servings.”
Indeed, if the fruit you ate yesterday amounted to nothing more than a glass of juice in the morning or that slice of pineapple that landed alongside the grilled-chicken sandwich or some syrupy cherries tucked inside some pie pastry, you`re missing one of the easiest ways to put your diet on a healthy track.
Doctors and nutritionists say we should eat less fat and sodium but more carbohydrates and fiber. And there`s no better place to get the latter two-as well as vitamins and minerals-than in fruit.
”We`d like to encourage people to eat fruit because of the high fiber content, low fat and low sodium,” Newman says. ”Right now, some 37 percent of our calories come from fat. We would like to see that reduced to 30 percent. That would be a reduction of about 15 grams of fat. The average candy bar of about two ounces has 14 grams of fat.”
Julie Scheier, a registered dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, has her own motives for urging people to increase the amount of fruit they eat: Fruit is a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals.
”What I usually tell people is to eat at least two pieces of fruit a day and vary it, not always relying on one or two favorites,” Scheier says. Some people she sees eat as little as two pieces of fruit a week, she adds. ”The variety is important because it increases the number of different nutrients. If you vary the fruit you eat, you`ll get your basic vitamins, minerals and nutrients.”
Fruits are good sources of fiber and vitamins A and C. They are relatively fat free-except for coconuts and avocados-and low in sodium. But not all fruits are created equal.
Fresh fruits with seeds (berries) and those with edible skins (peaches and apples) are much higher in fiber. Others are the best source of vitamin C available. Still others offer minerals such as potassium, thiamine or the folic acid found in citrus fruits.
Sure, some can pack a lot of calories, but usually not as many as a wedge of pecan pie or a couple of scoops of ice cream.
The accompanying chart takes a look at the nutritional values of some of the more common fruits and can serve as a first step in assessing the nutritional quality of the fruit in your diet.
AN IMPORTANT FACTOR to note is how processing may affect a fruit`s nutritional value. Some processing may boost the calorie content or lower the nutritional value.
Consider, for example, the difference between a cup of fresh pineapple chunks (75 calories) and a cup of canned pineapple chunks (200 calories); or that whole fruit delivers more fiber than juice.
”But,” cautions Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, ”avoid processed fruits which appear to be good sources of fruit.”
The team at CSPI calculated that a packet of fruit-type snacks, for example, which noted on the label they were made with ”real fruit,” actually contained the equivalent of a 1/17 of an orange or 1 grape. Says Liebman,
”The bottom line is: The best way to get your fruit is fresh.”
”If (people) think logically and are interested in low-fat, low-sodium and low-cholesterol foods, as well as (wanting to) adding trace minerals, they`ll turn to fruit,” says Frieda Caplan, founder of Frieda`s Finest, a Los Angeles-based marketer and distributor of specialty produce.
”But what it takes for people to go to fruit is good taste. You think all the attributes would do it. But nobody is going to pay attention to that if it doesn`t taste good.”
Which is why Caplan`s firm was one of the first to promote labeling of fruits-putting a sticker on packages explaining when less common fruits (such as cherimoya and passion fruit) are ripe, giving a description of the taste as well as nutritional information.
Indeed, all the surveys and all the prodding from doctors won`t interest people in adding fruit to their diets if it doesn`t taste good. Buy a pineapple that`s green or strawberries that are hard as rocks and you`ll end up disappointed. Which is why savvy consumers who buy for nutrition also learn how to buy for eating quality, quizzing their greengrocer for hints.
”Americans are removed from agriculture and have lost some of those
(selection) tips,” says Elaine McLaughlin, a staff nutritionist at United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, an Alexandria, Va., group representing all segments of the produce industry. ”Selecting something ripe is something we have to learn.”
Aroma, says McLaughlin, may be the easiest place to start. ”If you smell the flavor of the fruit when you sniff, then it`s ripe.
According to McLaughlin, much of the shopping in produce is done on impulse with consumers looking for the best buy, best quality and
availability,” she says. ”We can have whatever we want, whenever we want, but early in the season, the price is a factor. And sometimes early and late
(in the season) the quality cannot not be so good.
McLaughlin suggests choosing at least a dozen different fruits you eat and like, then ”if you`re wild about oranges, enjoy them in the peak season.”
”The hard part is that we want fruit that`s perfectly ripe and ready to go. Sometimes it takes a day or two to ripen some fruits,” she says, noting that fruit sweetens as it ripens. ”And sometimes, we`re looking for visual perfection.”
Grapes, for example, will have a little brown near the stem when they`re ripe, while bananas may be speckled brown-not the kind of fruit you see in those glossy pictures.
”Consumers set standards that are visually perfect. We`re so used to food that comes processed to look alike,” McLaughlin says. ”Fruit doesn`t come stamped out of a factory. It`s made by Mother Nature.”
There`s no doubt that fruits are good for us, but then there`s the pesticide situation.
Eileen Van Ravenswaay, professor of agricultural economics at Michigan State University, has been tracking consumer reaction to such issues.
”Certainly consumers have been reacting to information about pesticides in food and starting to react to microbial hazards in food,” she notes. ”I would say people reacted in a predictable way to Alar, and they reacted the way they have reacted to other risks on the job and in the home. They don`t just think about the risk as high or low, they think whether its worth taking.”
Nutritionists put that risk in perspective.
”Every organization has said, time and again, that the risk from the pesticides is less than the risk of not eating fruit,” says CSPI`s Liebman.
”That doesn`t mean pesticides are harmless or that the government should allow these harmful pesticides, but it doesn`t mean you should stop eating fruit and vegetables either.”
”ONE THING WE need to keep in mind is that we are talking about reducing risk, and there is no no-risk food,” Sheier says. Instead, she says, eat sensibly, eat a variety of foods and avoid overdoing any one food. If you vary your fruit, you will ingest less of any particular pesticide.
”One thing people can do to minimize their ingestion of pesticides is to eat foods in season from the local area. If you`re eating apples from Wisconsin in October versus apples in April, you`re less likely to be ingesting something that`s designed to elongate its shelf life.”
Sheier suggests scrubbing fruits where the skin is to be eaten, such as apples, with dish detergent, water and a vegetable brush.
”As consumers we can`t really have it both ways. We can`t have no pesticides, no fungicide, no compounds that extend shelf life, and then eat strawberries in February. Someday we may reach that point,” she says. ”But if you`re demanding summer fruits in winter, it`s time to rethink your thinking. We may have to accept less-cosmetic-looking things in the off season.”
FRUIT FACTS
FRUIT CALORIES VITAMIN C VITAMIN A NUTRITIONAL
(Serving) (mgs) (RE) BONUS
APPLE
1 medium 80 8 7 Fiber
1 cup juice 115 2 tr
APRICOTS
3 medium fresh 50 11 277
3 halves, canned, juice 70 4 142 Vitamin E
1 cup dried halves 310 3 941 Iron/Potassium
BANANA
1 medium 105 10 9 Potassium, B6
BLUEBERRIES
1/2 cup fresh 39 19 15 Fiber
CANTALOUPE
1/2 melon (5-inch diam.) 95 113 861 Thiamin/
Potass um
CHERRIES
10 sweet 50 5 15
CRANBERRIES
1 cup juice, sweetened 145 108 1
GRAPEFRUIT
1/2 fruit, white 40 41 1 Fiber
1 cup juice, fresh 95 94 2 Folate Potassium
1 cup juice, frozen 100 83 2 Folate Potassium
GRAPES
10 seedless 35 5 4
KIWI FRUIT
1 medium fruit 45 74 13 Fiber
MANGOS
1 fruit, medium 135 57 806 Fiber
ORANGE
1 whole, fresh 60 70 27 Fiber
1 cup juice 110 124 50 Thiamin/Folate
Potassium
PEACH
1 whole, fresh 35 6 47
PEAR
1 whole, fresh 100 7 3 Fiber
PINEAPPLE
1 cup, fresh, diced 75 24 4
1 cup, canned, chunks 200 19 4
PLUMS
1 medium 35 6 21
PRUNES
5 dried, uncooked 115 2 97 Fiber/Copper/B6
1 cup juice 180 10 1 Potassium, B6
RASPBERRIES
1 cup, fresh 60 31 16 Fiber
STRAWBERRIES
1 cup, fresh 45 84 4 Fiber
WATERMELON
1 cup, diced 50 15 59 Thiamin/B6
Potassium
Note: Fresh fruit unless otherwise indicated.
(Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Home and Garden Bulletin No. 72,
”Nutritive Value of Foods” and the fact sheet ”Good Sources of Nutrients.”)
Key: milligrams (mgs), re (retinol equivalents), tr (trace amounts).
Note: The recommended dietary allowances, established by the National Academy of Sciences, for adults each day: vitamin A (1,000 re), vitamin C (60 mgs), vitamin E (10 mgs), vitamin B6 (2 mgs), thiamin (1.5 mgs), iron (18 mgs) copper (2 mgs) and potassium (2,000 mgs).
