How to Pick Fresh Fruits and Vegetables at a Store
Eating fruits and vegetables is one of the best ways to maintain good health. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. They contain vitamins, phytochemicals, and minerals that can protect your body from diseases like diabetes, cancers, and heart diseases. Ideally, you should consume five kinds of vegetables and two kinds of fruits each day.
If you want to enjoy the maximum nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables, it is best to select those cultivated in your local region. Imported fruits and vegetables may not have the inherent taste and flavor as they have been picked and packed some time before.
Seasonal fruits and vegetables have a natural taste and flavor of their own and may be easier on your wallet.
Apples: Choose firm and unbruised apples. Handle them gently. If you choose red or yellow colored varieties, they should be mostly of that color. Red or yellow apples with green patches may not be ready to eat.
Asparagus: Choose asparagus with straight and bright-green stalks and stiff tips.
Bananas: Bananas should be firm and not soft. They should not have any bruises, especially along the underside. Normally, bananas with little shades of green ripen in room temperature. Some people claim that bananas that are partly green are better for helping your digestion of other foods.
Beets: Beets should be firm and should remain attached to red stems and fresh green tops. Do not choose loose beets without tops.
Blueberries: Choose firm and fresh blueberries. Frozen wild blueberries are normally available all year through.
Broccoli: Choose broccoli with tight bud heads and dark green in color. Brocolli stems are eaten by many people and also a great treat for small parrots when split so that the birds can get at the soft pulp inside.
Carrots: Choose carrots with smooth skin. Do not choose thick carrots, as their centers could be hard too. If you buy fresh, bunched carrots with green tops, remove the tops before storing.
Cucumbers: Choose firm, dark green and unblemished cucumbers.
Eggplant: Choose heavy and smooth-skinned eggplants.
Fresh Figs: Pick heavy and plump figs. Also, choose the nice-smelling ones as sour-smelling figs are normally old ones.
Garlic: Pick those surrounded with tissue that have firm bulbs. Do not pick garlic with green sprouts.
Grapes: Choose firm grapes. Soft ones could be too ripe.
Hass Avocados: Choose avocados with rough skin as smooth-skinned avocados may have less flavor. Dark-skinned avocados are good to eat.
Honeydew Melons: Melons should not have any bruises or broken skin or rind. It should be easy to open them with a little pressure. Melons with some wrinkled skin may be a good buy. Also, check for a mild fragrance. This indicates the melons are ripe enough.
Leeks: Choose leeks with white bulbs and dark green leaves. Do not pick ones with yellow and brown spots, as they could be over-ripe.
Mushrooms: Choose unwrinkled, plump, unbruised and blemish-free mushrooms for those with the best taste.
Onions: Choose firm onions without any soft spots. Green onions should have bright green leaves or shoots.
Oranges: Oranges should be heavy and bulky. They should be free of any blemishes.
Peaches: Peaches should have a smooth skin and should give when you apply just a little pressure. They should not have any bruises.
Pears: Smooth-skinned and unbruised pears are the best.
Potatoes: Choose firm potatoes without any cracks or bruises.
Raspberries: Choose bright red raspberries. Be sure to check for any white or cotton-like strands around berries. These may indicate the growth of mold.
Red Peppers: Choose red peppers with smooth, thick skin.
Spinach: Choose spinach with dark green leaves and without any signs of yellowing.
Strawberries: Choose dark and bright red plump fruits without any bruises. Also, choose the ones with a fragrance.
Tomatoes: Pick tomatoes that are firm and bright in color. They should be free of any bruises.
Watermelon: Watermelons should have a tight, dark-green rind. Tap the melon slightly. If it gives out a hollow sound, it indicates a juicy and full melon.
Winter Squash: Squashes should have a hard, smooth skin.
Yams: Yams should be free of any cracks or soft spots.
Zucchini: Choose zucchini with firm, dark-green skin. Soft and wrinkly zucchini are old.
To find out more fabulous information about how to incorporate a healthy lifestyle with more fruits and vegetables order your copy of Fabulous Fruit and Vegetables today.
Georgina Cundall
http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/how-to-pick-fresh-fruits-and-vegetables-at-a-store-701079.html
admin on February 27th 2010 in Diabetes Fruits and Vegetables
Jorie responded on 27 Feb 2010 at 1:19 pm #
What to do? I feel so helpless?
I have an eating disorder and I am trying hard to get it under control. I want to eat healthy and stop eating junk so often. I think its okay to treat yourself on special occasions and such, but not every day. My problem is I go to the grocery store with my mom and pick out vegetables, fresh fruit, and lean cut low fat meats like chicken and turkey, but she continues to buy chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, and sometimes little debbie snacks. These are for my brother and stepdad mostly, and my mom. I come to the kitchen and these things constantly tempt me. Its easy access to grab a cookie or spoonful of icecream or peanut butter. I find its harder to resist sugary foods. I love sugar, im probably addicted. I never binge on fruit or vegetables even though i’d like to over sweets anyday because at least i’d not gain weight. I dont even want to binge. I want to eat normal. I know its the sugar. How can i stop reaching for sweets when i crave sweets? Its useless for her to hide them because i either find them or eventually get my own. I feel like i’m doomed. How can I start enjoying blander food with no sugar? Should I deny myself junk food for good because it seems anytime i have just one cookie or anything i cant stop until i am stuffed. Its all or nothing for me. I’ve tried a few bites but it never is enough…it makes me feel deprived. I hate enjoying junk food. I want to hate it. After all its nothing but sugar, trans fat, sodium filled, high carb, addicting stuff. I don’t smoke, do drugs, or drink…thats easy…this is a drug to me…i want to quit. I think it even gives me a high. Like all the serotin the carbs give my body. What other foods have that affect that are healthy? I am depressed and i assume thats why i reach for these foods. I need a lift in mood. Besides exercise, sex, and depression meds, how can my body make seratonin?
There is so many unhealthy food these days. At fairs, carnivals, food courts. Also, the tv always has food commercials for $1 items. I dont have tivo so i see them a lot. It annoys me. I dont want to be obese…and i would if i gave in each time someone told me to eat fast food with them. My aunt, cousin, and other family members each fast food on a weekly basis. I tell them how i feel but they dont care. As my aunt is fat, my cousin obese, and the others average.
I am not fat, but have potential…Right now i am 5’7 114 lbs. At my lowest i have been 105….i feel fat because i have gained this weight. I want to be 100-105 lbs. I want a model body. I dont understand why people assume that people who eat junk food are all fat. Eating disroders come in all shapes and sizes. I eat a lot of junk food and am lucky to be underweight. But its not easy. I struggle each day. Some people cant help it they are bigger. Metabolism, certain medications, genetics, all play a big part. People can be so cruel these days about eating disorders and people who are fat. Its sad really.
Thor responded on 27 Feb 2010 at 6:21 pm #
No one wants to read that much about you being fat. Stop eating, I figured that out without even reading it.
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Laurel responded on 27 Feb 2010 at 6:23 pm #
I also have an eating disorder (I’m anorexic and currently in recovery). Have you explained to your mom that these foods tempt you and are not helpful to you in recovery? Maybe you could work with her to pick out healthier sweet options. Try getting 100-calorie packs so that there is a set portion size, and try to buy sweets that are lower in calories so you won’t feel as guilty. For example, try to get something like Edy’s slow churned vanilla ice cream, which only has 100 calories per 1/2 cup, rather than something like Ben&Jerry’s which has far more calories. Also, it may help you to make a meal plan filled with healthy foods, and then give yourself a little space (like a few hundred calories) for a few sweets every day.
I hope this has helped, and good luck
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