By Joan McDaniel July 8, 2012 Updated December 18, 2013
Continuing my story of finding something healthy to eat after being very sick:
Once I have found a safe breakfast Cereal, I wanted something to top it off.
I started my look around for articles. I never really enjoyed fruit, but knew it must be a major part of a good diet. I started to eat fruit, lots of it. Then one day an article showed which indicated how high the sugar content of some fruit is. One of my health problems is a border line high blood glucose readings. I had better watch my sugar intake. I cut way down on my fruit intake but still wanted the luxury of a sweet taste to my morning cereal or oatmeal plus I needed nutrition. I found verification for what I instinctively knew. Berries, Cranberries, Blueberries, and Strawberries are good for you. Again moderation was the answer. I can eat my fruit but no more than 24 grams a day. Cranberry, blueberry and strawberry contain some of the lowest counts of fructose or sugar.
Concerning nutritional benefits: Researchers have found that berry fruits change the way neurons in the brain communicate. These changes in signaling can prevent inflammation in the brain that contributes to neuronal damage and helps to improve both motor control and cognition. The study confirmed the potent multi-modal effect of berry consumption, but indicated that further studies would be required to determine if benefits are a result of individual compounds shared between berry fruits or whether the unique combinations of chemicals in each berry fruit simply have similar effects.
Research has shown, including a wide array of berries in all shapes, sizes and colors to your regular diet, is a major health benefit. Nutritionists recommend eating at least one-half cup of the raw fruit in the form of berries, each day to help prevent cognitive decline, loss of memory and Alzheimer’s dementia. These magic superfoods also strengthen your heart health, and help lower blood sugar .
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Strawberries are more than just a treat for the taste buds. They’re also health boosters that lower the risk of heart trouble and diabetes.
Scientists at the University of Warwick in England have discovered that natural chemicals found in strawberries activate a protein called “Nrf2″ that boosts antioxidant activity in the body.
Eating strawberries has previously been found to counter post-meal blood glucose decreasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Strawberries are considered to be a low fructose fruit. One cup has 3.8 grams of Fructose.
Strawberries have been ranked by researchers to be one of the best sources of antioxidants. They are ranked 27th among the best among U.S. foods. In addition, strawberries came out 4th among all other fruits (behind blackberries, cranberries, and raspberries).
Antioxidants are the only fighting force we have to combat free-radicals and the resulting inflammation. Strawberries antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients are known to improve cardiovascular and heart diseases, improve blood sugar control helping to control DM, and fight certain cancers.
Strawberries are very fragile, they can only be purchased a few day before using. Once, picked strawberries do not ripen any further, therefore, avoid non deep red color, or yellow, white or green patches. The berries should be firm, plump and free of mold. Berries that have become soften have become overripe. Place strawberries in a sealed container and store in your refrigerator at a recommended temperature of 40F. The berries will last about for about another 2 days.
Strawberries can be frozen and kept for up to a year.
“To freeze strawberries, first gently wash them and pat them dry. You can either remove the cap and stem or leave them intact, depending upon what you will do with them once they are thawed. Arrange them in a single layer on a flat pan or cookie sheet and place them in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer the berries to a heavy plastic bag and return them to the freezer where they will keep for up to one year. Adding a bit of lemon juice to the berries will help to preserve their color. While strawberries can be frozen whole, cut or crushed, they will retain a higher level of their vitamin C content if left whole.”
Blueberries are Superfoods
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Blueberries are a native plant to North America. They grow in shrubs that can grow anywhere. Michigan produces the most high bush growing blueberries.
Blueberries boost brain function
The anti-oxidant power, and blood glucose stabilizing of both strawberries and blueberries make them a very eatable treat, blueberries have been shown to be particularly useful in stabilizing brain function and protecting the neural tissue from oxidative stress. Studies have shown improvements in memory and learning while reducing symptoms of depression. Blueberries are also low is fructose, 1 cup contains 7.4 grams.
My personal favorite is the Cranberry.
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Cranberries have a famous reputation, for helping to prevent UTI’s (Unitary Track Infections), but it has other qualities as well. The industry has loaded the store shelves with cranberry juice with such high amount of HFCS and sugar, it shameful. The cranberry is low in fructose but it is sweet enough for me. 1 cup contains 0.7 grams. Cranberries have the same major health benefits as the other berries. It is hard to find a sugar free cranberry so I get Dried Cranberries. They are great snacks. I eat them by the mouthfuls. Remember 0.7 grams a cup. That is a few handfuls.
One of the strongest warning I can give is, TO AVOID ALL FRUIT JUICES THEY CONTAIN MORE HFCS THEN FRUIT.
I will now turn it over to Dr. Mercola. His list of the top nine healthiest fruits you can eat appears below. They are low in fructose, high in other benefits like fat, and fiber. The high fructose or high sugar fruits are listed last.
What you can Freeze
I have found from my experience that you can freeze, Avocado’s after they have been peeled and mashed, Blueberry’s (don’t wash until they are unfrozen, cranberries, cherries (Can freeze with the pit in. It will give the cherry a wooden taste but remove the stem and when unfrozen remember it still has the pit). This fruit can be stored up to a year. It sure makes having fresh fruit a whole lot easier. You can stock pile the fruit when in season like cherry’s and cranberries and have them all year long. Also when in season and inexpensive, buy a bunch freeze and eat when the price has gone back up. Note: the berry does not look quite as sharp and is a little soft but it has not lost the taste.
Beware of canned or dried fruit – Nothing can be easier than to open a can of fruit for a quick snack but watch out for it is loaded with high-fructose corn syrup. Dried fruits can be convenient especially when the natural fruit is not available or out of season but it too has been loaded with sugar plus sulfur is used as a preservative.
A fruit cup or a can of mandarin oranges surely make for good, wholesome snacks, right? Not so fast, warn food experts. Granola, and Trail mix needs some second thoughts also for they are also loaded with added sugar.
The type of fruit will also make a difference in its nutrient value, as all fruits are definitely not equal in this respect. A great rule of thumb is to avoid hybrid varieties, which are fruits that have been altered by humans. Typically hybrid fruits contain more sugar than regular varieties so they taste sweeter and can be picked out because they don’t contain seeds (seedless watermelon, seedless grapes, etc.). Below I’ve listed some of the healthiest fruits available in terms of nutritional value along with some of their nutritional qualities.
A Word about High Fructose Corn Syrup
Fructose!
Fruit is good for you its sugar is often deemed a “healthy”. The sugar fruit contains is called Fructose.
And if you were to only eat fructose in a piece of fruit or two a day, you’d probably be just fine.
An apple contains Fructose
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American Standard Low-Fat diet is very high in calories.
American Standard Diet (SAD) may be low in fat but it is very high in calories. These calories consist of manufactured sugar which is called High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). You gain weight not from fat but from calories especially HFCS.
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The central issue is that manufactured fructose is now used in virtually all processed foods (whether you’d suspect the food would contain a sweetener or not). American Food manufactures to compensate for the bland taste in their Low-Fat products have loaded them with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). HFCS is a manufactured product to be exactly like the sweet tasting Fructose and they load it into almost everything they make. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breakfast bars, breads, cereals, condiments, lunch meats, soups, yogurts, soups, and just about anything else.
This is way too much sugar – Americans diets are loaded with sugar and void of any nutrition. Sugar is not nutrition and too much of it causes serious illness like diabetes, inflammation (The cause of all disease) and obesity. Remember Carbohydrates get converted to sugar also. We have become addicted to sugar. Your body’s systems simple shut down with this sugar overload. Remember Sugar is an acid which deprive your cells of oxygen by being converted to free-radicals. Your system becomes resistive to Insulin, your Immune system simply shuts down and your body’s cells die.
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You may also be interested in Dr. Mercola’s interview with Dr. Richard Johnson, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, He has also written the best book on the market on the dangers of fructose.
Dr. Richard Johnson book The Sugar Fix and his newest book The Fat Switch.
Don’t stop eating fruit – Just stop OVERDOSING on sugar.
Does this mean you need to avoid fruit too? As you can see in this table, some fruits are very high in fructose, so munching indiscriminately could set you back.
Don’t stop eating fruit you need that nutrition – just watch how much daily Fructose you are actually consuming.
If you’re able to keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day then it’s not typically going to cause you or your family any major health issues. Unfortunately, while this is theoretically possible, precious few people are actually doing that.
Don’t stop eating fruit just watch how much daily Fructose you are actually consuming.
Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose
Limes 1 medium 0
Lemons 1 medium 0.6
Cranberries 1 cup 0.7
Passion fruit 1 medium 0.9
Prune 1 medium 1.2
Apricot 1 medium 1.3
Guava 2 medium 2.2
Date (Deglet Noor style) 1 medium 2.6
Cantaloupe 1/8 of med. melon 2.8
Raspberries 1 cup 3.0
Clementine 1 medium 3.4
Kiwifruit 1 medium 3.4
Blackberries 1 cup 3.5
Star fruit 1 medium 3.6
Cherries, sweet 10 3.8
Strawberries 1 cup 3.8
Cherries, sour 1 cup 4.0
Pineapple 1 slice(3.5″ x .75”) 4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red 1/2 medium 4.3
Boysenberries 1 cup 4.6
Tangerine/mandarin orange 1 medium 4.8
Nectarine 1 medium 5.4
Peach 1 medium 5.9
Orange (navel) 1 medium 6.1
Papaya 1/2 medium 6.3
Honeydew 1/8 of med. melon 6.7
Banana 1 medium 7.1
Blueberries 1 cup 7.4
Date (Medjool) 1 medium 7.7
Apple (composite) 1 medium 9.5
Persimmon 1 medium 10.6
Watermelon 1/16 med. melon 11.3
Pear 1 medium 11.8
Raisins 1/4 cup 12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red) 1 cup 12.4
Mango 1/2 medium 16.2
Apricots, dried 1 cup 16.4
Figs, dried 1 cup 23.0
Sources:
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=8
http://www.easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/strawberries-strengthen-heart-health/
http://www.naturalnews.com/035473_blueberry_superfood_brain_function.html
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/01/14/healthy-fruits.aspx
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