Why don’t we snack more on fruit? (Part 1)
July 13th, 2008 by XinaIt’s common knowledge that fruit is the original fast food. It’s nutritious, flavoursome and easy to eat. Increasing your consumption of fruit does wonders for your skin and eating it should be part of your holistic skincare routine. So how can we make better use of it’s potential as the convenient food of choice?
In my quest to enjoy a more natural lifestyle with my family I actively look for ways to eat more fresh produce (preferably organic) and make natural living the norm for all of us.
However, I realised that I don’t often snack on fruit and decided to question why. Here’s what I came up with:
- I get lipgloss all over most apple/pear sized fruit when I eat it
- my fingers get sticky and wet when eating most fruit – not good when working on a keyboard
- fruits aren’t a convenient shape for my handbag
- I sometimes feel more hungry after I’ve eaten the fruit than before
I know some of these reasons may seem superficial, but there you have it! OK so what was I going to do about this? There’s no way I was going to be beaten by a bunch of fruit!!
The first thing I did was check out the daily recommended amount of fruit (and vegetables) to eat. According to the Food Standards Agency, a combination of 5 portions of fruit or vegetables a day would do the trick. In my home we eat at least one portion of vegetables and/or salad with each meal, which is fine, but I still wanted to incorporate more fruit easily and seamlessly into our daily diet.
How often do you eat fruit? Do you have some recommendations on how to incorporate fruity snacks? Are you able to eat a daily amount you’re happy with? Do you consider it an issue at all? Perhaps you don’t even like fruit? Whatever your take on this issue, we’d love to hear from you! Simply add your comment in the box below or click on the comments link.
Part 2 of this article will give some ideas on how you might incorporate more fruit into your diet as part of your holistic skincare routine. Be sure not to miss it – book mark this page using the icon below or subscribe by clicking the icon in the column to the right of this article.
Yours naturally
Xina
PS I found the wonderful photo of the fruit basket at Great Hampers.
Tags: 5 a day, diet, fruit, FSA, health, holistic, natural, Natural Lifestyle, organic
Great post, Xina, because you hit on some good reasons people don’t eat more fruit when they are so good for us. Here’s more: I’m trying to cut down on sugar cravings right now (been eating too much candy!) and even though they are a more healthy kind of sugar, fruit does seem to contribute to my cravings for other sweets. Once I’ve kinda ‘detoxed’ from the sugar cravings, though, I intend to get more fruit back into my diet.
Here’s what I do to avoid the sticky fingers/smeared lip gloss problem. Every afternoon I eat an apple. I cut it up in slices. This way I don’t have to bite into the apple and my fingers remain juice free. They do say things about an apple a day, and that’s a habit I really believe in! Thanks for bringing this up.
Hi Patsi – thanks for the lipgloss tip!! You’ve hit the nail right on the head with the way you prepare your fruit. It’s a real winner and isn’t the least bit inconvenient if it’s done at convenient times. I’ll be going into this in more depth in part two. Thanks again Patsi!
I really enjoy eating the fruits that are in season. That way, you are eating the fruits while they are at their best, and don’t get burnt out on one particular fruit day after day. Right now, watermelon, cantelope, cherries, blueberries, and raspberries. Soon, fresh sweet corn, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash! Fall is all about apples and pears, squash. Winter, oranges, grapefruit and pomegranites. Spring is best for fresh asparagus and strawberries. I also love to blend frozen berries in my morning smoothie. Smoothies are great way to sneak some fruit into your diet.Thanks for the inspiration!
Jen, I was reading your comment out in the car to my husband and we were literally saying “mmmm, ooohhhh!”. What lovely suggestions! I’ll certainly be incorporating some of your suggestions in part two.