Just 3 fruits a day can help you live longer, rid fat and fight cancer

We eat badly. There is no doubt about that. We eat too many empty calories, just too much of processed food and not nearly enough fruits. So, yes, that’s the second habit I would like all of us to change.

As a weight management and wellness practitioner, I more often than not find people (at least 8 out of 10) either just not eating any fruit at all, or maximum a token fruit a day. That too, most people stick to just the one or two they like, or can tolerate. A token fruit so to say!

Thankfully, this ratio gets a little better during the mango season, when many of us begin chomping this juicy fruit regularly; love for it runs deeper than most other fruits clearly.

This is not too surprising as all of us have memories attached to mango eating - fun childhood memories of all cousins sitting together and slurping mangoes by the dozen trying to win "who had the max" competition during aimless summer holiday afternoons… Worked really well, didn’t it: we all got hooked on to this fruit for life, plus it’s really sweet and delicious, so satisfies cravings for meetha rather effectively.

Many forever constipated people I know miraculously get sorted during mango season, as it is loaded with fibre, the lack of which is usually the prime reason why they get constipated in the first place.

But mango is not the only fruit which gives you these benefits - fibre, sweet taste, satisfying cravings for meetha, goodbye to constipation… most fruits deliver these goodies. And they do all this and more with aplomb.

I feel we need to do what is done with mango, with other fruits too. We need to make all fruits exciting, and begin making memories with them too. It’s never too late to begin as you’ll end up doing it for your children at least, who will thank you later, for say, getting them hooked on to eating guava, liberally salted, sitting out in the winter sun, or making banana the de-facto breakfast fruit, or maybe poaching pears in wine and having it for birthdays (okay maybe not this one for kids)… or some such!

Get imaginative, make your own little games/rituals with different fruits and make them an intrinsic part of your diet - by hook or by crook! Sometimes it takes ingenuity to help health, and this is one such clear case.

Is it worth it?

Well, fruits can be your delicious ally against cancer, they are a friend of your waist, are heart friendly, detoxing, loaded with free radical guzzling antioxidants… so you decide!

Here’s my pick of fruits and one/two compelling reasons (of course there are plenty more) why you just "must" eat them:

Grapes: Don’t ban grapes please. They are not as calorific as usually thought. In fact, 100 gram (17 grapes) add up only 58 calories and contain no cholesterol, no sodium and almost nil fat. A natural antioxidant, resveratrol, present in abundance in grapes influences the genes that control the ageing process. Plus, they contain the same powerful heart-friendly antioxidants, called flavonoids (each tiny grape may hold more than 1,000 different flavonoids), that have made wine famous.

Kiwi: One fruit can almost meet your entire daily requirement of vitamin C. Plus it is loaded with an array of phytonutrients which have an amazing ability to provide protection against some cancers. And it helps prevent asthma too.

Papaya: It helps arrest ageing. Vitamins C, E, and carotenoids like beta-carotene and lycopene in papaya protect the skin from free radicals that lead to wrinkles and other visible signs of ageing. So papaya = great looking skin.

Watermelon: Loaded with lycopene, watermelon helps keep the heart ticking along nicely, and the amino acid citrulline in it gets converted into arginine in the body, which boosts cardiac health too.

Berries: Blackberries lead both the quality and quantity list as far as antioxidants are concerned; but if they are not available (they aren't that easily) you can zero in on strawberries and raspberries to score on their free radical zapping power and of course lots of C and E vitamins, carotenoids (like beta-carotene) and a slew of other super helpful compounds.

Finally my favourite fruit: banana. It is loaded with a particular kind of fibre called resistant starch (RS), which not just fills you up, but also keeps those damaging cravings away and boosts your metabolism.

You can read about pineapple, apple, oranges and guava here. 

Eat them

So get going, get smart about your fruit consumption; I say sneak them in consciously. Some ideas: spoon berries on your cereal, blend crushed pineapple pieces into cottage cheese for a sweet spread on your toast, chill grapes and have as a dessert (they taste like candy), whip up a tall frosty glass of smoothie (you can easily add two different kinds of fruits here).

And of course have the portable fruits like apples, bananas, and oranges when running errands around town or running in between conference room meeting.

Next week: Habit 3: Eat more herbs and spices

Also read: Change your eating habit and you will live longer and healthier