An easy change you can make to your diet to make losing weight easily attainable is the addition of fruit. Eating a wide variety of fruit keeps your diet full of flavor and void of monotony. Because fruit is naturally sweet, you can satisfy your dessert cravings by reaching for a handful of strawberries instead of a handful of candy. Fruit makes dieting and losing weight easy and fun.
Healthy Carbohydrates
Fruit provides the body with healthy, complex carbohydrates. The Harvard School of public Health says "easily digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas and other highly processed foods may contribute to weight gain, interfere with weight loss, and promote diabetes and heart disease." Fruits provide the body with needed carbohydrates without excess calories and metabolic issues.
Fiber
Many fruits naturally contain fiber. A daily intake of 25 to 30 g of fiber helps keep your bowels functioning regularly and aids in the excretion of fatty substances from the intestines, resulting in a healthier blood cholesterol level by lowering LDLs and fiber. This helps regulate your body's use of sugars. Fiber helps keep you full throughout the day, so you're more likely to consume fewer calories. Getting your fiber from fruit is both healthy and tasty.
Types
Berries, including strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, are among the highest fruit sources of antioxidants. Strawberries have more Vitamin C than citrus fruits. Berries also have the highest fiber content in addition to apples with 3 g of fiber and pears with 4 g of fiber per serving. Refer to the Fiber Food Chart provided by the National Fiber Council for more choices.
Considerations
Any excess calories, whether from fat, protein or carbohydrates, will lead to weight gain. Even when only eating healthy foods, you must still be aware of how many calories you are consuming. Certain fruits such as oranges, bananas, apricots, cherries and pears should be avoided or consumed moderately because they have a higher carbohydrate, or sugar, content than other fruits. Choose the fruit, not the juice. Fruit juices are often high in added sugar and provide fewer nutrients than the whole fruit.
Benefits
Eating fruit for snacks throughout the day will help prevent poor snacking between meal times. Because fruit is naturally sweet, it may help you beat your sugar cravings. Fruit is also naturally nutrient-dense, providing vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants.
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