Diet foods are simply foods that provide the nutrition you need to keep your body humming, and which don't saddle you with excessive calories. Diet foods, like most foods, have calories. It's just that those calories come accompanied with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients your body needs. Foods that have a high concentration of calories, but offer little in terms of nutrition, such as candies and deserts, are anti-diet foods. Fruits give you what your body needs at a reasonable caloric price, so fruits qualify as a diet food.
Fruit Defined
Health writers spout off constantly about fruit and vegetables as if they were interchangeable. Little wonder the public is confused about their fruits and vegetables. Botanically speaking, fruit are the fleshy or dry ovary of a plant that serves as the protector and source of nutrition for the seed or seeds of a plant. So, as most everybody knows, pears, apples, bananas, berries, plums, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, figs, and cherries, as well as oranges, kumquat, lemons, coconut and pineapple all are kinds of fruit. Many know that tomatoes, too, are fruit. Less well known as the fruit they really are, are the fruits that masquerade as vegetables to the general public, including cucumbers; all kinds of peppers, including the blazing hot varieties such as jalapeno, Serrano and Habanero; eggplant; zucchini; bean pods; avocados, corn, squash, pumpkins, pea pods and olives.
Nutrition in Fruit
Fruits, genetically designed to nourish the next generation of plants, are loaded with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients -- all things an aspiring plant needs to grow up and bear fruit of its own someday. Each fruit has its own nutritional profile. The kinds of nutrients in fruit are as varied as the kinds of fruit that make their way to your table. While each fruit is packed with some assortment of vitamins and minerals, the full complement of fruits encompasses many of the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients your body needs to operate at peak efficiency. The colors of the fruit announce the kinds of nutrients you will find inside, so put on your Picasso hat and create a colorful masterpiece of fruit on your snack, lunch and dinner plate.
Caloric Properties
Fruits vary in their sugar, acid and fat content. Fruits high in sugar are great for pre- or post-workout energy-loading, but don't make the best choices for dieters who are restricting their carbs. Fruits high in sugar content include cherries, grapes, mangos, figs, bananas and all dried fruit such as dates, raisins, dried apricots and prunes. Fruits low in sugar include strawberries, papaya, nectarines, blueberries, cantaloupes, honeydew melons and apples, as well as most of the fruits that are popularly known as vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, avacados, bean and pea pods and corn. Fruits medium-high in sugars include plums, oranges, pears, kiwifruit and pineapple.
Fiber
Fruit is filled with fiber. Fiber prolongs digestion, slowly releasing sugar into the bloodstream. This stabilizes blood sugar, provides a steady source of energy and decreases appetite. The fiber also aids digestion and cleanses the digestive tract.
Water
Fruits contain a lot of water. Not only do they hydrate you, but much of the volume of the food comes from water. You become full on water and fiber, more than simply sated by calories. For example, grapefruit is 90 percent water and has only 38 calories per half-fruit serving, according to MayoClinic.com.
Fat
Most fruit has negligible fat. The fruit that does have fat, such as bananas, olives and avocado, contain a fat that is much healthier than the fat found in meat and dairy. Olive oil, which technically is a fruit juice, is high in antioxidants, compounds that neutralize the free radical molecules that circulate in your blood stream and damage cells.
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