Nutritious fruits are a great part of a healthy diet. They’re packed with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, fiber and a great deal more. However, some options – as fantastic as they are – can’t be purchased year-round. Alternately, if they can be found at the grocery store all year round, they’re simply not very good at some points. They’ve had to travel too far, and they’re just not the kind of produce that can endure the journey.
It’s nice to be able to eat nutritious fruits when they’re in season. That said, there is also something to be said about routine. For example, if you find there is a fruit you truly love with your breakfast in the morning or there is one fruit that makes a great dessert or post-workout snack, it’s great to know you can get them whenever you want and they’ll taste great year-round. What are these great fruits?
Year-Round Nutritious Fruits 1: Bananas
If you love slicing half a banana onto your cereal or you find it’s a perfect pick-me-up snack mid-morning, then you may have noticed that they’re always there for you. The U.S. imports bananas all year long. The majority come from Central America and they’re nearly all the same variety. For this reason, those fruits you love are always in season. You can have them as vegan ice cream, as a base for your smoothie, sliced on your peanut butter sandwich or just eaten whole. They’re perfect nutritious fruits for fiber, vitamin B6 and potassium, among many other nutrients.
Year-Round Nutritious Fruits 2: Apples
We tend to think about apples the most in the fall when they hit their peak. We can head out to orchards to pick apples from August through November, depending on the variety or the part of the country. That said, these highly nutritious fruits are great for storing and will keep for a long time. This helps to make it possible for apples to be available year-round in the United States. You can eat them whole, bake them, or even mix them into your morning oatmeal with some cinnamon.
Year-Round Nutritious Fruits: Oranges
These delicious, immune system boosting fruits taste great, come in many varieties and can always be found at the grocery store. Though orange juice – and other fruit juices – are now known to spike blood sugar and insulin levels, eating a whole orange is fantastic for your health. The fiber they contain changes the way the body processes them. The American Diabetes Association calls them one of the best foods for someone with that disease.
