What are the benefits of citrus fruits? Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, tangerines, mandarin oranges, pineapples and even tomatoes are all those fruits that come to mind, the moment we hear citrus fruits. All these fruits are very rich sources of Vitamin C, which is a very vital vitamin for a healthy body, as well all know. The fruits mentioned above are also known as antioxidant fruits as they counter the harmful effects of free radicals.

What are the nutrients that are found in citrus fruits?

• Vitamin C
• Folic acid or Folate
• Potassium

Vitamin C helps protect the body’s immune system and is very vital to safeguard it from common cold and flu. Folic acid prevents neural cord defects such as spinal bifida during pregnancy and potassium helps in regulating body fluids.

Citrus fruits are very important for a day to day healthy lifestyle. You can have the citrus fruits either whole or in the form of juices, making them among the highest antioxidant fruit juice known to mankind.

Benefits of citrus fruits can be classified as:

• Skin care – Antioxidants such as flavanones, anthocyanins, polyphenols and vitamin C are found in citrus fruits and as they counter the harmful effects of free radicals they help your skin stay healthy and young.
• Strong bones – Vitamin C helps in absorbing calcium in the human body, which is necessary for strong bones
• Protects heart – Citrus fruits like oranges are known to reduce bad cholesterol.
• Helps in digestion – Lemon water which is acidic has been found to aid in digestion. Orange peels have also been known to be very effective in aiding digestion.
• Protects eyesight – A diet rich in citrus fruits has been found to prevent cataracts.
• Enhances mood – Citrus fruits are known as great mood enhancers.

Include citrus fruits in your everyday diet and reap big health benefits.  Go grab an orange!

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Want to learn more about one of the super fruit wolfberry? The health benefits of wolfberry are amazing and have been written about as far back as 230 A.D. Commercially, wolfberry is known as goji berry and often there are over-exaggerated claims of the benefits of the goji berry. One internet site claims that a Chinese man consumed the berry everyday and lived to be well over 200 years old. Often times these claims, made injunction with pyramid sales opportunities make it difficult to weed out what the true benefits are. Science is studying this super fruit, and they have come up with some concrete evidence that wolfberry have benefits.

Wolfberry

Wolfberry has been linked with immune health. It is found in studies of both animals and a group of seniors in China that using wolfberry increased antibody production in the T-cell, thus, improving the patience immune system.

Another claim is that wolfberry reverses the aging response. While it is difficult to believe that it reversed it so much as to allow a human to live to 200 it does seem to reduce the signs of aging. In a study in China it was found that there was an increase in antibody agents in the blood of those that took it.

Cancer prevention has also come up. While not cure, long term acute cancer patients in China reported that while taking Wolfberry, they had a longer remission between reoccurring cancer and showed signs of cancer regression. It is thought that Wolfberry would also be very effective in helping patients with Liver Cancer because of the ability to heal damage to liver cells. It also helps with the patient?s immune system and allows them to have a higher success rate with radiation therapy.

China also performed a study with cell growth and noted that while patients took Wolfberry cell growth increased stem cell proliferation.
Lastly, wolfberry has been known to help with vision. There are very few foods that contain zeaxanthin, wolfberry is one of them. Zeaxanthin is a sister pigment with Lutein. They are known to protect the retina by neutralizing free radicals caused by sun damage. Wolfberry also contains a high level of beta-carotene which helps strengthen eye function as well.
While the scientific study of wolfberry is relatively new, there is no doubt that there are many health benefits of wolfberry. Wolfberry may not allow you to live to 200 but there is certain biological evidence that it can give your body much of what it needs to function the best that it can.

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Ripe Spring Peaches

Spring is only a few weeks away, and it’s time to start thinking about the planting season ahead. This lush peaches picture inspires an informational post for anyone interested in planting peaches.

Peaches are thought to originate in China and were most likely introduced into the West by the Romans. Today peaches are enjoyed in all parts of the world and can be easily introduced into a small garden. Though farmers’ markets are excellent sources of fresh fruit in the summer, dwarf peach trees can be accommodated in the backyard. They stay small, usually within seven feet in height and require only basic care such as pruning and spraying for pests. Dwarf trees produce fruit sooner after planting than regular peach trees even though the fruits of both are the same size.

The best feature of growing a peach tree in the backyard is direct access to the fruit for canning and for delicious summer treats like peach pie, peach cobbler, and peaches and cream. A great crunchy peach cobbler recipe calls for:

• 2 cups of sliced peaches (15 to 17 oz can)
• 2 cups of sugar divided
• a stick of butter sliced into pieces
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

The directions are also easy:

1. Preheat the oven to 350

2. In a 11×7 inch pan, place butter. Place the pan with the butter in the oven to melt.

3. While the butter is melting, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and a pinch of salt (if you’re not using salted butter) in a bowl with the milk.

4. Remove the butter from the oven and pour the batter over the top, DO NOT STIR.

5. Combine remaining cup of sugar with the sliced peaches and spoon over the batter, liquid and all.

6. Bake for about 1 hour until it is golden brown, but check it around 50 min

7. Serve warm, cold, or with ice cream.

Reference: http://www.delange.org/PeachDwarf/PeachDwarf.htm

Here are some more great books with recipes for peaches:

• Peach Delights Cookbook: A Collection of Peach Recipes (Cookbook Delights Series)
• Peach Recipe Journal
• Peaches and Other Juicy Fruits: From Sweet to Savory, 150 Recipes for Peaches, Plums, Nectarines and Apricots

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Have you heard? A new study by the Texas AgriLife Research center has decided that mangoes may have the ability to stop cancer cell lines from growing not only in the colon but also in breast tissue. This is hopeful information that there may be ways to prevent folks from developing these diseases. And, of course, it adds mangoes to fruit fighting cancer.

If you’re good at maintaining an alkaline diet of fruits and veggies combined with whole grains, then you might be interested in adding mangoes to your diet.

The food scientists at Texas AgriLife Research say that mangoes are often overlooked for being a fruit rich in antioxidants, like pomegranates or blueberries.  They tested the five different varieties that are found in the United States – Kent, Francine, Ataulfo, Tommy/Atkins and Haden.  “[The Mango] has about four to five times less antioxidant capacity than an average wine grape, and it still holds up fairly well in anticancer activity, [i]f you look at it from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking super food,” noted researcher Dr. Susanne Talcott.

While the fruit showed fighting capabilities against lung, leukemia and prostate cancer, it seemed to be most effective in fighting colon and breast cancer lines.

This study along with others was commissioned by the National Mango board in order to help determine the nutritional value of the fruit.

Read more about it here: http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=1686

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The raspberry is pretty well-known across the world.  They are grown for local grocery stores and fresh food markets as well as for processing for frozen fruit, dried, pureed fruit and juice.

Because raspberries need an ample amount of sun and water to develop, they are usually a mid-summer crop, depending on where you are located in the world. 

In addition to their great taste and fun texture, raspberries as with all antioxidant fruits, have numerous health benefits.

• Polyphenol antioxidants
• Anthocyanin pigments
• Dietary fiber
• Vitamic C
• Manganese
• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
• Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
• Folic Acid
• Magnesium
• Potassium
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids
• Copper
• Iron

Because of their deeper color, raspberries are near the top when compared to other fruits based on their antioxidants when it comes to their dense amounts of ellagic acid, quercetin, gallic acid, anthocyanins, cyanidins, pelargonidins, catechins, kaempferol and salicyclic. 

Raspberries have an ORAC Value of about 4900 per 100 grams, which falls under blueberries (they’re 9000 ORAC units) and above apples at 2800.

The health benefits that some have experienced with raspberries are listed below.  Please be aware that this isn’t proof that they work, but that they are known to help.

• Reduces Inflamation
• Helps to Eliminate Age-Related Cognitvie Decline
• Prevents Cardiovascular Disease
• Reduces Allergies
• Helps to Prevent Degeneration of Eye Sight with Aging
• Reduces Pain
• Prevents Cancer

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry

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If you have been a loyal Antioxidant-fruits.com reader, then you might have noticed that the site was re-launched in January with a bit of a facelift.

After much debate, we decided to move the site from SBI to Wordpress and used Ninja Blog Setup to do it.

We wanted the site to be more interactive and engaging for our readers.  We also quite enjoy this platform as it allows for us to include a lot more options than we were able to do with SBI.

So with that said, we would love for our readers to start contributing.  If you like fruit, have a fruit company or just want to learn about fruit, we are accepting guest posts.  Please do contact us and clear your topic idea for the site before you submit it.

We are also accepting fruit recipes, fruit pictures, fruit farm directory listings, travel to fruit ideas, where to buy fruit ideas and much more.

The purpose of antioxidant-fruits.com is to share information about fruit – it’s uses, availability and benefits.  Fruit is an amazing food – it looks cool, tastes great and supplies our bodies with fabulous nutrients and minerals.

Please contribute to this site in any way that you see fit!  We welcome all comments and suggestions!

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Post by Jenny Dean

We know you’re out there and reading antioxidant-fruits.com, so there must be a reason for it!  We want to know if you have a favorite fruit!

I certainly do, but it took me awhile to know that it was my favorite fruit.  I am 30 years old and never seemed to be much a fan of fruit. 

I think watermelon was my favorite fruit.  How lame is that?

But in my mid-20s I discovered raspberries.  Although raspberries are pretty common place, I really was sort of grossed out by them.  However, now I love their texture.

Picking raspberries outside of Middlebury, VT

I got my Masters in Spanish from Middleburry College, so in the summers, when we weren’t in class, we would go and pick raspberries.  There are small raspberry growers all over Vermont.  Usually, they will have a plywood sign that they have painted.  Something along the lines of, “Pick Raspberries Here.” 

They hand you a little basket and everything you can fit into the basket is yours for $3-$4.  The best thing is when they tell you that you can go ahead and taste test while you are picking out your raspberries. 

There is nothing like a warm, ripe Vermont raspberry!  YUM!  However, you can eat too many and then pay the price in the bathroom later!  However, it is a price I am willing to pay to over endulge in raspberries.

So, we want to know what is your favorite fruit?  Why?  How did it become your favorite fruit?  Comment below and let us know.  If it’s an unusal fruit, let us know where it comes from, what the health benefits are (if you know of any) and where to find it.

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We all have heard for years that eating your fruits and veggies is a necessity.  Certainly, you are aware of that necessity if you have ever been constipated from eating too much bad food.  A little fiber from fruits and veggies will set you straight!  And your digestive system isn’t the only thing that is aided when you eat a proper diet.  Here are a couple of fruits that if you eat a few times a week, just might save your life.

Grapes:  Need a healthy dose of vitamin C and potassium?  No problem.  Grapes to the rescue.  If you know anything about antioxidants then you know the darker the skin of a fruit, the more dense it is in antioxidants.  The polyphenols found in the skin of a grape have tremendous health benefits and the carotenoid hycopene of red grapes helps to fight breast and prostate cancer.

Fruit that Ends with “berry”:  Surely, you know a lot of fruit that ends in”berry”.  In fact, usually fruits are paired with berries, “fruits and berries” is often how you see it.  Some examples are: the blueberry, the elderberry, the strawberry, etc.  Berries, because they are so rich in color, are loaded with antioxidants.

Fruit, because of the fiber and antioxidants that they offer, are excellent for detoxifying the system.

Learn more about Ten Foods that Could Save Your Life, like chocolate, coffee, pumpkin, avocados, oats, soy, cinnamon and nuts.  Or read a more extensive list of 101 foods that could save your life.

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Columbia Phyto Technology and Kerry Ringer, a Washington State University assistant professor, recently published the results of their study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. 

The team looked into preserving the health-promoting compounds in dried blueberry powder.  The reason for the interest in the study was because of consumers needs for highly nutritious foods as well as concerns about costs.  Also, because blueberries are a seasonal crop they end up having a short life as a fresh product.  Because of their popularity, they end up being frozen or processed.  However, keeping food frozen can end up being a financial burden on the industry as well as the consumer. 

The technology was the radiant zone dryer.  It ended up preserving as many antioxidants and anthocyanins as their liquid counterparts.  Ringer noted, “We focused our study on drying of blueberry puree, blueberry juice and blueberry extract supplied by Washington fruit processing companies.”

This is excellent news because dried blueberry powder allows for minimal degradation of anthocyanins and therefore makes the preservation of blueberries more cost effective. 

Ringer added, “This project demonstrated the development of value-added products that potentially bolster profit margins and the types and numbers of jobs in agriculture.”

Source: http://mobile.westernfarmerstockman.com/index.aspx?ascxid=cmsNewsStory&rmid=0&rascxid=&args=&rargs=9&dt=633982152662968750&lid=a8yebu2d9qxnz7lo&adms=633982152661250000X3bf6e7e6e4&cmsSid=34358&cmsScid=9

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Although it seems silly to talk about fruits for 2010, it is also appropriate as everyone seems to be covering what the top foods are for 2010.  As a fruit website, we thought we’d cover the top fruits for 2010!

Whether you are dieting or just trying to eat more healthy in 2010, then there is no doubt that you want to include a  number of different fruits in your diet.  Antioxidant fruits provide vitamins, minerals and fiber.  In addition to these essential nutrients, they also have disease fighting compounds. 

Disease Fighting Compounds in Fruit:

• Lycopene (a chemical that gives fruit a red color)
• Reservatrol (Found in red grapes)
• Anthocyanin (Found in blueberries, blackberries, kiwis and cherries)

When you choose fruits for 2010, you have a reduced risk of diabetes, chronic medical conditions, like diabetes, high cholestrol and high blood pressure.  Also, regular consumption of fruit reduces your risk for heart disease, strokes and certain types of cancer.

Fruits are easy to come by in your grocery store.  If they aren’t in season, sometimes you can find them in your freezer section.  Or you can always wait until they are in season and them freeze them so that you can have them when they are not in season.

Since fruit is easy to prepare, it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to incorporate it into your diet.  You can serve it raw, blended, baked or grilled.  It is the perfect compliment to a yogurt snack or for a topping on your favorite ice cream or cereal. 

Tell us how you will incorporate fruit in your diet for 2010 by leaving a comment below.

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