Spring Fruits and Vegetables

Goodbye snow, goodbye ice, goodbye heavy winter clothes and hell-ooo beautiful weather! I think it is safe to say that we are all pretty excited for the spring season. Spring resembles life: flowers bloom, animals mate, and beautiful color fills our atmosphere. Another wonderful aspect of the spring season is the variety of food.

For those of you who can use a bit of a spring cleaner-upper, why not start cleaning up bad eating habits? Let’s face it: the majority of us probably failed at keeping our New Year's resolutions of being “fit and healthy.” So why not take advantage of this new opportunity to make things right? Speaking of fit and healthy, keep in mind that summer will soon be around the corner and substituting unhealthy sweets with spring filled fruits is an easy fix. Strawberries are first on the list. Strawberries are available all year round in some areas but they suffer less damage in transit and are more likely to be fresher in quality during the springtime. These wonderful berries are very nutritional as they provide 3.5 grams of fiber and attribute to your vitamin C dosage.

All of the following fruits do wonders to the body so them all together and have yourself a dream fruit salad:

• Apricots
• Avocados
• Blueberries
• Grapefruit
• Kiwi
• Pineapple

The hard part about eating healthier is that vegetables are not the first foods to be considered due to the daily diet of most Americans consisting of meats and fried foods. Asparagus is a good spring vegetable due to its great nutritional value as they are low in fat, high in fiber, and provide a good source of vitamin B and C as well as iron. Fresh peas are also a great spring vegetable because they too are low in fat, high in fiber, and provide a great source of plant protein.

The following vegetables are also great in the spring:

• Artichoke
• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrots

There are a number of fruits and vegetables that we should really take advantage of this spring season and it can also be a great adventure picking them yourself at a farm. Choose your food wisely as a lot of the best tasting foods contain the least amounts of grease and oil.