Focus on Fruit as One Way to Improve Your Health and Reduce Risk of Stroke

In keeping with National Stroke Awareness Month, May is a perfect time to embrace a fresh new beginning as gardens and grocery stores alike begin to blossom with the color of seasonal, fresh fruits and vegetables. There are many ways to add this color to your diet and benefit from the many nutrients found in fruits and vegetables. These foods are not only great sources of potassium, our nutrient of the month, but are also rich in dietary fiber, folic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin E. They are naturally cholesterol-free and low in fat, sodium, and calories. Adding more plant-based foods to your diet is not that difficult and has many benefits beyond reducing your risk for stroke, including lowering risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity and maybe even improved brain performance, vision, and bone health.

Focusing on one new healthy behavior, such as increasing one food group at a time, is a good way to start improving your diet. For example, one easy tip for incorporating fruit into your diet is to focus on fruit as a “topping” at each meal. Fresh or dried fruit is very tasty as an addition to cereal, yogurt, smoothies, sandwiches (try fruit with tuna or peanut butter!), salads, rice dishes, crepes, low-fat baked desserts, sherbet, or low-fat ice cream . Get creative and see if you can come up with new ideas for adding fruit to each meal or snack. Pretty soon you will be benefiting from adding a rainbow of color and an assortment of nutrients to your diet!