The key to a long life: eat more fruit

We've all heard the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." Fruit -- whether fresh, canned or frozen -- is essential to a healthy diet. Follow these guidelines to learn how to incorporate the recommended three to five servings of fruit a day into your diet.

One serving a day of citrus cuts the risk of mouth cancer — the seventh most common cancer — by 67 percent, according to an Italian analysis of 16 studies. Like variety? Try a different citrus fruit every week.

When scientists for the giant US cereal company General Mills measured antioxidants in fruit, the winning choices read like the perfect shopping list: blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, red plums, black plums, red grapes, red apples, green grapes, nectarines, bananas, kiwi, pineapple. Why not eat a bunch of them at once? Having a brimming fruit salad after dinner most nights of the week equals at least two produce servings and a huge variety of good-for-you phytochemicals.

It's a perfect summertime Sunday project: visit a farmer's market or pick-your-own fruit farm, get a large quantity of your favourite berries or tree fruit, take it home, clean it all, and pack it up for the freezer. Then you'll have year-round local produce, perfect for blender drinks, pies, sauces, salads and toppings for that special healthy dessert treat.

It's nearly as nutritious as fresh, and you'll avoid "Uh-oh, I've suddenly got 10 overripe bananas" syndrome.

• Try mandarin oranges packed in juice, low-sugar peach slices, pineapple tidbits and unsweetened cherries.
• Have 125 grams (1/2 cup) over oatmeal or high-fibre cereal at breakfast
• Spoon some onto yogurt and top with a dusting of good fat–rich crushed walnuts at lunch
• Heat fruit with your favourite warm spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, nutmeg), thicken with a little cornstarch, and serve with chicken or ham.

That is, stop at a fruit market every few days, buy small amounts of what looks the very best, and eat it within a day or two. This is so much more pleasant than buying large bags of the same ol' stuff at the chain grocery store every two weeks.

Fruit is the perfect breakfast food.

• Toast and an apple.
• A roll and a banana.
• A bowl of cereal and berries.
• Yogurt with cantaloupe

With one push, an apple slicer divides your favorite apple into delectable slices and separates the core. It does double duty as a pear corer, too. Build your repertoire of fruit uses with a mango slicer to easily turn balky mangos into sweet, ready-to-enjoy sections and a sharp box grater for grating apples into muffin batter and oatmeal.

"Peel and wrap each one in plastic wrap, then freeze," Dr. Gerbstadt suggests. "Frozen bananas are a delicious, sweet snack. Better than a Popsicle!"

Many packaged fruit drinks are laden with sweeteners and flavoured artificially. But enjoying a glass of real orange juice (from a carton or from concentrate) or pure Concord grape juice every day is a healthy pleasure. One Vanderbilt University study found that people who enjoyed three glasses of fruit (or vegetable) juice a week had a 76 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease than those who had less than one glass per day.

Or try pomegranate juice. Lab studies suggest it can cut the risk of brain degeneration and fight cancers of the breast, prostate, and skin.