What Are the 20 Healthiest Fruits?

Everyone knows fruits and vegetables are essential for eating a balanced diet. Still, if you want to go beyond balanced to a truly healthful way of eating, it’s important to eat fruits of various colors every day. If you’re wondering where to start, try adding some of these delicious and healthy fruits to your plate!

Apples

Consistently rated the most popular fruit on surveys, apples are portable, easy to eat with meals or as a snack, and they’re full of nutrients! Their fiber promotes consistent blood sugar levels, good digestion, and cut health.

Bananas

Known for their high potassium levels—which support heart function, muscle contraction, and water balance—bananas also contain B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium and prebiotics.

Blueberries

If you’re looking for something to fight cell-damaging free radicals, you won’t do much better than the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties contained in blueberries.

Strawberries

Another consistently popular fruit, strawberries, is a good source of vitamin C, folate, manganese and antioxidants. They also have a high level of dietary fiber, which contributes to their low glycemic index—meaning they won’t have much impact on blood sugar levels, along with most other berries.

Grapes

High in potassium and packed with vitamin K, which is important for heart health, grapes are also full of plant compounds linked to a lower risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. For the most antioxidant benefits, eat red and purple grapes rather than white, yellow or green grapes.

Oranges

There’s around 91% of your daily value of vitamin C in just a single orange, plus they also have high levels of potassium, folate, and thiamine. While these nutrients survive the juicing process, and orange juice is often fortified with additional nutrients, you won’t get the dietary fiber of an orange in orange juice—even the kind with some pulp!

Grapefruit

Grapefruit is full of high levels of vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and beta carotene and has been linked by many studies to higher levels of good cholesterol. Despite its many potential health benefits, grapefruit does contain certain compounds that can reduce or alter the effectiveness of some medications.

 If you’re taking oral medications or are getting a new prescription, make sure to mention it to your healthcare professional if you regularly eat grapefruit to see whether you might want to avoid it while taking medications.

Mango

Full of potassium, folate, fiber, and vitamins A, C, B6, E and K, plus rich in many polyphenols with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, mangoes are called “the king of fruits” for a reason! (Okay, the reason is probably that they’re delicious, but the serious health benefits make them even more appealing). 

Pineapple

The most popular tropical fruit, a single one-cup serving of pineapple, has around 88% of your daily value of vitamin C and 73% of your daily value for manganese, which supports metabolism and blood sugar regulation.

Cherries

Fiber, potassium, and antioxidants are all important for heart and gut health, making cherries a great place to get these nutrients! They also contain serotonin, tryptophan, and melatonin, which are involved in mood regulation and sleep cycles.

Watermelon

Watermelons have a high amount of vitamins A and C, beta carotene and lycopene. Watermelon is a delicious summer treat. Since it contains about 90% water and potassium, and magnesium electrolytes, it’s a great way to hydrate!

Peaches

Another tasty summer treat, peaches are full of potassium, fiber, vitamins A, C, and E, and carotenoids. For the most health benefits, make sure to eat the skin, which contains most of the peaches’ antioxidants.

Kiwi

Vitamin C, fiber, potassium, folate, vitamin E, plus carotenoids to support eye health, kiwi has also been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to improve digestion and gut health due to its fiber and digestive enzymes.

Avocado

If you’re looking for something high in healthy fats and low in sugars, this is the stone fruit for you. Potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, folate, vitamins E and K, and lutein and zeaxanthin support eye health.

Olives

Another stone fruit high in healthy fats and much more, olives contain vitamin E, copper, and antioxidants. If you don’t like the flavor of olives, you can also get these nutrients from olive oil to reap potential health benefits, including a reduced risk of cognitive decline.

Guava

One of the best sources of multiple nutrients, single guava has about 140% of your daily value of vitamin C, plus more lycopene than many other fruits. It is also a high source of antioxidants.

Pomegranates

Besides the benefits from their high levels of vitamin C, pomegranates also contain an especially large amount of beneficial plant compounds. These compounds have many antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that fight free radicals and reduce chronic disease risks. As little as 8.5 ounces of pomegranate juice per day for 12 weeks was shown to result in significantly lower levels of inflammation.

Dragon Fruit

Southeast Asian cultures have known about the health benefits of dragon fruit for hundreds of years. While its popularity in Western countries in recent decades is mainly due to its unique appearance, it includes many important nutrients like fiber, iron, magnesium and vitamins C and E.

Lychee

Sometimes called Chinese cherry, lychees are a great place to find vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and polyphenols with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Durian

If you’re feeling brave—or are looking for a fun bonding activity to share with family and friends—try durian, the fruit with an intense reputation. Its flavor is described as sweet, savory and creamy, but don’t let that scare you off! Durian is full of fiber, vitamin C, B vitamins, and its pulp has probiotics! Plus, you’ll get to tell everyone you tried it. 

Start Your Five a Day at Kate’s Kitchen!

Try one of our delicious breakfast options featuring many of the healthy fruits on this list—we recommend our Fruit-A-Licious Pancakes with a choice of banana, craisin and granola; blueberry; or apple with pecan.

Take a look at our breakfast menu!

Give us a call if you would like to place a to-go order!

Kate’s Kitchen… (816) 436-7200

Ronnie’s Restaurant… (913) 831-8600