My Fruitalicious Days
In response to Dancing Elephants Press Prompt #23 of 52
Eat more fruits and Live a Fruitalicious life!
Eat diverse colors of fruits and Live Nutrilicious and Beautilicious!
We all know that consuming a good amount of fruits benefits us in several ways.
And, what do you think about including a variety to it?
Plant diversity is very important for a healthy ecosystem and wellbeing of our beautiful Planet!
Likewise, fruit diversity is essential for a healthy body and mind!
Furthermore, color diversity in fruits is essential to rejuvenate the cells!
Heal from inside out and maybe live longer disease free, young, and glowing!
Yes!
Colors bring joy!
Colors bring happiness!
Colors bring the energy!
Colors bring Life!
So are colored fruits!
Different colors contain different vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. They are essential to maintain balanced optimal health. Keep cancer and other chronic diseases at bay. It adds up the nutrient value and helps track your nutritional intake. You wonder how? Here’s a technique we can use.
🍎🌈🍒
Wear a red hat and pick an apple, strawberry, or cherry
Vitamins A, C, and E ✅ check
Potassium, copper, calcium, and iron
Also fiber and folate
Your heart smiles, eyes twinkle, and cells resurrect!
🍊 🌈🥭
Wear an orange—yellow hat and pick an orange, lemon, or mango
Vitamins A, C, and B ✅ check
Antioxidants, folate, and flavonoids
Strong bones and teeth, healthy heart
Your immunity charges, eyes wink, and skin glows!
🥑🌈 🍏
Wear a green hat and pick an avocado, kiwi, and green apple
Vitamins A, C, B9, and K ✅ check
Minerals iron, potassium, and selenium
Also fiber, Zeaxanthin, and Lutein
Your bones and teeth smile, eliminate all toxins, easy digestion!
🫐 🌈 🍇
Wear a blue—purple hat and pick some blueberries, grapes, or jamun fruit
Anthocyanin, resveratrol ✅ check
Also flavonoids
strong anti-inflammatories
Your brain gives sparkles, your heart laughs, and free radicals heal!
Did you notice that that makes the RAINBOW?
Also, adding different colors makes your meal interesting, appealing to the eyes, and attracts kids to eat in addition to adding more variety and flavor.
So, where are you going now with that basket? Good! Go grab all those colorful fruits.
But, aren’t you waiting to listen to my story?
Yes, I have one of my own for this topic too, as always adventurous and interesting!
My Fruitalicious Days
I was so lucky enough to grow up so fruitalicious!
Do you want to eat fruit?
Rush to the garden
jump up and grab
or climb up the tree
crawl on the branch
off to the roof
What a beautiful blessed life!
Aww! Those were my childhood days three decades ago!
I eat the vegetables also the same way; I run into the garden and pull out some carrots or turnips, some hanging green peas or beans, or sunflower seeds. Yummmilicious!
We had the best of special varieties of fruits in that area. The custard apple, oh!! I still can feel the taste of it, like ice cream 😋 Yum!
The manager of our neighboring tea estate was a friend of my dad’s and he gave the sapling as a gift.
We also had a wild variety of bananas, very long and shaped like the tusks of elephants, which is not available anywhere else to my knowledge. There were Tree tomatoes (Solanum betaceum), passion fruit, peaches, oranges, etc. in our own backyard.
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There’s a small story to our peaches tree!
Every season, she would be laden with fruit. We would be excited to taste the first fruit and pack some for our friends and relatives.
Of course, the birds take their share. But, the rest of it would go to waste.
One day, my mom called one of the workers’ mother and there was a long conversation happening while I was playing around with Dragon (my dog).
Only later on I came to know that she motivated that old woman to start a vendor business and made it a success. My mother also helped her get more contacts so that she could have a regular income.
She was a very poor woman and she deserved it. It was very helpful in her difficult situation and made her living with that.
All hail my mother, a beautiful soul!
All hail the peach tree!
🧡🍑🧡
My mother would travel long distances to get the saplings and seeds of different flowers and vegetables (and chicks too).
We had a green apple tree too.
She had a magical touch to her hands that she would grow anything in our garden.
There was a very special variety of guava, I’ve never seen that type anywhere else since. I don’t even have a picture of them.😔
That’s not all, the wild berries I ate during my jungle expedition and wild food hunt!😍
Whenever we visit my hometown, Coonoor in The Nilgiris, India, we get a variety of exotic fruits like Mangosteen, Rambutan, Pears, longan (cousin of the lychee), etc. Last week, I was there in my hometown for an official visit, and here’s what I got for you.👇🏻
Elaeocarpus tectorius, commonly known as Vikki pazham, rich in antioxidants and also known for antimicrobial properties. Studies have proven other medicinal uses of both the leaves and the fruit. There are several amazing health benefits.
It’s a wild fruit that grows on trees, but not many of them know about this fruit. It has only a very thin layer of flesh and a very big seed, like that of almonds.
It doesn’t change color when ripe, it just turns slightly brown when dried. You can identify it by slightly pressing it and you can eat it when soft.
My Childhood Discoveries
Like the one mentioned above, vikki pazham, I have a long list of wild fruits. It was really hard to recollect the names, but did some homework and found the names of a few of them.
I was lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of these fruits as a child in the mountains of The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu in India. These fruits are found only in the wild.
Ohh! It’s shocking to know the health benefits! I feel so blessed to have had these fruits.
1. Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Aiton) Hassk, commonly known as thavittukoyya, it’s again one of my favorites.
It’s used in the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, gynecopathy, stomachache, and wound healing (learn more). Also known for its antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties.
2. Wild raspberries
Rubus ellipticus, commonly known as golden evergreen raspberry, Yellow Himalayan Raspberry, or golden Himalayan raspberry. It’s called mullippazham in Tamil. The berries are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants.
The inner bark of the Rubus ellipticus plant is valued as a medicinal herb in traditional Tibetan medicine, including its use as a renal tonic and antidiuretic. The roots and leaves as well as the fruit have traditionally been used as therapeutic agents for several illnesses including colic pain, gastrointestinal discomfort, wound healing, diarrhea, antifertility, antibacterial, analgesic, epilepsy, and others (ref.). The fruits are edible and can also be used to produce a purplish blue dye.
I also remember eating another variety with pink berries that turn black color when fully ripe, with slightly silvery leaves.
3. Berberis tinctoria Lesch, commonly known as oosikala in Tamil.
The roots of Dye Barberry are used for curing jaundice, and the leaf parts are used for the purpose of cancer treatment to some extent by the tribal and local people. It’s a good antioxidant and anti-hemolytic.
4. Physalis peruviana Linn (Solanaceae), commonly known as thol thakkali in Tamil (learn more).
It’s a medicinal herb used by Muthuvan tribes and Tamilian natives against jaundice. It is a rich source of vitamin C, antioxidants, and other nutrients.
5. Syzygium cumini, commonly called the Indian blackberry, Java plum, black plum, or Jamun fruit, and known as Nagapazham or Naaval pazham in Tamil. This fruit has several medicinal properties and other amazing health benefits (learn more). Rich in vitamin C, iron, and loaded with potassium. It’s good for diabetes, heart health, eyes, and skin, and helps in blood purification.
The leaves have antibacterial properties and help to prevent gum bleeding. The bark also has astringent properties and is used to make a decoction which can be used to rinse the mouth to treat mouth ulcers. It also has anti-malarial properties.
It’s a summer fruit available during May and June in India.
It has a mildly sweet, astringent taste and its deep purple color turns the tongue into blue color when you eat the fruit.
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There’s more, but I’m not able to recollect the names. I will definitely write another article once I collect enough data during my next visit to my hometown.
My Mission
In my dream journey of transforming places, creating natural habitats, and afforestation, propagating native species, and promoting plant diversity in gardens is one of my biggest goals.
It can be beneficial both for the environment and humans. This way we can increase the bird population and other endangered species.
Even a small action taken to promote plant diversity can create a huge impact on our Beautiful Planet!
Even a small change in your diet and taking a small quantity of fruits can make a significant difference in your health!
Happy Fruitalicious Life!
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Spread Love! Spread Happiness!
💐Thank you Dr. Preeti Singh for this wonderful prompt and your love and support. Thank you Dr. Gabriella Korosi for creating this beautiful community and Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for always being there for us.💐
Do you have an interesting fruit story to share with us? Check this out for further details.👇🏻
Speaking of colors, Sanghita Pal’s colorful messages bring me joy and smiles. Thank you so much for your colorful love!🌈
I know some great writers here who definitely should have some interesting fruit stories to share! Allisonn Church, Louise Peacock, Joyce Nielsen, Kerrie Gutierrez-Diaz, Benighted, Shameem Anwar, Sharing Randomly, NancyO, Marta Henriques, Shubha Apte. Please tag me so that I can read your fruit story too. Thank you.
Here are some fabulous creative fruit stories from the magical word weavers, Dr. Fatima Imam, William J Spirdione, and Akemi Sagawa
🙏Thank You!🙏
