The American fitness fanatic Bryan DiSanto has designed a ranking system. The target? Measure the nutritional values of a piece of fruit. After all, DiSanto had been possessed for years by the question of what exactly is the healthiest piece of fruit on earth. And with his scale, he has finally found the answer – or then an answer.
Best fruits to eat daily
To gain insight into this complex matter in a simple and direct way, DiSanto has taken into account twelve different ‘dimensions’ in the nutritional value of a piece of fruit. These dimensions are: calories, sugar, fiber, antioxidants, glycemic load (which measures the effect of the fruit on blood sugar levels), vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K and potassium. The top ten of his ranking can be found below.
10# Blueberries
The American ‘blueberry’ is related to the plant genus ‘Vaccinium’, a genus that also includes the cranberry and the European blueberry or ‘Billberry’. Such a blueberry quickly contains 57 calories, 10 grams of sugar and 2 grams of fiber. He scores a total value of 44 on the DiSanto scale. The blueberry is originally a typical North American phenomenon. The berries come in two large varieties: small and large. The small specimens grow on low bushes in the wild.
The large specimens grow on cultivated tall shrubs. The berry has not been known in Europe for very long. The first commercial tall bushes were only imported here in the 1930s.
9# Wild cherries
With a total score of 46 on the DiSanto scale, the sour cherries do even better than the blueberries. The 50 calories per cherry, including eight grams of sugar, are particularly impressive, as are the presence of 26% vitamin A and 5% potassium. Wild cherry is also known as ‘sour cherry’ or ‘Prunus cerasus’ by scientists. It can be found in most European and Southwest Asian countries.
Of course, the sour cherry is closely related to the sweet cherry or the ‘Prunus avium’, but – like all more acidic fruits – the wild cherry has a greater nutritional value than its sweet counterpart.
8# Cantaloupe
The ‘rock melon’, the ‘muskmelon’, the ‘sweet melon’, the ‘Persian melon’ or even ‘bacon’: these are just a few names for what is understood by (the different varieties of) ‘cantaloupe’ or the fruit genus “Cucumis melo”.
The cantaloupe can weigh between 500 grams and 5 kilograms. Originally, the term specifically referred to the European, non-curing melon with orange flesh. Over the years, however, the term has also been extended and ‘cantaloupe’ means every melon with orange flesh. Today, cantaloupe is America’s most popular melon, but originally the fruit comes from Iran, India and Africa. The name comes from French and indicates the city ‘Cantalupo’, a former papal seat near Rome. It is there that the first European canteen was cultivated.
7# Papaya
The papaya comes into our vocabulary through the Spanish language. It is the fruit of the ‘Carica papaya’, the only plant in the genus of the ‘Carica’ in the ‘Caricaceae’ family. The fruit was originally a phenomenon from Tropical America, possibly Mexican and Central American. The papaya was in any case cultivated for the first time in Mexico. On the DiSanto scale, the papaya scores mainly due to an abundance of 103% vitamin C. Interesting fact: the papaya is the first transgenic fruit of which the entire genome was ever deciphered.
6# Kiwi
The ‘kiwi fruit’ or the ‘Chinese gooseberry’ is known outside New Zealand mainly under its abbreviation ‘kiwi’. It is the edible fruit of a wooden pointing stick of the genus ‘Actinidia’. The most common kiwi species (the ‘Hayward’) is oval and about the size of a chicken egg. The fruit is originally North Chinese. Other species of the Actinidia genus can also be found in India, Japan and Southeast Siberia. The cultivation of the fruit also spread from this area. The first commercial planting of kiwis thus finally took place in New Zealand. The kiwi is so healthy because it contains a shocking amount of vitamins, including an excess of vitamin C and a whopping 50% vitamin K.
5# Cranberries
The cranberry, also known as the cranberry, is exceptionally rich in antioxidants and owes its high place in the DiSanto scale mainly to this fact. The cranberry itself owes this rich value primarily to the rich, acidic marsh soils on which it thrives best and is cultivated.
These grounds are mainly found in the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere. Cranberry is an important harvest and export product in a number of US states and Canadian provinces.
The popular berries are also often used in sauces, jams or juice. For example, ‘cranberry sauce’ is an indispensable part of the traditional ‘Thanksgiving’ celebrations in America and Canada.
4# Strawberries
Rich in antioxidants and vitamin C, the strawberry deserves its place on the DiSanto scale. The ‘garden strawberry’ or ‘simple strawberry’ is a widely cultivated hybrid fruit formed by a cross between the genera ‘Fragagria’ and ‘Ananassa’. It is a surprisingly popular fruit that is widely praised for its beautiful, red color, its juicy texture and sweet taste.
The strawberry is therefore exceptionally consumed and processed in all kinds of productions such as fruit juice, cakes, ice cream, milkshakes and chocolate.
3# Psidium
Our top three gets a slightly exotic touch thanks to this fruit, the psidium, which is probably better known under its English name ‘guava’. Psidiums are plants from the ‘Myrtaceae’ family and from the genus of the same name, which comprises around a hundred different tropical shrubs and small trees. The psidium is native to Mexico, Central America and North-South America.
Meanwhile, the fruit is cultivated almost throughout the tropical region, from Africa and South Asia to Southeast Asia, the Caribbean Islands and the subtropical regions of North America, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia and Spain. On the DiSanto scale, the fruit owes its place to its richness in natural fibers and vitamin C.
2# Raspberries
The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species from the genus ‘Rubus’, part of the rose plant family. Most raspberries are part of the subgenus ‘Idaeobatus’. The name of the fruit is immediately the same as that of the plant. Raspberries grow all year round and have a wooden trunk. They are widely cultivated in all temperate climate zones in the world. A raspberry contains 52 calories, 4 grams of sugar and 6 grams of fiber. But the high number of omega 3 fatty acids is particularly striking: 126.0 milligrams.
1# Burr
Here he is, the number one of DiSanto, with 64 points on the scale: the (culture) burr. In particular in terms of the presence of antioxidants, few fruits score better than 4.77 mmol present in these berries. The blackberry is the edible fruit produced by many species of the genus ‘Rubus’ from the ‘Rosaceae’ family.
This usually black fruit is not really a ‘berry’ or ‘blackberry’ in the strict, botanical sense of the word. Officially it is a so-called ‘collector stone fruit’, composed of a ‘bunch’ of smaller ‘stones’. The blackberry is widespread and often occurs in temperate climates throughout Europe, Northwest Africa, Central Asia, and North and South America.
