A mysterious something is sweeping through the whole world right now! No one can see it, no one can hear it yet its impact is felt on people’s health and on everybody’s day to day life. Nations all over the globe are seeking answers. Oh! It’s spreading by infecting more and more people every day. This strange thing is called covid – 19 or corona virus. How do we fight it? How do we stop it? What exactly can we do to help the situation?
One thing is sure we need to have healthy immune systems at a time like this. And to have a healthy immune system, we have to eat the right food. I make a fruit and vegetable salad which helps strengthen and maintain a healthy immune system. This salad is a combination of 9 fruits and 3 vegetables. A bowl of my salad is 400g and it contains 189 calories.
Virus, Bacteria, immune system
What do these words have in common? How are they related to each other? For starters, they all have something to do with the human body system being well or being unwell. Two things attack the human body system it could be a bacterium or a virus. The immunity within the body system has to prevent this attack or it fights the infection when it has gained access into the human body.
A bacteria infection in the body can be treated by using medication such as antibiotics.
A virus cannot be cleaned out of the human body. Once it gets into a body, it would run its course. The best thing is to prevent a virus from getting into the human body. If a human body gets infected by a virus, The only way it won’t damage the body is for that body to have a healthy immune system.
The immune system is cells in the human body that protect the body from infection or fights infection that gets into the body. It is the body’s defence mechanism that protects the body from illnesses like the common cold all the way to cancer. For a healthy immune system, the body needs an adequate amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, Protein and Zinc.
The Fruits and Vegetables in my Salad and their nutrition
Ingredients and how they boost immunity. The ingredients in this salad are Pineapple, Lemon, Mango, Carrot, Radish, Cucumber, Kiwi, Strawberries, Blackberries, Apple, Melon and grapes.
Here is a list of nutrients in my fruit bowl ingredients
Pineapple – Is rich in vitamin C
Lemon – Is rich in zinc it contains 60mcg per 100g. Lemon helps the body battle infection
Mango – is high in vitamin C and vitamin A, it also contains zinc. Mango is a very good source of antioxidants.
Carrot – is rich in vitamin A and Potassium
Radish – is rich in vitamin C
Cucumber – contains vitamin K and vitamin C
Kiwi – extremely rich in vitamin C
Strawberry – is very rich in vitamin C, it also contains vitamin E and the B vitamins
Blueberry – contains vitamin B6, it also contains vitamin C
Apple – Its skin contains quercetin, a plant pigment that boosts immunity
Honey-Dew Melon – contains 30% vitamin C, 5% vitamin B6 and 1% vitamin A
Red Grapes – contains vitamin C
How to make this salad
Kitchen tools needed: Saladmaster food processor. Citrus squeezer, Sharp knife. Sieve, Chopping board. Mixing Bowls. Gloves.
Fruits and vegetables: Lemon. Apple. Kiwi. Grapes. Melon. Strawberry. Blueberry. Mango. Pineapple. Radish. Cucumber. Carrot.
Method: Wash all fruits and vegetables. Squeeze the lemons and pour the lemon juice into a bowl. Grate or chop apples into the lemon juice using the saladmaster food processor. Carrots, melon and cucumber are also chopped in the processor. Leave apple chunks in lemon juice while you chop all the other ingredients using a knife and chopping board. Pour lemon and chopped apples into a sieve. Mix chopped ingredients with sieved apple chunks in a large container and serve. A 400g portion contains 189 calories.
Fruit Bowl Options
I have various combinations of these fruits and vegetables depending on requirements.
Low sugar fruit bowl – On this option, I discovered that out of all the berry fruits, strawberries have the lowest content of sugar. This bowl contains strawberries, cucumber, kiwi, carrots, radish and lemon. An excellent option for diabetic patients.
Lose belly fat – Kiwi, Strawberries, Apple, Lemon, Pineapple and Melon.
Chunky C & M – A mixture of Cucumber and Honeydew melon in chunky pieces
Slim C & M – slim pieces of cucumber and honeydew melon
Ray special – A combination of Apples, Pineapple and Grapes
Lyd – A combination of Strawberries, grapes, pineapple and Mango
The Original bowl – All 12 fruits and vegetables are in this bowl.
Serving Suggestions
Salad – Let this fruit and vegetable salad sit in the fridge for an hour, serve in a bowl and enjoy.
With Ice cream – serve salad with a scoop or some scoops of ice cream.
With custard. – make your custard, let it cool, scoop some of this salad onto it.
With Oats porridge – serve some of this salad with your breakfast oat porridge.
With cream – scoop or squeeze some cream onto your fruit salad and enjoy!
As a smoothie – Blend your salad into a smooth liquid and enjoy.
With pancake – scoop some fruit and vegetable salad onto a pancake. Makes a perfect breakfast.
Health benefits
1. Boosts your immune system.
2. Helps digestion
3. Stops constipation
4. Anti-ageing
5. Healthy Skin
6. It contains 400g of fruit and is only 189 calories.
7. It helps lose belly fat
8. Can be added to a weight loss diet
9. Healthy eyes
10. Healthy heart
11. Safe for a diabetic patient
Give my fruit bowl a try. Make a bowl for yourself and let me know how it went.
If you are in my location you can order a bowl or two. You can even do a monthly subscription.
Leave a comment below and if you have a question leave it below as well and I’ll get back to you in 24 hours.
Thanks for such an interesting recipe. I am surprised how much African and European cuisine differ. I will try to make the fruits salad if I can find any melons. Love the nutrition table, easy to see what vitamins I get. Very interesting to hear about the African diet and how many benefits I can get. Would you post more of your recipes?
Very interesting your Article, I never heard about the African Diet. I like the idea you bring Health ideas to the community, specially during this time with covid19 virus and we have to stay healthy to fight any infection.
Your fruit recipes look delicious. It opened my appetite already, great tip to mix fruits with some vegetables, I can always ad some granola and organic honey.
Great Article and thank you for sharing!
Thank you very much for the suggestion. Ever since the pandemic began, I started to be more aware of my physical health. Usually, I only one type of fruit and vegetable each day. However, mixing all of them into a fruit or mixed salad is actually a good idea. I’ll follow your recipe. Is it for one person serving?
Thanks for coming by Alblue,
A bowl is 400g. Yes, this is one person serving.
With Covid, it is very important to boost that immune system, and what better way than naturally, by upping your intake of fruit and veggies. We all know how we should eat at least five servings of these a day, but so few of us consciously make the decision to actually do it. I know if I don’t plan ahead, I am also sorely lacking in this department by the end of the day.
Thanks for sharing these great recipes. The salad especially will tempt me to eat more of these great foods that nature provided. How long does the salad keep once you have made it? I know a lot of salads are made to be eaten straight away.
Thanks for your comment Michel,
I would advise you to consume within 24 hours
As I read through your article, I realized how much benefit one can get from just eating healthy and organic. Fruits and Vegetables are a sure way of maximizing your vitamins and essential minerals intake without having to rely on most processed additives that are packaged just to make profits. I prefer going the natural way- the African way. A strong and competent immune system protects you from most of these low-level infections caused by viruses and bacterias.
Thank you for the informative article. I will share this with my friends
Regards,
Sergej
Ok so I’ve read most of your website and i will be very honest with you and i will admit i kinda like what you got there and definitely it changed my vision about HEALTHY FOOD. And this African Diet sounds very ‘cheesy’ 😍 keep up the good work !!
The fruit salad sounds so delicious! I never thought of adding vegetables to my fruit salad but I’ll have to try that. I bet avocado would be amazing in this! I’m a health nut and I’m always finding ways to add in more nutritious foods like nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and vegetables.
Staying healthy should be everyone’s top priority especially today. Without our health, we aren’t able to do anything else. I hope more people are making healthy choices every day such as eating things like the recipe you shared. Thank you! I’ll share it with my family.
My Goodness!
When I read your fruit salad recipe I was salivating. Eating healthy is so important to me and especially as you mentioned the virus needs to be fought off by keeping our immune systems fully functioning! I have a vitamin K deficiency and always thought of leafy greens to source it from but now at least I have cucumber always in he fridge and it wont go to waste:)
Thank you so much for your helpful post and Im rushing off now to dice and slice up this salad!!
Thank you Janine, let me know how it goes.
Your healthy salad concoction sounds like it would be quite tasty. Of all the ingredients discussed, I think they are all things that I would enjoy. I have a hard time eating my fruits and vegetables that I buy before they start to go bad. You listed the ingredients, but not their portions. How much of each goes into your recipe and do you have a recommendation of a type of storage container to keep it edible the longest?
Good question William, I’ll answer it in the post for everyone to see.
For living healthy life we need to eat a balanced and healthy diet. Eating a balanced and healthy diet has lots of great health benefits. Small changes to eating habits can lead to big improvements in our overall health.
A balanced diet contains a variety of fruit, vegetables, foods which are whole grain, good fats and lean proteins. If we want to live healthy life, avoid processed foods, where possible, as these often have high amounts of added salt and sugar.
I love your fruit and salad recipy. It’s so simple and healthy for all. Thanks for sharing health – related very informative post with us. Much appreciated.
I have been working on eating better for the last few years which has included salads. This one sounds delicious. I liked you suggestions on how to serve it. I was wondering if canned fruits would have the same benefit as the fresh fruits that you are suggesting. Often, to add a bit of crunch to my salads, I will add cashews. Thanks for the recipe and the preparation tips. I am going to try this salad this week.
Thanks for your comment Anastazja
If you can, stay away from canned fruit. Fresh is best.
I am bookmarking this page. I love most fruits and vegetables but I have never been sure of the proportions to use to make a salad. In fact I have only a vague idea of the best fruits/vegetables `to make the salads I need. Thanks for these explanations. I particularly like the different fruit bowls that you have suggested and the colours are so attractive.
Thank you JJ!
Thank you so much for this very informative article! I really like the fruit bowl options you have, and the belly fat one seems right up the ally I would want to go haha. I have a lot of belly fat, and I love fruits, so I really feel like this would be the kind of bowl for me. I am also in the military, so keeping that fat down is an important factor in my life.
Go for it Jessie, and let me know how you get on with it.
I loved your post! I, too, eat lots of fruit and veggies, and I also often put them into a salad. It sounds like a salad that I would enjoy. I like the calorie level as well. It is important for us to keep our immune system in optimal shape. I eat lots of pinepple and berries. I would not have thought of including the radish. There are so many serving suggestions that it makes a very versatile dish.
Thank you Carolyn!
What a delicious and nutritive salad! Your post is full of tips that help us build a strong immune system. And I believe with enough vegetables and fruits consumed daily; all is well with our body. Glad you recommended the right vitamins to take! On a more serious note, I consumed more fruits than vegetables. I never knew I needed to take more vegetables than fruits on an everyday basis. Thanks.
Joyce
What a delicious and nutritive salad! Your post is full of tips that help us build a strong immune system. And I believe with enough vegetables and fruits consumed daily; all is well with our body. Glad you recommended the right vitamins to take! On a more serious note, I consumed more fruits than vegetables. I never knew I needed to take more vegetables than fruits on an everyday basis. Thanks.
Joyce
Thanks for your nice comment Joyce
Fantastic article! It’s so true that whatever you put into your body as it’s fuel source will also affect your bodies overall health. It’s always a great idea to have more fruits and vegetables in your diet. I love all of the ones you mentioned in your article, I just most certainly don’t eat enough of them. Will definitely try out your salad recipe. It looks really yummy!
Fantastic article! It’s so true that whatever you put into your body as it’s fuel source will also affect your bodies overall health. It’s always a great idea to have more fruits and vegetables in your diet. I love all of the ones you mentioned in your article, I just most certainly don’t eat enough of them. Will definitely try out your salad recipe. It looks really yummy!
Thank you Rachel, your comment is very encouraging.
Many health benefits in fruits and vegetables that is almost not worth it to mention how good they are as almost everyone knows it. The point is that although we know it very few will actually turn to such a healthy diet ,Its so important to have a balance diet,
HI Ronke
I am crazy about your blog!
How fabulous. I guess my interest is food too and I really believe that food is medicine.
I live in Africa and we do indeed have access to some delicious fruit and vegetables and with our wonderful weather it is possible to have a wonderful veggie garden.
I love your recipe for a fruit and vegetable bowl for immunity, which is a vital recipe today to help improve immunity.
Keep up your wonderful work!
Best wishes Sheen
Thank you so much Sheen!
There are so many health benefits in fruits and vegetables that is almost not worth it to mention how good they are as almost everyone knows it. The point is that although we know it very few will actually turn to such a healthy diet and this is the most disappointing. We can improve so much our health by just adding a tiny bit of these foods in our everyday life.
Thanks K
This is an incredible salad! Also you article is great because it reminds us all that we need to keep a healthy immune system in order to give our bodies the best chance to fight off all viruses.
I am a firm believer in supporting, boosting and maintaining a healthy immune system. So I believe in taking all the vitamins you mentioned. I also grow some organic fruit and vegetables at home.
However I believe we should consume more vegetables than fruit. Fruits are higher in natural sugars so should be consumed more in moderation. In my country the health authorities have long advertised that we should take 5 vegetables and 2 fruit servings per day. This amount should be higher now given we have so much nutrient depletion from our soils. But I think the ratio should be similar – perhaps 7-8 servings of vegetables and 3 servings of fruit.
Biggest challenge is still nutrient depletion from our soils, for that reason I also supplement with highest quality supplements. Our fruit and vegetables do not have the nutrition they used to have decades ago. I try to do my little bit with my small organic vegetable and fruit garden, but this only goes part of the way to giving our bodies all the nutrition they need for a healthy immune system.
Saying that I think your salad looks very delicious and healthy and hope that the fruits and vegetables you use are from the best possible sources rather than the mass produced, low nutrition types.
Thank you for sharing this excellent information.
It is very true that the healthier we are, the easier our bodies can fight off infections and when we catch one their life span in the body should be a lot shorter.
Your list of fruits and their individual properties are very useful for me to decide which ones I will get the most benefit from.
Thank you for your comment Geoff.
This is one good-looking salad! I had never considered putting carrots, radishes and cucumbers in a fruit salad but I can’t wait to try it. I think it would be great to have with oats porridge for a healthy breakfast. I think you are correct in your approach to eating: if we were more interested in taking in the proper nutrition, it could be that the virus would not be hitting us so hard. Thank you for posting!
Thank you Cynthia for reading my post and thank you for your lovely comment.
The benefits of fresh fruits are vast and include simple enjoyment of the bursting flavors to the incredible health benefits received from the vitamins they contain. It’s great to enjoy these amazing fruits on their own, but a fresh fruit salad like this can provide more benefits than a single fruit with multiple types of vitamins and helpful, healthful enzymes.
Hi Aly,
Thanks for coming by and for your nice comment.
Ever since my last pregnancy’s I’ve been trying to lower my Blood pressure. I’m so happy that I’ve come across your website because, not only do I need to change my eating habits but, my entire family does. I was reading a study were it said 31% of Americans eat packaged or processed food rather than fresh food such as fruits and veggies. Also in America, over 10 billion donuts are consumed per year.
And about 20% of Americans will eat or has eaten in their car throughout the year. After learning these statics I love the African diet even more. Besides, eating healthy is what keeps us youthful, strong, and alive. I am going to try this recipe. Is this meal a lunch? dinner? or a snack? Also do you happen to have a baby recipe? My baby is 4 months but, he’ll be eating soon and I really don’t want to give him the store bought products in the jar. I rather start him off healthy to begin with.
Thanks for your comment Lakisha, this salad would be good as breakfast, dessert or a snack.
For our babies we blend food like plantain, beans and guinea corn.
You know, it’s kind of weird how I haven’t thought about immunity despite the fact that we’re going through this pandemic ha ha! Anyway, I really appreciate the fact that your explanation for eating fruit includes immunity as one of the benefits. I really appreciate that because it has opened my eyes to a wider spectrum of health
Thanks for coming by and for your nice comment.