Fruit

For each one: how to use it, the best version, how to prepare it, what it does, and where it goes wrong.

Blackberries

Dark, sharp and full of seed. The same family as the raspberry, with more pigment and more fibre.

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The darkest berry here, and the only one whose measured effect is about exercise.

How to use it: Raw, or frozen through yoghurt and smoothies. Fresh they are sharp, and that is the point.

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The pigment is the working part, and it sits in the skin. Measured in people, at the blood vessel itself.

How to use it: A handful a day, raw. Through yoghurt, through oats, out of your hand.

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The acid that finishes a dish and keeps water drinkable. What gets said about kidney stones holds up less well than you would think.

How to use it: Squeezed over fish, vegetables, pulses and salads. In water, warm or cold, if you otherwise drink too little.

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Sharper and more fragrant than the lemon, and not interchangeable with it in the kitchen. The same job: acid that holds a dish up.

How to use it: Over grilled vegetables, through guacamole, with beans and over fish. In water if you otherwise drink too little.

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Sweet fruit that still does less to your blood sugar than the biscuit you would otherwise have reached for.

How to use it: As a snack in place of something out of a packet. Through a salad with lime and chilli, or alongside something savoury.

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The fruit itself, not the carton. What was measured comes from hesperidin, and that is in the flesh as well.

How to use it: As fruit, in segments. Do not pick the white pith off: that is where most of the hesperidin and the fibre sit.

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The most fibre per mouthful of any berry here, and the least sugar.

How to use it: Raw, as fruit. Through yoghurt, through oats, or frozen into a smoothie.

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Sharply sour, low in sugar, and most of the fibre sits in the seeds you swallow anyway.

How to use it: Raw through yoghurt or quark, or as the sour note against something rich. On the sprig over a plate of fruit.

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The effect sits in the hours after you eat them, not in your fasting bloods. That is more honest than what is usually claimed.

How to use it: Raw, as fruit. Through yoghurt, through a salad with pepper over the top.

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Almost entirely water, with citrulline in it. The blood pressure story comes from an extract and not from a slice.

How to use it: As fruit on a hot day, or as water you chew. With a little salt and lime over it, it becomes a dish.

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