Plums can be red, green or yellow. Although they are more common during the summer, Fruitful Office is currently including them as part of the seasonal mix due to the Cape season. They are soft and shiny and differ in size and colour, but all types are usually both sweet and juicy.

Plums are highly nutritious. With few calories (around 40 for every 100g) they are ideal for mid-morning or afternoon snacks. In addition, they are very rich in antioxidants and flavonoids, especially vitamin C and anthocyanins, which makes them helpful to our immune system, an important quality at this time of the year. They are also rich in vitamin B6, iron, phosphorous and potassium. Plums have very high dietary fibre content, particularly if they are dried. As a result, plums have a very good effect in our intestines, as they prevent and treat constipation which in turn prevents colon cancer.

There are many ways to eat plums – as fruit, as pure, in meat dishes or even as a jam. You usually do not need to peel them, but you must take the seed off, as it can be very toxic. If you find the skin sour, simply peel them and enjoy their sweet inner taste.

Another way of enjoying plums is mixing them in a cereal bowl with other fruit, dried nuts and skimmed milk or yogurt and you will start the day with a delicious breakfast to help you get through your day!

Be healthy,

Mariana Costenla

Dietitian/ Nutritionist

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2012 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Office Fruit Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.