Color Me Raw!  Please Pass the Peaches!

Let’s see if you can say the title (fast) ten times.  I can’t say it fast enough and I just can’t get enough of delicious peaches!   Summer time is great for eating peaches and I spend a lot of time at the Forest Park Farmer’s Market buying them (and other fruits and vegetables too) because I can purchase 5-6 medium size peaches for $2.00 and no taxes; much cheaper than the grocery store and they taste just as good—better!

Peaches are juicy, they're sweet and they're nutritious.  But more than that, peaches are good for your body's overall health and can act as a home remedy for many ailments.   Eating peaches also contributes to the health of your skin.  The vitamins and minerals in peaches benefit your skin in various ways as well as protecting it from diseases.   The facts will amaze you and send you running to your nearest farmer’s market.  

Did you know that peaches can help you lose weight?  Yes, these little orange/reddish colored jewels are high in fiber and produce a full feeling for those looking for tasty snacks.  Additionally, they're made up of 80% water which helps flush your system out.   Instead of popping a pill the next time you need digestive help, try eating a peach or two or three—you'll be glad you did.  The increased water content in peaches allows for ease of bowel movements and reduces the need to strain. They also help for those who need an increased diuretic effect. The powerful peach may also rid your intestinal tract of worms.

Peaches are a good source of many different vitamins and minerals, but one mineral that particularly stand out is potassium. Peaches provide a high source for this mineral. If you have a shortage of potassium, you're likely to have fatigue, anxiety, muscle weakness, skin problems, poor memory, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, congestive heart failure or heart deterioration and vibration in your ears. The laundry list of possible diseases low potassium has has more potential to develop if you're on diuretics, have abdominal problems or diarrhea or simply sweat profusely.

Eating peaches also helps to increase your selenium (a mineral) intake—1 cup of peaches contains 0.2 mg of selenium; your meal plan should include 55 mcg of this mineral each day.  The National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements website reveals that people who get less selenium may have an increased risk of some forms of skin cancer.  Eat a handful of Brazil nuts and sunflower seeds (when eating peaches), a food high in selenium, to boost your daily intake.

Peaches are best eaten raw. When they are cooked or boiled, they lose up to 80% of their nutrients, especially Vitamin C.  People do cook, freeze and can them since in their raw state they rot fairly quickly after picking.  But they are often canned with sugar syrup, which increase the caloric levels.  Peaches can be skinned then boiled with cloves for a pickled treat. Dried peaches should be avoided, especially from China, many of them contain sulfur.

Buying peaches (or any fruit) in season will save you money.  In season, produce is always the cheapest. One more added benefit to buying fruit in season is that the fruit will have the best flavor when in peak season.  Eating in season keeps us in alignment with Mother Nature.  Seasonal food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious than out-of-season food. Out-of-season food may be forced-grown in artificial conditions, which may affect the food's nutritional composition and flavor.  Now is the time to buy peaches; the season will be ending soon.

I read that, during the dry season, fruit is much sweeter and the flavor is more concentrated.   It’s the fruit trees’ way of coping with heat and sometimes lack of rain.  So let’s model our own coping strategies after the fruit trees, so that when faced with adversity, we would become a sweeter and more concentrated version of ourselves and live a peachy life…please pass the peaches!