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About fruits Fruits Fruits are a good source of vitamins and minerals, recognized for their role in preventing vitamin C and vitamin A deficiencies. People who incorporate fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy eating pattern have a reduced risk of some chronic diseases. USDA's MyPlate encourages filling half of the plate with fruits and vegetables at mealtimes. Fruits are an important part of a healthy eating pattern and the source of many vital nutrients, including potassium, folate (folic acid), and antioxidants including polyphenols. Fruit such as blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and citrus also contain phytochemicals that are being studied for their added health benefits. How Many Servings of Fruit Are Recommended? Daily Recommendation Age No. of servings Children 2–8 years 1–1.5 cups Girls 9–18 years 1.5 cups Boys 9–18 years 1.5–2 cups Women 19–30 years 2 cups Women 31+ years 1.5 cups Men 19+ years 2 cups Essential Nutrients in Fruit The nutrients in fruit are vital for overall health and maintenance of body systems. The benefits of these nutrients include: Reduced risk of chronic disease: Eating a diet rich in fruit may reduce risk for stroke, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Improved heart health: The potassium in fruit can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. Potassium may also reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and help to decrease bone loss. Lower risk of neural tube defects: Folate (folic acid) helps the body form red blood cells. Women of childbearing age who may become pregnant and those in the first trimester of pregnancy need adequate folate. Folate helps prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida. Protection against cell damage: An eating pattern where fruit is part of an overall healthy diet provides antioxidants that help repair damage done by free radicals and may protect against certain cancers. It may also have a positive impact on digestive health. Polyphenols are antioxidants that have been shown to alter gut microecology, or the proportion of healthy versus harmful bacteria. In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and other animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many other animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.[1] Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, fruit normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term fruit also includes many structures that are not commonly called 'fruits' in everyday language, such as nuts, bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.[2][3] Botanical vs. culinary See also: Vegetable § Terminology An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as culinary vegetables, including corn (maize), tomatoes, and various squash Many common language terms used for fruit and seeds differ from botanical classifications. For example, in botany, a fruit is a ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, e.g., an apple, pomegranate, tomato or a pumpkin. A nut is a type of fruit (and not a seed), and a seed is a ripened ovule.[4] In culinary language, a fruit is the sweet- or not sweet- (even sour-) tasting produce of a specific plant (e.g., a peach, pear or lemon); nuts are hard, oily, non-sweet plant produce in shells (hazelnut, acorn). Vegetables, so called, typically are savory or non-sweet produce (zucchini, lettuce, broccoli, and tomato); but some may be sweet-tasting (sweet potato).[5] Examples of botanically classified fruit that are typically called vegetables include: cucumber, pumpkin, and squash (all are cucurbits); beans, peanuts, and peas (all legumes); corn, eggplant, bell pepper (or sweet pepper), and tomato. The spices chili pepper and allspice are fruits, botanically speaking.[4] In contrast, rhubarb is often called a fruit when used in making pies, but the edible produce of rhubarb is actually the leaf stalk or petiole of the plant.[6] Edible gymnosperm seeds are often given fruit names, e.g., ginkgo nuts and pine nuts. Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat is a kind of fruit (termed a caryopsis). However, the fruit wall is thin and fused to the seed coat, so almost all the edible grain-fruit is actually a seed.[7] Structure Main article: Fruit anatomy Pomegranate fruit – whole and piece with arils The outer layer, often edible, of most fruits is called the pericarp. Typically formed from the ovary, it surrounds the seeds; in some species, however, other structural tissues contribute to or form the edible portion. The pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, i.e., the epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp. Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked.[8] Development A fruit results from the fertilizing and maturing of one or more flowers. The gynoecium, which contains the stigma-style-ovary system, is centered in the flower-head, and it forms all or part of the fruit.[9] Inside the ovary(ies) are one or more ovules. Here begins a complex sequence called double fertilization: a female gametophyte produces an egg cell for the purpose of fertilization.[10] (A female gametophyte is called a megagametophyte, and also called the embryo sac.) After double fertilization, the ovules will become seeds. Ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which is the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma-style-ovary system within the flower-head. After pollination, a pollen tube grows from the (deposited) pollen through the stigma down the style into the ovary to the ovule. Two sperm are transferred from the pollen to a megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte, one sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, while the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process.[11][12] Later, the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or it may form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some multi-seeded fruits, the extent to which a fleshy structure develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.[13] The pericarp typically is differentiated into two or three distinct layers; these are called the exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, the sepals, petals, stamens and/or the style of the flower fall away as the fleshy fruit ripens. However, for simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary – i.e., one that lies below the attachment of other floral parts – there are parts (including petals, sepals, and stamens) that fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. For such a case, when floral parts other than the ovary form a significant part of the fruit that develops, it is called an accessory fruit. Examples of accessory fruits include apple, rose hip, strawberry, and pineapple. Because several parts of the flower besides the ovary may contribute to the structure of a fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.[3] There are three general modes of fruit development: Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower (while having one or more separate, unfused, carpels); they are the simple fruits. Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium (having two or more carpel An apple is a simple, fleshy fruit. Key parts are the epicarp, or exocarp, or outer skin (not labelled); and the mesocarp and endocarp (labelled).