Elder Care Tips: Choosing the Freshest Produce When Shopping for Your Loved Ones

Elder Care in Raleigh, NC

Integrating more fresh fruits and vegetables into your elder care plan for your aging loved ones is a fantastic way to help them pursue goals of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight as well as warding off a variety of health complications. If you are new to stocking up the kitchen with produce, or just want to make sure that you are getting the best quality fruits and vegetables for your elderly loved ones, you want to make sure that you are getting the freshest options.

Use these tips to choose the freshest produce when grocery shopping for your loved ones:

• Go for pretty produce. It may seem shallow to go for the prettiest produce you can find when you are shopping for fruit and vegetables, but avoiding bruises, cuts, and other blemishes is important when it comes to choosing produce that is ripe, fresh, and at its best. The only exception to this is bananas. For the best flavor and nutrition, do not go for the bright yellow bunch but the ones that are dark golden and have brown flecks all over their skin.
• Go for the cold. If you are buying whole fruit or vegetables it is fine to pick them out right out of the bins in the produce section, but if you purchase pre-prepared items such as cut fruits and vegetables or salad greens, make sure you purchase them out of a refrigerated section or a container filled with ice.
• Go for seasonal. Contemporary agricultural techniques make it possible to grow just about anything at any time of year, but fruits and vegetables still have seasons when they naturally grow. Look for produce that is in season, that is that is from a harvest in the natural season of that particular vegetable or fruit. Seasonal produce has the best flavor and the best nutrition.

Some signs that are you are getting the freshest of some favorite fruits and vegetables include:

• Apples. No matter what color apples you choose, make sure that their skin is rich in color and firm without any bruises, scratches, or dents.
• Blueberries. Blueberries should be firm and dark. Avoid any berries that look soft or mushy, or that are in a container that is leaking, or that are packaged with any berries that show mold, as that means that the mold spores have gotten onto all of the other berries and they will spoil more quickly.
• Melons. Melons such as cantaloupes and honeydew should smell sweet and when touched at the ends the skin should be slightly soft but not mushy.
• Citrus fruits. Look for citrus such as oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit that feels firm and is heavy for the size of the fruit. Avoid fruit that has skin that feels spongy or coarse.