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How fresh are you!

When we commissioned this website recently, the question arose - should we have a blog. And it was decided we should because that’s how we can most effectively engage with our "frugivorous" customers.

After much deliberation – we figured we’d start with the basics. Our consumers ought to know why they should consume our products. Well it’s a no brainer. Fruits and vegetables are fresh and natural; tempting and tasty. But if still more reasons are needed, read on…

Let us state it plainly- you should be consuming products (fresh fruits & vegetables and related products) sold under the label “Frugivore” because – those will increase your freshness Index. What index? Yes- freshness Index. What is that, you ask?

Let’s find your freshness index.

For the uninitiated, Frugivore - the seller of premium fresh produce has decided to arm its consumers with a vital tool - Diet Freshness Index (DFI), to help them measure how much healthy their diet is.

Its rather simple – DFI is the ratio of  number of Fresh Calories (FC) consumed by you in a day, to, Total Calories (TC)consumed by you on that day.

So, DFI = FC/TC

We all understand Total Caloriesor TC – the total energy derived from food consumed measured in calories. But what are fresh calories?

Fresh calories or FC are the calories derived from consuming fresh or minimally processed fruit and vegetable (F&V) products (such as cuts, salads or steamed/ boiled).

So, lets say you eat:

  • apple - that is fresh calories. As fresh as it gets. Unless the apple is in a muffin or pie or cake - then it is processed
  • bread - processed calories
  • Chocolate - (highly) processed calories
  • Cola - (extremely highly) processed calories
  • Boiled sweet potato (minimally) processed = fresh calories
  • Microgreens Salad - (minimally) processed = fresh calories (unless the salad leaves are floating in dressing and oils)
  • Meat - Processed (inside the animal) calories
  • Sugar - need we say it!
  • Dry fruits : Fresh calories (if sundried), (we consider it processed if dried using an industrial process or if they contain added sugar or salt or other additives)

 

From your daily TC of between 2000 - 2500 calories, how much is derived from fresh produce (FC) is of vital importance. Says who? Well, we do; Why? Because Its logical - fresh calories are (almost) always accompanied by other nutrients which find their way into our bodies and do a world of good there.

Firstly, fresh foods are full of nutrients which our body needs, but when those fresh foods are processed, a whole lot of those nutrients are lost or depleted such that the body is cheated out of its share.

Secondly, fresh calories are easy to digest (well, mostly) and acceptable to our bodies - unlikely to add fat or strain our digestive tract, improbable to cause constipation or cancer and so on and so forth

Thirdly, when you consume fresh calories, to that extent the processed calories are precluded from diet, thereby saving your body plenty of trouble (some immediate and some long term). Example – if you snack on a banana, you will hopefully not have a craving for unhealthy, deep- fried potato chips.

So, how do you actually calculate your DFI:

Start by referring to an online source for calories contained in popular foods. Google is probably the most readily available source of this information- just type in the name of your food item and google will give you a fairly good estimate. You can also keep a track of what you eat daily on easy to use apps such as My Fitness Pal. Ok, so keep a track for about two weeks. Simply add the calories from fresh foods and add the calories from processed foods. Do it honestly and carefully. You will get a good picture of the ratio which will get evened out for any irregular day over a two week period. Find the ratio. Thats your DFI.

Let’s make it even simpler for those who have hated math all their lives and have no intention to make an exception now. Check out this bit of trivia:

  • If you eat one banana (yes that’s right, just one) that is five percent of your daily calorie need.
  • Assuming you are not gorging on seven course meals or binge eating owing to a recent break-up, and you are eating in a manner such that doesn’t leave you feeling hungry or stuffed, and if you have eaten just three fruits - one banana, one apple and a cup of grapes - you are already 10% fresh!

How do you increase the index?

1. Eat more fruits- let one meal (either breakfast, lunch or dinner) be exclusively made of fruits.

2. Eat more veggies (most veggies have a very low calorie count) so your fresh calories will not increase much, but your overall calorie intake will come down - as a result the denominator will be lower and with the same numerator you earn a higher index (a mathematical trick again!)

3. Once in a while, try to eat minimally processed boiled food like boiled sweet potato

4. Sprouts and micro-greens are great way to enhance your freshness index

Fresh index - How much is good? There are no fixed numbers.

  • Fruitarians - are close to 100% Freshness index.
  • Vegans are also high.
  • Average city dwellers –depressingly low freshness index (some are lower than 10% even).
  • Whatever suits you as long as it is more than 20% should be great. And yes, zero is low! Trust us on this.
  • Push it beyond ten percent. Do yourself a favour - eat a banana daily.
  • In the long term, the freshness index can easily become your overall health index.

If you want to find out what we have in store for you check out this blog everymonth – we will try to keep it not more frequently than a month and perhaps not less than bimonthly to strike a balance.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be specialized dietary or medical advice. Take it in the right spirit with lots of fresh products!