QUESTION: Is frozen fruit as healthy for you as fresh fruit?
ANSWER: For the most part, yes. "With shipping and storage, fresh fruit can often sit around for as long as two weeks before it hits your supermarket," says Suzanne Henson, R.D., director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's EatRight Weight Management Program. "During that time, it can lose a lot of its nutrients, especially Vitamin C."
In contrast, frozen fruit is often picked and frozen at the peak of freshness. It's also a better choice for concocting smoothies. But watch out for frozen fruits in syrup -- it packs extra calories.
- - - - - - - - - -
QUESTION: My diet buddy is becoming a calorie-counting freak. How do I get her to lighten up?
ANSWER: "Before you give feedback, ask yourself what your motivation is," says Ann Kearney-Cook, Ph.D., a psychologist and author of Change Your Mind, Change Your Body (Simon and Schuster, 2004). Are you honestly concerned about her health, or are you feeling threatened because she's made healthy changes you haven't been able to make? But let's put the soul-searching aside and assume she is, um, a freak.
Kearney-Cooke suggests that you follow these four guidelines: Have the talk in private (not in a restaurant or at the gym, for instance); convey how much you care about your friend; be specific ("I noticed you hardly ate anything at the party last week"); and offer to help her if she needs it. "Your friend may be developing an eating disorder. But there's so much calorie confusion out there, she may just not know what a healthy diet looks like," says Kearney-Cooke. "Gently suggest that she see a nutritionist or a therapist."
