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FRUITS

WATERMELONS
	Watermelon is 92% water.  Early explorers used them as canteens. In other countries they eat the whole watermelon!  In Asia they roast the seeds to eat them.  In Russia they turn the green rinds into pickles! The biggest watermelon ever weighed 262 pounds and was grown in Tennessee!!! Watermelon is a perfect health food!  It will keep you feeling full but is low in calories and fat free.  Plus, it tastes delicious!
APPLES
	Eat the peel!  Most of the nutrients are in the peel and eating it will help you stay healthy and prevent disease. Apples float because ¼ of the fruit is made of air. In colonial time apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth. Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C. 7,500 different kinds of apples are grown all over the world.
BANANAS
	Eating a banana can cheer you up. Some people call them “nature’s good mood food” because the nutrients in bananas can make you feel happy! Bananas are a better source of energy than any other fruit and they are high in potassium.  Potassium is good for your heart and kidneys! In the 1800’s, people were more excited about seeing bananas for the first time than seeing a telephone for the first time.  A man in India ate 81 bananas in half an hour. Bananas love a tropical climate but they are even grown in Iceland, in soil heated by natural hot water geysers.
BLACKBERRIES
	Blackberries are very high in fiber and Vitamin C which both help you to stay healthy. Some people eat blackberries to feel better when they have a stomach ache or feel sick to their stomach.  Blackberries protect your heart with Vitamin E. Blackberries are part of the rose family
BLUEBERRIES
	In the 1700’s, people used to mix blueberries with milk to make gray and blue paint.  If all the blueberries grown in North America in one year were spread out in a single layer, they would cover a four-lane highway that stretched from New York to Chicago. Blueberries fight cancer better than any other fruit! The blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota.
BROCCOFLOWER
	Broccoflower is a mix between broccoli & cauliflower. Also known as, “Green Ball” or “Green Cauliflower” because it is lime green! Broccoflower is grown year round in California. You can get 90% of your vitamin C for the day from 1 serving of Broccoflower!
BROCCOLI
	The name “broccoli” comes from the Latin word that means “arm”. People have been eating broccoli for 2,000 years! Americans have only eaten broccoli for 200 years. Broccoli is part of the cabbage family. Broccoli has 2 times the vitamin C as an orange!
CABBAGE
	Cabbage comes in several colors including green and purple (known as “red” cabbage). The biggest cabbage ever weighed 123 pounds! Cabbage is eaten around the world.  Some people turn cabbage into Cole slaw or sauerkraut.  Cabbage fights cancer!
RED CABBAGE
	Red cabbage is actually purple in color and its coloring is similar to blueberries and flower petals. Its bright color is what makes it fight cancer and makes you healthy! Red cabbage can be used for kitchen science experiments. Sometimes, the bright color of red cabbage is used as a dye for clothes.
CANARY MELON
	The canary melon is in the same family as cantaloupe and honeydew melon. This fruit was named “canary melon” because of its bright yellow skin that is the same color as a canary bird.  The outside should feel waxy when it is ready to eat.  Like other melons, Canary Melons are made mostly of water and don’t have many calories or fat, making it a great choice for snacking!
CANTALOUPE
	One serving (¼ of a medium melon) has more than 400% of your daily vitamin A, and it has almost all of your daily vitamin C! The first cantaloupes were grown in Cantaloupe, Italy, which is where the fruit got its name. Cantaloupe is very sweet.  Try having it for dessert!
CARROTS
	Carrots are not always orange and can also be found in purple, white, red or yellow. Carrots were first grown as a medicine not a food. The longest carrot ever was almost 7 feet long! Carrots are good for your eyes, especially seeing at night, because of vitamin A.
CAULIFLOWER
	Cauliflower also comes in yellow, purple, green, and orange varieties. The French were the first make cauliflower a popular vegetable. Cauliflower is fat-free and low in calories.  The white part that you eat is called the “curd”.
CELERY
	It may burn more calories to eat celery than is even in celery because you burn calories chewing!  Very low-calorie! King Tut's tomb was decorated with wild celery and other vegetables.  One of the healthiest snacks is called “Ants on a Log”.  You can make it at home by putting peanut butter in the hollow part of the “log” (celery stick) and sticking raisins on it to look like ants.
PAPAYA
	Papaya is also known as the “Magical Melon of the Tropics”. Papaya has a special substance in it that helps us digest proteins better and faster.  In the grocery store, this substance is called “meat tenderizer” and helps make meat tender for you to eat.  Some papayas are really small (1 pound) and some are really big (20 pounds)! You can eat the seeds.  They taste like black pepper!
PEACHES
	There is an old saying, “You're a real peach!”  This saying comes from an old tradition of giving a peach to a friend that you like. In China, they believe that peaches are good luck and will bring you a long life. There are some peaches that grow flat like a hockey puck! Peaches have a very hard seed in the middle.  Some people call peaches the “stone fruit” because of the hard seed. Georgia is called the “Peach State”. Peaches are high in fiber and low in calories.  Peaches are very sweet because of natural sugars found in fruit.  A peach is a good choice to quench a sweet tooth!
PEARS
	In the 1800’s people would pay over $20 for one pear because they are so delicious and sweet.  Eat the peel!  The peel is loaded with fiber and nutrients to keep you healthy! Pears grow best in soil from volcanoes! California, Oregon, and Washington are the best places to grow pears in the United States.
BELL PEPPERS
	Bell peppers are shaped like a bell and can be found in many different colors: green, yellow, orange, and red.  Each color of bell pepper starts off green and as the pepper ripens it turns colors and gets sweeter! Peppers have more vitamin C than oranges, which helps you stay healthy.  Red bell peppers are even good for your eye sight!
PINEAPPLE
	This fruit was named pineapple because it looks like a pine cone but is a fruit like an apple.  Christopher Columbus brought a pineapple to the Queen. She loved it so much that they tried to grow them in Europe but it was too cold!  They only grow where it is warm. 1/3 of the world’s pineapples are grown in Hawaii. Pineapples taste very sweet and have a lot of “good sugars” that are only found in fruit.
PLANTAINS
	Plantains are similar to a banana but usually used as a vegetable rather than a fruit. They are cooked a lot in Caribbean countries and in Africa.  They taste a lot like a potato. When a plantain is ripe and ready to eat, it will turn black.  Sometimes they are eaten green and yellow too.
PLUMS
	Plum trees were brought to California from France during the Gold Rush. In 1905 there was a farmer that needed helping picking his plums.  He couldn’t find any help so he used 500 monkeys to help him pick his fruit!  They were good at picking the plums but they really liked to eat them too!  All of his fruit was picked, and then eaten, by his monkey workers!!!  Prunes are dried plums.  Plums are very high in vitamin C, which keeps you healthy.  Vitamin A helps you see at night and vitamin K helps you make scabs.  That’s a whole lot of reasons to eat a plum!
POMEGRANATES
	Pomegranates may be one of the oldest fruits in the world. Free radicals are the “bad guys” in your body that can damage your cells and make you sick.  Pomegranates are packed with antioxidants that fight off free radicals, keeping your heart healthy and your body free of cancer! Many religions, such as Christianity and Buddhism, use the pomegranate as a symbol in their art.  Ancient Romans used pomegranate peelings as leather.  Scientists are still studying all of the wonderful things that pomegranates do for your health!  One thing is for sure, they are VERY good for you!
POTATOES
	Try eating the skin!  Potato skins contain lots of nutrients including fiber, iron, calcium, zinc, phosphorous and B vitamins.  Potatoes are fat free if they aren’t fried in oil!  In 1995 the potato was the first vegetable grown in outer space. A pound of potato chips cost 200 times more than a pound of potatoes!  That is because of all the potatoes that are wasted to turn them into chips.  In France, potato blossoms used to be worn in women’s hair as a fashion statement. During the gold rush, potatoes were as valuable as gold.  Miners would actually trade gold for potatoes!
RADISHES
	Radishes grow very quickly and the word “radish” in Greek actually means “fast appearing”.  Radishes fight cancer! There are many colors of radishes including: red, pink, white, and black.  Some kinds grow up to 100 pounds or more! Radishes are part of the mustard family.
RASBERRIES
	Raspberries are really high in fiber which will keep you healthy and feeling good! The Crusaders wrote poems about raspberries because they loved them so much. Some cultures say that eating raspberries will make you fall in love. In the 1700’s people used raspberries for sore eyes and throats and even to clean their teeth!
SPINACH
	Popeye the Sailorman was a popular cartoon character that loved to eat spinach.  Spinach gave him big muscles.  During the 1930’s so many people wanted to be like Popeye that spinach became popular.  The healthiest way to eat spinach is fresh.  Frozen or canned spinach is good too. There is a spinach festival every year in Arkansas.
STAR FRUIT
	Can you guess where this fruit got its name? Another name for star fruit is the “carambola”.  Star fruit are tropical fruit grown in Florida and Hawaii.  Star fruit are high in vitamin C to keep you healthy!
STRAWBERRIES
	Some people eat strawberries to feel better when they have a headache because it has one of the same ingredients as aspirin! Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside of their skin.  There are about 200 seeds on each berry. Strawberries are good for your skin and hair because of vitamins A & C. People once believed that elves could make their cows have more milk and elves loved strawberries.  Farmers would tie baskets of strawberries to their cows’ horns to bribe the elves in hopes of getting more milk from their cows! The biggest strawberry ever was as big as an apple!
TANGERINES
	The tangerine is a type of Mandarin orange.  Tangerines are sometimes called “Christmas oranges” because some children get them in their Christmas stockings.  The name “Tangerine” comes from the city Tangier, Morocco where people first shipped the fruit by boat to Europe. Tangerines are easy to peel and very healthy, making them a great snack!
TOMATOES
	There are 10,000 different kinds of tomatoes! Tomatoes can either be called a fruit or a vegetable, depending on the definition.  Either one is right! There is a legend that says a man tried to kill George Washington by feeding him a tomato.  What the man didn’t know was that tomatoes are not poisonous!  They are actually really healthy! Ketchup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and even pizza sauce are all really good for you because they are made of tomatoes!  They even protect you against cancer! Lycopene is what makes tomatoes red.  Lycopene is an important antioxidant, which fights off the free radicals that try to hurt your body.