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Healthy Diet Snacks a Way to Better Health.

Healthy diet snacks like these exotic fruits such as: coconut, mango, pineapple,banana and papaya will give you a healthy dose of flavor and nutrients.

You'd probably eat healthy diet snacks such as these exotic fruits more often if you knew what to do with them. But determining if a coconut is ripe beneath that hairy exterior or trying to cut a spiny pineapple sometimes seems like too much effort.

When you give up, though, you miss out on some of the easiest and juiciest ways to get an important healthy diet snacks with vitamins like C and A, minerals like potassium, and lauric acid, an effective immune builder, also a good healthy diet for toddler.

But most of all, you miss out on the unique flavors of mango, coconut, papaya, banana, and pineapple. To help you embrace these colorful and luscious fruits, we've prepared some basic information on how to choose and store them. Just add some pina coladas, and you'll be transported to paradise.

A guide to tropical fruits

Banana

Varietes:

Yellow; Red; Baby (smaller size); Plantain (only for cooking; really a vegetable).

NUTRITION:

Contains 13 percent of the daily requirement for potassium, an essential mineral for maintaining blood pressure and heart function.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND STORE:

Let green bananas ripen at room temperature until they get yellow or red. You can store them in the refrigerator for a couple of days to stop the ripening process, but the skin will turn black.

COCONUT.

VARIETIES:

Young (soft, green ball); Mature (hard, hairy fruit).

NUTRITION:

A terrific source of lauric acid, an immune booster that can attack and destroy viruses including herpes, flu, hepatitis C, and HIV.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND STORE:

Look for mature coconuts that have rich-brown shells. Be sure to avoid ones that are moldy or cracked. Shake the fruit to make sure it's heavy with liquid. Store unopened coconuts at room temperature. Once opened, refrigerate meat in an airtight container.

MANGO.

VARIETIES:

More than a thousand kinds.

NUTRITION:

Has 20 times more vitamin A than an orange.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND STORE:

A ripe mango is soft to the touch, with a fruity aroma at the stem end. If the mango isn't soft yet but has a fruity aroma, let it ripen at room temperature.

PAPAYA

VARIETIES:

Hawaiian (pear-shaped, weighs about one pound); Mexican (weighs between one and 20 pounds).

NUTRITION:

Half-pound contains 313 percent of your daily vitamin C requirements.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND STORE:

Ripe papayas have a rich-yellow skin and are slightly soft to the touch. Store them in the refrigerator for up to one week. Unripe papayas will ripen if left for two to three days at room temperature.

PINEAPPLE

VARIETIES:

Red Spanish; Hawaiian/Cayenne (larger, more elongated, and a lighter yellow).

NUTRITION:

One cup contains half your daily vitamin C needs.

HOW TO CHOOSE AND STORE:

Choose fruit that feels heavy for its size and has bright-green leaves, unbruised skin, and no soft spots. If it smells like a pineapple, it will taste like one. If it smells fermented, don't buy it. If its base is brown, orange, or red, it will ripen at home; if green, the fruit was picked too early and will never ripen.

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