- Look for fruits and vegetables with skins intact. Select items with the fewest dents, bruises, cuts, insect holes, and brown spots. If you can't find an item in good condition, skip it. Choose a frozen version or drop elsewhere.
- Select broccoli that is green and firm. Limp stalks and yellow florets mean the vegetable is past its prime.(A trace of purple on the florets is OK.)
- Choose bell peppers that are firm all over. If they are a bit soft but you plan to use them the day you but them, then go ahead.
- Look for zucchini with deep green, intact, smooth skin. Wrinkling or a green-black color is a sign of age. Many people believe the smaller specimens are more flavorful.
- Select asparagus with heads that are dry and purple, not wet or brown. Asparagus is very tasty no matter what its thickness, but the thicker stalks can sometimes be a bit tough.
- Examine pints of berries for mold. It sometimes hides underneath the plastic wrapper.
- To tell if a cantaloupe is ripe, smell it. If you smell a sweet melon fragrance, it's ripe.
- Press the top end of honeydew melons. They are ripe when the brown circle at the top is tender and yields a bit when you press firmly with your thumb.
- Shake a coconut and listen for its milk sloshing. If you can't hear this sound, pass the coconut by.
- Buy produce in season. Out-of-season fruits and vegetables may be less flavorful - and may also be more expensive.
- Avoid peeling fruits and vegetables whenever possible. The skin contains many nutrients.
- Eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as you can. Nutrients are lost in cooking.
- Grill, stew, broil, saute', bake, and steam vegetables. Avoid boiling, since nutrients are boiled away into the cooking water.
- Scrub vegetables well. Use water (not soap) to remove pesticide residues before eating.
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