Healthy Mexican Fruits and Vegetables

When you see a pile of small Mexican watermelons in an outdoor market, you know you can dig into one without worrying. After all, it comes enclosed in its own wrapper. All you have to do is take it back to where you're staying, put the melon under a faucet if you're a stickler for sanitation, then pull out your trusty pocket knife, and cut off the size piece you want. It's no wonder Mexican Artist Rodolfo Tamayo often included pieces of watermelon in his paintings, probably snacking when he wanted to take a break.

There are two kinds of healthy Mexican fruits and vegetables. Some that come in their own protective skin and some don't but provide healthy nutrients whether you live in Mexico or are just visiting.

More of the "in their own wrapper" type are peas in the pod, avocados, oranges, tangerines (in Mexico, called clementinas), and bananas (plátanos) Although not a fruit, nuts and seeds are available too. All these are healthy snacks when the hunger bug hits and you would otherwise succumb to something that might cause problems.. Another is the onion, easy to unwrap (with fewer tears than its northamerican cousin, and add to a dish or slice and saute in a frying pan.

I often succumb to fresh fruit ice cream sold along the street in my adopted Mexican city. The vendors face inspection and the ingredients in the ice-cream are mixed with spoons, not human hands. I've never gotten sick from eating an ice-cream cone or, for that matter, drinking an agua de frutas made with purified water.

Preparing vegetable soup in Mexico is easy because you can buy a bag of cut up vegetables in the market or from street vendors. No worries if you cook the veggies for at least twenty minutes after reaching the simmer point -- any microbes attached will give up the ghost. Soup, besides providing vitamins and fiber, has the advantage of keeping you full of liquid, important when the weather is hot or you're at a higher altitude than you're used to.