One of the most beautiful and beneficial fruits of autumn is the glossy orange-red persimmon.

The bright reddish fruit have a range of health benefits, having played a part in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years, according to China’s news agency china.org.cn.

This sweet Spanish treat, which has a rich custardy flavour, contains high levels of vitamins A and C, and twice as much fibre, gram for gram, as an apple.

Further, there is evidence persimmon can promote fluids, aid the digestive system, help lower blood pressure and even brighten the complexion.

However unlike apples, fresh persimmon is not available year round.

The best persimmons come on the market from September to November and are best eaten fully ripe after being peeled – the skin is rich in tannic acid.

Research suggests that persimmons can even help cure hangovers, which given the forthcoming parties of the festive season, makes them a great addition to any office fruit basket.

Traders on London’s Portobello Road markets have linked up with New Covent Garden Market to celebrate the English apple season and boost consumer awareness of the fruit.

Kicking off on National Apple Day (October 21st), there has never been a better time to add the fruit to the office fruit basket.

The three-day event saw free tastings, recipes and English apples on promotion, as well as apple-flavoured granola snacks and toffee apples.
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A tasting team directed more than 100 people to Portobello traders throughout the event.

Ruth Holbrook, of the Local Food project: London & South East, told freshinfo the response from Portobello Market customers to be overwhelmingly positive.

She added: "People said the apples reminded them of their childhood and were so much more tasty than imported ones".

Other events to mark National Apple Day included identification of apple trees at the Eden Project in Cornwall and a National Trust ‘longest apple peel’ competition.

It is the bane of many an office worker’s life – you have been at work all morning, popped out for lunch and now sitting at your desk tired and sluggish all you want to do is rest your head on the keyboard and go to sleep.

But did you know that the office fruit basket is brilliant for helping you beat the afternoon slump?

Bananas in particular are brilliant in terms of not only their health benefits but also their energy boosting properties, which are down to abundance of vitamins and minerals.

Rich in potassium and natural sugars, eating just two bananas will give you enough energy to make the next hour and a half seem like a breeze.

The yellow-skinned fruit also have two times as many carbohydrates as an apple, five times as much Vitamin A and iron and three times as much phosphorus.

All of these factors combined make the banana a ‘super food’ that is an integral part of a healthy daily regimen.

With the winter flu season approaching, there has never been a better time to include fresh fruit in your daily diet to ward off coughs and sniffles.

The vitamin-rich, immune-system-boosting properties of apples, oranges and other items found in the office fruit box are well-documented, but according to health writer Jane Claxton-Oldfield, there is still no better food source to help reduce the risk of falling ill this winter.

"It is crucial to include as many fresh fruits into your daily diet as possible," said Ms Claxton-Oldfield, who adds that it is also important to drink plenty of water, especially when you have a cold or flu.

The advice is particularly relevant with many worried about the spread of the H1N1 virus, otherwise known as swine flu.

But an apple a day really can keep the doctor away: the fruit contains elements which detoxify the body and have antiviral properties.

Ms Claxton-Oldfield said: "While there is much practical advice readily available on how to protect yourself from flu by practising good hygiene measures, it seems little is being said about the benefits of healthy eating habits.

"Fresh fruit offers protection by way of achieving and maintaining a healthy immune system – which, after all, is the first line of defence against any disease."

Rick Gamble

A healthy diet rich in fruit, as found in the office fruit basket, can help prevent prediabetes, an under-diagnosed condition that makes people up to 15 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

An estimated seven million people in the UK have prediabetes, also known as Impaired Glucose Regulation (IGR), the Diabetes UK study showed.

The condition causes blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as Type 2 diabetes.

However recent research has shown the condition may still cause long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system.

Furthermore, many people with the condition are overweight or obese at diagnosis and 90 per cent will either have a family history of prediabetes or have high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Diabetes occurs because the body can’t use glucose properly, either owing to a lack of the hormone insulin, or because the insulin available doesn’t work effectively.

Yet crucially, prediabetes can often be reversed and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes reduced by 60 per cent, simply through losing even just a moderate amount of weight, adopting a healthy, balanced diet and increasing physical activity levels.

Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK emphasised that identifying and educating people with prediabetes was vital.

"It’s not too late for many to make healthy lifestyle changes, reverse the condition completely and reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes," he said.