Week 9 Prep: Fruit
A hands-on exercise comparing calorie density across this week's fruits, and checking whether ripening behaviour tracks nutritional composition or is unrelated to it.
19 April 2027
Choosing which fruit to build a dish around is, among other things, a calorie-density decision — this week’s lecture covers where each fruit is stored and why; this exercise covers what each one actually contributes once it is in the dish.
Exercise#
Select two fruits below at the same quantity — a banana and a serving of strawberries, say — and compare calorie content. Then check whether the climacteric fruits here (apple, banana, mango) differ systematically on any of the three figures from the two non-climacteric fruits (orange, strawberry), or whether ripening behaviour and nutritional composition are simply unrelated questions.
Macro calculator — Fruit
Choose an ingredient and a quantity in grams. Fat, protein and calories are computed from USDA FoodData Central figures given per 100 g of the raw ingredient.
- Fat
- 0.2 g
- Protein
- 0.3 g
- Calories
- 52 kcal
Per 100 g figures: Apples, raw, with skin — USDA, Agricultural Research Service, FoodData Central, FDC ID 171688.
None of the five fruits is a meaningful source of fat or protein; the spread in calories across them tracks sugar content, not the climacteric split this week’s lecture uses to decide where each one is stored.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- you can compute the fat, protein and calorie content of a stated quantity of at least one fruit using this week's calculator
- you can state, from the calculator's own figures, that calorie content across this week's fruits tracks sugar content more than fat or protein
- you can name the FoodData Central source a chosen fruit's figures come from
Teaching team
- Marisol Quaye — convenor