Fruit Salad Is Trash

There are a lot of great uses for fruit out there. You can eat it on top of various cakes or mix it in to your favorite yogurt. Of course, you can always eat it raw, perhaps sprinkled with a bit of extra sugar if you have a particular sweet tooth. Or, you can ruin every piece of fruit that has ever happened to exist and mix it all together for a fruit salad.

Yeah, that's right. I said it: Fruit salad is bad, and you honestly need to stop eating it.

I know what you're thinking. I make my own fruit salad, with strawberries, peaches, fresh mint and some pine nuts for crunch, and it is not trash. That sounds just fine and dandy, but I'm not talking about creative twists on this summertime staple. I'm talking about the classic here, with honeydew, cantaloupe, blueberries, watermelon, some grapes, and maybe raspberries or strawberries if you're lucky. You know this particular fruit salad; you've picked it up from the grocery store dozens of times when you're on your way to a potluck and you forgot to bring a dish. But actually, this is one of the worst things you can bring to a party.

Have you ever seen someone excitedly dishing fruit salad onto their plate, hunting for those bits of melon? Absolutely not. What people do to fruit salad, however, is pick out all the money fruits. Yep, those precious strawberries, raspberries, and grapes are gone in a flash, leaving just a sticky, sickening bowl of melon and flavorless blueberries.

So, the next time you're tempted to bring a generic fruit salad to an event or even just buy one for a light afternoon snack, think again. There are so many delicious fruits you can buy whole and enjoy. And if you're going to a party, bring these scrumptious dishes instead.

Carolyn Menyes is the entertain editor at The Daily Meal. She likes green salad just fine, thanks for asking. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.