Are you getting your 5-a-day?

Stripped down and having fun with fruit.

Are you getting your 5-a-day?
Emi with pineapple. Photo: Gareth Johnson

Eating a balanced diet is one of the building blocks of your health and fitness.

The World Health Organisation recommends that we should be eating at least 400g of fruit and vegetables each day. In simple terms, that's "5 A Day" - five portions of the good stuff to keep you firing on all cylinders.

But what fruit gets your attention? What gets your tastebuds tingling?

Let's take a look at some of the options - as documented in the Dick Diaries.

Emi with fruit. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The Peach

Español: Melocotón

First cultivated in China, peaches are from the same genetic family as roses. The fruit is a symbol of long life and good luck.

Emi with peach. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The Nectarine

Español: Nectarina

Taking its name from the "nectar of the gods", the nectarine is essentially a mutated peach - a recessive gene means that the fruit that is produced is smooth not furry, with tougher skin to compensate.

Emi with nectarine. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The Mango

Español: Mango

The mango is an ancient fruit - it's been grown in south-east Asia for over 5,000 years. In India, giving a basket of mangoes is a traditional gesture of friendship and love.

Emi with mango. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The orange

Español: Naranja

In the English language, this citrus fruit pre-dates its use to describe the colour orange. Hundreds of years after the fruit was being eaten on the streets of London, the word orange began to be used to describe objects similar to the colour of the fruit's skin. Before that, the colour that we now know as orange was referred to as yellow-red.

Emi with oranges. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The melon

Español: Melón

There's over 1200 different types of melons out there. Technically, melons are both a fruit and a vegetable. They're classified as a fruit because they develop from pollinated flowered. They're also a vegetable as they're genetically part of the gourd family that includes cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash.

Emi with melon. Photo: Gareth Johnson

The pineapple

Español: Piña

When we look at a pineapple, we're not looking at a single piece of fruit, it's actually a cluster of lots of individual berries that fuse together around a central core. Carved stone or wooden pineapples placed on colonial American gateposts symbolised that guests were welcome and safe.

Emi with pineapple. Photo: Gareth Johnson

What are you waiting for? Dive in and eat some fruit!

Emi with peach. Photo: Gareth Johnson

See more entries in the Dick Diaries - chronicling a catalogue of cocks.

Gareth Johnson is a London-based photographer and host of the Naked Men Talking podcast.