7 Uncommon Fruits I Learned About While Rebuilding My Diet 

The collards themselves were quite healthy—that is, until I slathered them in oil and salt. If I did occasionally eat other vegetables, I doused them in as much fat and salt as possible to make them taste like, well, fat and salt.

I also used my new knowledge of spices to make these foods work rather than depending on loads of oil and salt. And I learned how to sauté foods in a healthy way, using a combination of lemon and vinegar that gave me the nice salty taste I love without turning them into a diabetes-inducing, artery-clogging nightmare.

Learning about all kinds of wonderful nutritious fruits has been one of the best parts of my journey to good health. Here are some other fruits you might want to try:

Native to South America, this is also called a custard apple because that's what it tastes like. It's a great source of vitamins B and C and is chock-full of fiber. If you don't believe me, take it from Mark Twain, who called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to man."

OK, bad news first: Durian smells awful. Like really awful. The good news? It tastes nothing like its odor. Native to tropical regions, durian is known in Southeast Asia as the "king of fruits." If you don't mind the odor, you'll get a fruit that combines the taste of vanilla with bananas. It's rich in fiber and minerals like manganese, iron, and copper and is a great source of B vitamins as well.

Crisp and sweet, few fruits are as tasty as this kind of persimmon, which, unlike its relatives, is not astringent. You can eat the skin if you'd like, although many people don't. It's an excellent source of fiber as well as vitamins A, C, and B6, along with minerals like potassium and manganese.

A superb source of vitamin C and fiber, this citrus fruit is also rich in the powerful antioxidant beta-carotene. And it's got lots of calcium to keep your bones strong. Because it can taste slightly sour (unlike its skin, which is sweet), it makes an excellent marmalade.

Native to South America, this fruit is, like so many others, loaded with fiber and vitamins C and A and is rich in antioxidants. It tastes like a mix of many other tropical fruits, such as pineapple, papaya, mango, citrus, and guava.

Most of the other fruits here come from exotic places in the world, but the pawpaw is native to North America. Oddly it tastes more like a tropical fruit than other American ones, something between a banana and a pineapple. Pawpaws are high in vitamin C as well as minerals like magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc.

Native to Southeast Asia, this citrus fruit could be mistaken for a sweet version of a grapefruit. Surprisingly high in protein—one fruit contains 4.6 grams—it is also a superb source of vitamin C while offering healthy amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B6.