November 2010
Newsletter
Food focus: Apples
An apple a day keeps the doctor
away. Why might that be? According to
Paul Pitchford (healing with Whole Foods, North Atlantic Books, 1993), the malic
and tartaric acids in apples inhibit “disease-producing bacteria in the
digestive tract.” And, furthermore, pectin
“removes cholesterol, toxic metals, such as lead and mercury, and the residues
of radiation.” Apples and apple juice
are also recommended to soften gallstones.
That adds up to quite a varied role for one fruit – no wonder it’s been
cultivated far and wide!
So are apples good for everyone? Apparently not. Apples, along with apricots, peaches, pears,
and plums, (all in the rosaceae
family) are high in both fructose and sorbitol.
One or the other or both, especially in this combination, leads to
I.B.S. for some unfortunates. Intestinal bowel syndrome means
distressing symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or gas – or all of
the above. Anyone so troubled, might
consider eliminating this class of fruit for a few weeks and then, if feeling
better, challenge the improvement by eating a lot of them for a day or two to
see what happens. (IBS-Free At Last, Patsy Catsos, Pond cove Press, 2008)
For the health conscious who want to bake with
less sugar, consider substituting
unsweetened apple juice (2 gr. sugar per tablespoon) or applesauce (1.5
gr. sugar per tablespoon). Recipes to accomplish this are a useful feature of Get
the Sugar Out by A.L. Gittleman (Three Rivers Press, 1996).
Recipe of the Month:
Baked Apple
Ingredients:
4
apples (Braeburn, Empire, Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Rome hold both flavor and shape when baked
whole)
¼
cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
¼
cup dried fruit: raisins or currants or chopped apricots or prunes or dates.
Spices
of your choice: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, lemon zest, vanilla…
4
tablespoons of softened butter.
Directions:
Preheat
oven to 350 F.
Wash
and core the apples, but not all the way through, so the filling won’t leak out
and make a significant cavity for the filling.
Make
the filling by creaming all ingredients into the butter.
Place
the filled apples in a couple of tablespoons of water in a covered baking dish and
bake for 45-60 minutes.
Recipe
inspired by Nourishing Traditions, p.542, by Sally Fallon, New Trends
Publishing, 2001.
An alternative to the above comes from Bryan
Roof in Cook’s Illustrated (Jan.-Feb., 2010). He suggests keeping the apple firmer by
peeling it so the steam escapes. He
further recommends cutting off the top ½ inch, unpeeled, as a hat to keep the
apple from burning in a 375F oven for 30-45 minutes.
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