| Your Fruity Duty is to make it a point to eat fruit | | | | juicy salad ingredients, too. |
| every day. Who doesn't like fruit? Juicy peaches, | | | | Fruit works surprisingly well when added to a main |
| crisp apples, bright yellow bananas--yum! Fruit not | | | | course. Cook a beef roast with prunes. Serve |
| only tastes great, but it's also good for your | | | | chopped apples and pecans over pork chops. |
| health, your digestion, and your waistline. Fruit is | | | | Combine dried cranberries and apricots in a sauce |
| loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Those | | | | to serve over salmon. Glaze chicken with orange |
| are important at any age, but in our thrifty | | | | juice and honey, and surround with slices of fresh |
| retirement, they gain increasing importance. | | | | orange. |
| No matter how we try, the simple fact of aging | | | | One element of the Mediterranean diet that is |
| tends to slow our metabolism, and without any | | | | often overlooked is fruit as dessert. Everybody |
| change in diet or exercise, we will almost | | | | knows about the red wine and olive oil parts, but |
| inevitably gain weight. Making fruit a larger part of | | | | fruit as dessert is a critical component. Let's face |
| your diet can help offset that. Fruit can become | | | | it: most American diets don't include grapes and |
| part of every course and every meal you | | | | brie as a last course. We choose cakes, cookies, |
| prepare. | | | | brownies, and other sweets. A single serving of |
| Fruit for breakfast might be easiest. Top your | | | | "death by chocolate" can destroy a week of |
| cereal, hot or cold, with fruit. If you're having | | | | careful eating. Instead, try fruit. Core and quarter |
| pancakes, waffles, or French toast, top it with | | | | a bright red apple and serve it with a tablespoon |
| berries or chunky applesauce. For those on the | | | | of caramel sauce, or serve a luscious pear with |
| run, grab a banana or apple as you head out the | | | | chocolate sauce. Add the tiniest dash of nutmeg |
| door. | | | | for garnish. |
| For the rest of the day, let's start with fruit in | | | | An elegant dessert that is much simpler to |
| salads. Yes, there's the common fruit salad. We all | | | | prepare than it looks is chunks of fruit served in a |
| used to open a can of fruit cocktail, add sliced | | | | martini glass. Cut up cantaloupe, honeydew, |
| bananas, and call it fruit salad. Of course, there | | | | pineapple, bananas, kiwi, berries, peaches, or |
| are tons of options to that today. You can cut up | | | | almost any fruit and pile it in a stemmed glass. |
| virtually any combination of fruits and make a | | | | Drizzle it with a tablespoon of rum, Grand Marnier, |
| bright, colorful, nutritious salad. That's a great idea | | | | or Chambord, and your whole meal has new flair. |
| to take to a family dinner or a potluck, where | | | | It's a show-stopper that will light up the table. |
| gooey casseroles and fatty desserts often rule. | | | | It seems that each week we read about a new |
| But fruit in salad doesn't stop there. The mandarin | | | | super fruit: first, cranberries, pomegranate, and |
| chicken salad, popular for over 25 years already, | | | | blueberries, followed by exotics like gogi berries, |
| is just the beginning of a wonderful world that has | | | | acai, and noni. Claims have been made that this |
| opened to us. Try a basic mix of greens with a | | | | fruit or that fruit can fight urinary infections, |
| fresh orange and a fresh apple diced into it. Add | | | | promote prostate health, prevent colds, retard |
| toasted pecans and you have a delicious salad. | | | | coronary vascular disease, or stave off cancer. |
| Add diced chicken and you have a main course | | | | There seems to be promising evidence to support |
| that is wonderfully healthy, as well as tasty. | | | | some of those claims. But until science shows us |
| Dried fruit, grapes, or fresh berries can be added | | | | proof, what we know for sure is that fruit is full |
| to a number of salads. Think as simple as raisins | | | | of fiber to help regularity and promote digestion, |
| or dried cranberries, to as exotic as dates or | | | | and it's loaded with vitamins and other compounds |
| dried mango. All these work well with a bit of | | | | that are essential to good health. So do your |
| diced celery and bell pepper in tossed greens. | | | | Fruity Duty and eat fruit every day! |
| Your thrifty retirement likes the cost of these | | | | |