In these the cold winter months – at least here on the east coast – I long for the hot summer months. I enjoy the changing seasons, don’t get me wrong, but when the mercury drops to the single digits and a stiff wind hits me in the face when walking the city streets, I can’t help but wish I were teleported to some Caribbean island, where climatic paradise reigns virtually every day of the year.
In the meantime, since I don’t foresee heading off to the Fiji islands any time soon, I’ll make do with my own ‘pear’adise, as the winter months are the peak season for the mighty pear.
To be perfectly honest, my heart doesn’t go pitter-patter when it comes to craving pears. I actually didn’t like them at all at one point. My dislike dissipated, though, after being introduced to a great salad made with walnuts, cranberries, diced pears and a dash of raspberry vinaigrette. The pears really made the salad sing!
And that’s the great thing about pears: while fine and dandy to eat by their lonesome, they make for great perk-ups to virtually any dish, be it the occasional dessert (Spiced Pear dessert), the tossed salad (Spring mix made with organic craisins and walnuts, drizzled with a raspberry vinaigrette) or when used as a flavorful ingredient to homemade condiments (pear mango chutney).
Taste and recipes aside, though, pears are great source for quality nutrients. For starters, pears are packed with fiber – between four and six grams, depending on the pear’s size (that’s more than the average banana, which has about two grams worth of fiber, and more than the average apple, which yields about three grams). As anyone who is trying to lose weight will tell you, fiber is the dieter’s best friend, as fiber provides that feeling of satiety, or fullness, that’s often MIA when eating less. Two other things pears are packed with include vitamin C and vitamin K, providing 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of one’s daily C and K needs (read about the health benefits of vitamin C and K under “Vitamins” in the “A to Z Health” section).
That’s the good side of pears. But there is a bad side to the pear that bears mentioning:
One is pears spoil very, very quickly, primarily due to the fact that they ripen more rapidly off the tree (a recent study suggests an additional factor to their haste in spoiling is pears have microscopic “air pathways;” the extra oxygen expedites the spoiling process). Thus, when purchasing pears, it’s important they be eaten soon after purchase.
The other bad thing about pears is pesticides. It’s a sad fact of life, but farmers use pesticides to “enhance” the quality of their fruit in order to get rid of bugs and insects that mark-up their fruit (while pesticides may make the appearance of fruit more aesthetically pleasing, its nutritional quality suffers). And according to a 2006 report released by the Environmental Working Group, pears rank among the top 12 foods that have the most pesticide run off. Did you catch that? Not in the top 12 of just fruits or produce, but of ALL foods! That’s why it’s of vital importance to choose organic pears when purchasing in stores. Sometimes you can get away with the occasional non-organic produce purchase. That’s not the case with pears. You should ALWAYS choose organic pears.
So, if you’re not living in a climatic paradise at the moment, bring the ‘pear’adise to you by purchasing some organic pears of your own.
