Pears are lovely. Crunchy, juicy, snuggly and tasty. They freeze well, shred well, blend well and travel in your purse well and can be made into all kinds of fashionable snacks and appetizers. They are eaten largely by dairy and meat-eaters alike with things like ham, cheese, on tiny crackers and slivered onto
fantastic vegan salads. Pears are smothered in butter and cinnamon, sauteed in frying pans and baked with holiday roasts. They are mashed into purees for tiny baby eating, given to college students as snacks on plane rides and picked fresh off trees in pear tree states.
What's not to like about a pear?
While they are often eaten softly boiled and skinned, RAW PEARS make for a delicious and nutritious treat anytime of day! Reasons why we should all be slamming on some raw pears right now: Ahem...
Number 1 -
Pears can be paired with just about anything!
When it comes to whole foods eating (or proper food-combining as some call it) pears are best eaten with other sub-acidic fruits but can also be combined with acid fruits as well. What are sub-acid and acid fruits, you ask? Check the list below!
Fruits for food-combing:
Sub-Acidic:
Peach, Pear, Plum,
Raspberry, Grape, Blackberry,
Blueberry, Cherry, Lychee,
Mango, Apple, Loquat, Nectarine,
Apricot or Cherimoya. Or Acid fruits like: Cranberry, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Kumquat, Lemon, Lime,
Orange, Pineapple,
Pomegranate, Strawberry, Tangerine, or Tomato.
Pears are among the most easily digested foods and are usually okay to eat even for those on low-allergy diet plans. This is often why they recommend pears as one of the first solid foods to introduce to a baby's diet.
Reason #2 -
Pears are easy to eat. Back in the early days of yonder I believe humans ate whole fruits and vegetables. That's what so curious about this
shift back to whole foods eating. It's in our nature. Before the days of TV dinners and microwaves...we ate RAW WHOLE FOODS.
So how does
whole foods eating apply when it comes to pears?...well...it means that
you can eat the WHOLE THING. Yup. That's right, everything but the stem just about, I will gobble down (seeds too!). Now that's just me, doesn't have to be you...all I'm saying is that pears actually require
no utensils, no prep, no fuss. Just yummy, easy, juicy deliciousness.
As a matter of fact,
studies show that eating pear skin is actually MORE HEALTHY than eating pear flesh! It's not too often that we are recommended to eat the skin of our fruits and vegetables, however, especially when it comes to pears, we may want to
think twice before skinning. This is because the skin holds between 3-4 times MORE of what's called phenolic phytonutrients than the pear flesh. These phenolic phytonutrients are where we get our anti-inflammatory flavonoids, antioxidants and potentially anti-cancer phytonutrients (like cinnamic acids) from!
Here's another fact to blow you over...Pears can help increase insulin sensitivity, therefore they can help
decrease the risk of Type 2 diabetes in men and women! Whoa! Check me out! This is due to certain flavonoids found in the pear skin (flavonols, flavan-3-ols, and anthocyanins to be specific) and among
all fruits and vegetables analyzed for their flavonoid content...the apples and PEARS combination is among the most consistent in their ability to decrease our risk for Type 2 diabetes.
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RAW Sliced Pears with little bit of cinnamon, lemon juice and raisins to top! Sweet and satisfying.
Photo by: healthninja.wordpress.com |
The intake of pears has been associated with a decreased risk of many chronic inflammatory dis-eases which include heart dis-ease and Type 2 diabetes, which are a results of excessive oxidative stress in the body. Pears are great because they even decrease the risk of all kinds of cancer! The fiber in the pears binds together with the secondary bile in the digestive track (excess amounts of secondary bile can cause a whole host of intestinal problems), decreases the amount of acid concentration and keeps things moving along regular.
Pears have been noted to decrease the risk of gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, and esophageal cancer.
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| Fresh Vanilla Pear Juice with ice cubes (I'll take it sans vodka), hehe. Photo by: www.two-tarts.com |
Not fond of the texture? PEAR JUICE is a great, simple way to include pears in your diet (and those of your kids)! No excuse! :-) Just be sure to get (or make) your pear juice with pulp, non-pasteurized and organic where possible. (When the pulp is removed the antioxidant benefits drops about 40%)
Reason #3 -
Pears have lots of fiber! Vitamin C and Vitamin K. For those who are not so keen on Metamucil and other strange and nebulous fiber drink powders...pears provide about 22% of our daily fiber intake. Pears are an easy way to increase your fiber intake.
NOTE: About half of the fiber found in pears is in the skin, so to get the optimal fiber intake, include those skins in your consumption!
There are
over 3000 varieties of pears enjoyed world-wide. China produces approximately three-quarters of the pears consumed world-wide, roughly 15.5 million of the 21 million tons eaten. In the US Washington is the largest pear-producing state with California and Oregon to follow.
Pear-eating Ideas:
Tips on selecting pears:
When buying pears, you want to check the "neck." If it is firm but gives a little the pear is ripe, if it is squishy that pear is likely over-ripe and should probably be best used for baking or making pear-sauce. The skin should be smooth and free of bruises, however speckles and spots are welcomed as this indicates a more intense flavored pear. After picking a perfect ripe one, keep in the fridge up to 2-3 days for best results.
If your pears are hard, place them in a brown paper bag to induce ripening, but no plastic bags! Pears need oxygen so paper is best. Also, note that they tend to absorb whatever is around them, so keep them away from strong smelling foods while storing.
Sooo...next time you're out grab a few pears for your basket! You will be pleasantly pleased that you did. :-)
Su-pear! Du-pear!
Live. Love. Well.
~h
