Ode to Fruit

Yes, all of it

Before you head into the article, help me with a short survey about your preferences - and give me your suggestions!

Some months ago, I went for a medical consultation with a doctor, and the experience did not go well. This is not because of an unhappy diagnosis: I am healthy as a fish, and any minor ailment I may have is utterly addressable through careful lifestyle management.

The issue with this doctor was a complete lack of understanding: the Doctor was on Mars, and I was in a different galaxy.

My suspension of disbelief entered when the Doctor, without any diagnosis of any sort, told me that I should stop eating eggs, drinking milk, and eating gluten. Also, I should limit my consumption of fruit, as fruits have sugars, stick to “boring” fruits such as apples and pears, and avoid pesky sugary fruits such as mango.

For scientific reference, a pear has 10 grams of sugar for 100 grams of pulp, while the demoniac mango has a whopping 14 grams.

Yep.

As I sat there in disbelief, the Doctor prescribed a very long list of supplements I should be taking—however, the Doctor forgot the only one I need to live (B12).

I could not help but wonder.

What the fuck?

I am less articulate in my own life than when I sat down later and typed it all up here, so my thought was verbatim.

Luckily, I booked a consultation with another doctor because I am a chaotic neutral. Both doctors are lifestyle doctors, a branch of very holistic modern medicine that evaluates not only bloodwork and medical exams but also the mind and body, diet, and lifestyle.

I will not tell you who the doctor who recommended that I not eat the fruit was.

Still, I can tell you that my happy, fruitful second consultation was booked with

Viola Zulian

- a plant-based lifestyle doctor who can holistically assess a person who does sport - even weird ones like alpinism, like me, and who is open-minded and understanding towards a lifestyle, like mine, that is plant-based as much as possible but has to let go of control in some social occasions inevitably. Such is the life of a gastronomer, I guess… Her blog is a treasure trove, and I highly recommend reading it.

Anyways, back to my fruits.

I am in love with the seasons and the passing of time.

The older I get, the more I feel this cyclic change that alternates the seasons. When I was younger, I did not pay much attention to it, but now, every month is a treasure for me.

The first, crisp apples and pears, crunchy and sweet, tangy and with thick skin, make me want to fill a basket and skip merrily through an orchard. I love how they do not become dull over winter but warm: apples we enjoy fresh and crunchy in October become pies filling in January, cooked with a cinnamon stick or baked in the oven. Same with pears: once a crisp novelty, when the winter prolongs, they are happy purées, delicious slices in combination with chocolate, or soaked in wine or syrup and baked.

Grapes are delicious, and those that should be used for winemaking but are instead eaten just about when they are ripe and before harvest are a special treat for me. Freshly squeezed grape juice was one of the best drinks of my childhood - my mum blended all the seeds and skins, so the tannins made it a bubbly, delicious drink for hot September mornings.

Oranges, mandarines, clementines and grapefruits are a squeeze of pure joy.

I love eating them icy cold, straight from the fridge.

I like to peel them with my fingers, scratching the essential oils in their skin and smelling their delicious perfume, almost an expectation of the juiciness of their pulps.

I adore most of those ephemeral fruits that only last a fortnight or a month: figs, cherries, soft persimmons, wild blueberries, apricots, some small yellow French plums (I always forget their name, marseille), and fraise de bois. They are my treasures, and when they are in season, I eat a lot of them.

But so what?

Cherry season is so short and fleeting that no harm will come if I overeat cherries for two weeks.

Nobody ever gets fat because they eat excess cherries for two weeks straight. Because what counts is the sum, the total, the overall.

I like bananas, especially those from Madeira: they are short, thick, sweet, soft, and delicious. I wouldn't like all the other bananas.

I like the small Brazilian papaya; the big ones could be more interesting—but they are not, so I do not eat them.

I like ananas, but only those from the Canary Islands or the Azores.

At the shop where I buy my fruits, it is 14 euros for one fruit as a treat that I reserve for special occasionanś. I prefer pickled mango or mango in chutney rather than fresh ones.

I am not very interested in pitayas and all other so-called exotic fruits; my forever fascination is with berries. From cranberries to lingonberries, from those dusty Finnish yellow berries to raspberries and any small fruit available, they are my guilty pleasure. I would opt for a box of wild blueberries over a box of handmade chocolate bonbons daily. And yes, yellow golden kiwis, too.

They are a berry, after all.

Pomegranate is a godsend for winter, and I love eating its jewel-looking grains as they are, picking them with my fingers like I was a toddler.

Fruits are life for me.

Since starting my plant-based journey, I have consciously incorporated more fruit into my diet. The guidelines, which are similar in every country, say we should consume 400/500 grams of fruits daily. I put in this quantity, along with my dried fruits and nuts, another deliciousness I started heavily stocking my pantry.

Not just as an aperitif, nuts, such as pistachios, almonds, cashews, pine nuts, and hazelnuts, are now a typical snack in between meals, with the occasional raisin spoonful or dried fruit.

Eating fruit is a habit.

Reaching the 500-gram limit daily takes work and is almost impossible, especially when one's plate is filled with meats, cheeses, and creamy desserts. In the past, I was almost always hungry for a snack if I was training hard.

But now, I am peckish and have another beautiful drawer in my fridge filled with various seasonal fruits. I can choose at least three or four pieces daily and snack happily, exploring their tastes, textures, and temperatures.

I eat fruit, and their sugar is enough: I have not craved sugary desserts in months and months - the quantity of sugar I eat with the recommended daily dose of fruits is sufficient for my ape brain to think it is satisfied.

On the contrary, sugar is almost disgusting, and most restaurant desserts are so packed with sugar that they end up horrid to me, aside from notable exceptions.

I feel a step closer to nature, to our natural state. Yes, our ancestors did some hunting, yes, occasionally. But perhaps they did much more gathering and enjoying what is naturally good from a tree or a bush.

And you, what is your favourite fruit of each season?