Everyone has heard that a piece of fruit is better for you than a piece of fruit pie, and that a banana is more healthful than a banana split. The natural item — with peel and/or fiber, vitamins, essential nutrients, and natural sweetness — is a whole food. The manufactured items by contrast are processed and denatured.

So why do the processed snacks taste so much better? First of all, do they really? Unfortunately, for many people the answer is yes… for several reasons.

Fruit is not inherently less tasty than processed snacks. Several modern trends have led to this situation. However, this is not insurmountable.

These days, most fruit is shipped vast distances. Growers have shifted from growing for taste to growing for durability. Fruit must tolerate bouncing around — going cross-country and around the world for days and weeks — with a minimum of bruising. If an apple looks as though it lost a fight with a cantaloupe, or vice-versa, few people will buy it. Most of the fruit at the market looks fairly nice, so it sells, even though it is coated with wax and the flavor is not the best.

Another problem is our consumption of sugar-sweetened foods has increased far beyond our ancestors. As a result, many of us have become less sensitive to the sweet flavors of fruits and other foods in their natural state. Children learn early on that a cherry Pop-Tart is more exciting than a handful of fresh cherries. Sugar is added to many foods that hardly need them. Even French fries at fast-food restaurants contain sugar! The modern epidemics of diminished insulin sensitivity and diabetes should be no surprise.

If you serve fresh fruit as desserts or snacks most of the time — while dramatically cutting back on sugar in your cooking — you will regain your sensitivity to the natural taste of foods, and you will begin to prefer the real foods to the sugar-boosted bakery fakery. Trust me on this. And it doesn’t hurt to pat yourself on the back for learning to favor the good over the bad and the ugly.

As an interim measure, I suggest you use a sugar substitute when necessary to sweeten fruit that has a less than adequate flavor. Cut back gradually on the amount of this flavoring that you use, and over time your taste buds will start to enjoy the flavors of natural foods. You will be amazed.

Zippy Fruit Flavorizer

1/4 cup xylitol, erythritol, Splenda, or other bulk sugar substitute
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch of allspice

Mix all ingredients well.
Put into a shaker.
Shake onto sliced fresh fruit that needs a little flavor boost,
or just to add a nice taste!