Fit Fare

“Why do we need so many different kinds of apples? Because there are so many different kinds of folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate tastes. If he wants 20 or 40 kinds of apples for his personal use, running from ‘Early Harvest’ to ‘Roxbury Russet’, he should be afforded the privilege….There is merit in variety itself. It provides more points of contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony.” -Liberty Hyde Bailey in The Apple Tree, 1922

A popular diet book from 2005, The 3-Apple-a-Day Plan: Your Foundation for Permanent Fat Loss, encourages people to eat an apple before every meal, every day. Though this may be difficult to maintain (even the most delicious and nutritious foods get tiresome after a while), the basic concept is solid: fill up on healthy fruits and vegetables with plenty of water and fiber, and you’ll have less room for junk.

Three apples a day may be overkill, but whether you’re trying to lose weight or not, fall is the perfect time of year to celebrate apples. What’s more, 2006 boasts a bumper crop through many parts of the country, so if you have an orchard in your area, now is an excellent chance to sample some less common varieties and expand your apple palette. The types described below are easy to find in supermarkets and orchards, but they are by no means the only interesting apples out there. Your local grower can provide advice on which variety is best suited to your needs.

Apples can be grouped into two major categories: those intended for cooking and those intended for eating raw. That is not to say that the boundaries cannot be blurred; sometimes the crisp texture and tart flavor of a Granny Smith apple is a good foil for a rich roast pork dish.

A Cortland apple holds up well to cooking, but might also be palatable for someone who prefers a sweeter apple for eating raw.

Jonathan apples are the quintessential cooking apple, the preferred fruit for pies and tarts because of their spicy and aromatic qualities and sweet/tart flavors.

Strangest of all is the Grapple(TM), a Washington apple treated with a flavoring agent that gives it the taste of a concord grape. The official Grapple website indicates that the apple is not genetically modified, nor are any additional sugars or calories added. It is nutritionally identical to an apple, just with a different flavor. Its target audience is children, though novelty fruit could potentially be enjoyed by anyone. Creepy? Possibly. Fun? Possibly as well.

When it comes to enjoying apple desserts, pie crusts are often the biggest impediment to a healthy experience. Often chock full of butter, white flour, and the trans-fats that come with vegetable shortening, pie crusts should be enjoyed only very occasionally. One compromise is to make a tarte tatin or other single-crust pie, thus cutting your crust exposure in half. Also, there are many other apple-based desserts that don’t reply on pie crust at all.

For example, a cored and peeled apple can be stuffed with nuts and just a touch of brown sugar, then baked until tender, for a decent apple pie substitute with a fraction of the fat and calories. You can also brown apple slices with a dab of butter in a saucepan, add a little of the sweetener and spices of your choice (I especially recommend freshly-grated nutmeg; it makes a big difference and can reduce the importance of sugar and fat in a recipe, due to its boldness of flavor). The apples can be enjoyed over frozen yogurt or layered between sheets of baked phyllo dough for a low-fat and fancy-looking Napoleon.

Regardless of whether you prefer your apples cooked, raw, or even disguised as another fruit entirely, it’s worth the effort to reexamine the lunchbox favorite and try out some varieties that might be new to you, especially this year.