The dark truth about fruit

Here's some more delicious Vietnamese fruits:

The dragon fruit, which grows from a cactus vine. The pink skin is rubbery, with green scaly spines, and the flesh is watery and light, almost flavorless, although it has a bit of a tarty zing. The best part of the fruit is the many crunchy black seeds inside, like poppy seeds, which make eating the fruit akin to the experience of munching on a bagel, almost. Perhaps there is a better metaphor. There are supposedly antioxidants in dragon fruit as well. They are beautiful to look at, inside and out, more beautiful to look at than to eat, really.


The custard apple, below. In Vietnamese, this fruit is called Na, and Lena explains that her name is made up of two fruits: the Asian pear (Le) and the custard apple. The custard apple is delicious, but somewhat hard to eat because of its many hard black pips. Around the pips and underneath the bumpy, green rind the custard apple contains surprisingly creamy flesh, softer than a coconut, which tastes mildly sweet, much like a coconut does, but with a dash of apple butter and lemon meringue mixed in. Quite yum!


Coconuts. Riding my bicycle around the streets of Saigon, inhaling all the fumes and dust, and getting very thirsty, I often stop by a roadside stand to drink the juice of a young coconut for a burst of revitalization. The seller chops open a hole at the top and I slurp down a cup or two of the barely sweet liquid through a little straw. (Flickr photo below, and random web photo of custard apple above. Will get my own on photo jaunt I'm going to take this evening. The coconuts I drink from look a little different.)

Coconut water is evidently very healthful, with all these life-affirming properties:

1. Keeps the body cool and at the proper temperature.
2. Orally re-hydrates your body; it is an all natural isotonic beverage.
3. Carries nutrients and oxygen to cells.
4. Naturally replenishes your body's fluids after exercising.
5. Raises your metabolism.
6. Promotes weight loss.
7. Boosts your immune system.
8. Detoxifies and fights viruses.
9. Cleanses your digestive tract.
10. Controls diabetes.
11. Aids your body in fighting viruses that cause the flu, herpes, and AIDS.
12. Balances your PH and reduce risk of cancer.
13. Treats kidney and urethral stones.
14. Boosts poor circulation.

But the dark side of fruits is that I have been eating so much of them that I have broken out, and Lena says if I want my pimples to disappear, I have to stop eating the fruit and all the sweetened coffee with sugar-laden condensed milk. All of which is "heating" my body and causing horrible disfigurement. But I only have a few more days left, and there is still so much more fruit to eat. Dilemma.