the Power of Prunes

I hate prune talk and from my days in LTC/NH, this was a common topic among our geri residents. As a kid, my Mom used to make some dishes that I just loved - like I love plain old meatloaf, plain buttered noodles, mixed peas & carrots, tapioca & rice puddings. She would occ make stewed prunes for breakfast once in a while (maybe my Dad needed them?). I loved them when she made them. Like a dessert for breakfast!.  

I'm on a necessary diet, so I started to make them for myself. Experimenting with added spices like orange/lemon zest, rosemary spice, anise seeds, and next will be ginger. But I wanted to check out the nutritional value of prunes, particularly, sodium. I know fresh fruits & vegs don't have crazy sodium values, but what prunes DO have floored me.

Like we all know about the fiber content that helps GI regularity. But it's not the fiber that works so well. Prunes are a high source of SORBITOL. For all us organic/bio Chemistry geeks, we know sorbitol is a natural occurring alcohol sugar. It's the ingredient they add to artificially sweeten candies, gums, etc to diet-control calories.

But if anyone has ever overdosed on too much sorbitol-containing foodstuffs, you prob had terrible gastric distress (to call it mildly!) So guess what's contributing to the 'regularity factor' of prunes? The sorbitol!  Prunes are so sweet - bet you can't eat just a few!

Who knew?!?!? Now you do know about the Power of Prunes.