Xylitol Syrup for Fresh Fruit Salads - Making Fresh Fruit More Appetising

Ingredients:

1 cup of water (1 cup = 6 fluid oz)
2 tablespoons of Xylitol (natural sweetener)

This should cover about 200grams of fruit.

Method:

Put the water into a saucepan and bring it to the boil.  Add the Xylitol and stir it in until it dissolves.  If you want thicker syrup, boil it until you have the consistency you require.

For people who want to eat fresh fruit but find it difficult for one reason or another to eat fruit raw, a quick, healthy way of doing it is to put it into syrup.  I use a natural sugar substitute called Xylitol - they say it's made from birch tree bark and often, corn. 

It's beneficial to teeth - whilst sugar rots teeth and gums.  It also has a low GI (glycemic index), which means that diabetics can use it safely.  It also has much lower calories.  So with Xylitol, you're a winner all round, as long as you're not a dog.  IT KILLS DOGS!  However, I know you're not a dog; otherwise, you'd be in the circus - if you were able to read this, and work a computer. 

Another reason for putting fruit into syrup is to preserve it.  My wife brought some strawberries back from the supermarket yesterday and they were already starting to decompose.  They had these purple/pink patches on them, which I cut out.  I washed the strawberries thoroughly, pulled off the stalks and put them into the syrup. 

I also made a fresh fruit cocktail, for the same reasons.  There were some cherries and peaches looking a bit sorry for themselves.  So I cut out the dodgy bits, washed them, pitted and diced them and put them in this Xylitol syrup.  I added a mandarin orange, which was a bit sour anyway, and a banana and got a pat on the head for being a good boy.  That way it stayed eatable, until it we ate it; whereas, the peach, which already had a beard on it, wouldn't have made it through the night.

Here's the recipe (yet, it's so simple I wonder if I should call it a recipe): 

Ingredients:

1 cup of water (1 cup = 6 fluid oz)
2 tablespoons of Xylitol (natural sweetener)

This should cover about 200grams of fruit.

Method:

Put the water into a saucepan and bring it to the boil.  Add the Xylitol and stir it in until it dissolves.  If you want thicker syrup, boil it until you have the consistency you require.

If you want to make this with ordinary sugar (did I mention that Xylitol is much more expensive than sugar?), use the same proportions - and remember to brush your teeth to get rid of the plaque. 

Ah!  That reminds me.  I didn't mention that, according to the guff, Xylitol inhibits the growth of the bacteria that causes plaque.  Don't ask me how, but I'll put a few links up herewith for you to check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol
http://www.xlear.com/about-xylitol.aspx
http://anti-inflammatoryremarks.blogspot.com/2010/06/xylitol-healthy-like-sugar-isnt.html