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Fresh fruit-juicy, sweet and luscious - is one of the nicest and healthiest ways to end a meal. With fruit, you can satisfy a sweet tooth, and keep your heart healthy too. And for day-to-day sweets, nothing can compare with a beautiful ripe peach, a crunchy apple or a juicy pear for nutrition, convenience and flavour. Fruit is good for your heart because it has negligible amounts of fat and lots of fibre. Its fibre is rich in gums and pectins, which are known to lower blood cholesterol and slow the absorption of food. The fibre also creates 'bulk' and makes fruit a filling snack between meals. Dried fruits are a useful addition to your diet. Sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, dates, prunes and figs, have a natural sweetness (being high in fruit sugars), no fat, and an excellent fibre content. Yoghurt and desserts are enlivened with a handful of dried fruit; meat and poultry team particularly well with apricots, currants and prunes; salads take on a new air with a touch of fruity sweetness. We've devised a collection of fruity recipes to inspire and delight you and your family. All recipes are sweetened subtly, with a little sugar or honey, sometimes with a dash of liqueur. This allows the fruit's delectable flavour to come through, enhanced with the help of spices or grated rinds. NUTRITION TIPS Most fruit provide vitamins, but some stand head and shoulders above the rest. Citrus fruit, berries, guava, kiwi fruit and pawpaw are the fruit richest in vitamin C, and worth eating on a daily basis. Orange-coloured fruit like apricots, mangoes, and rock melon are rich in beta-carotene (the precursor of vitamin A). If your children refuse to eat vegetables, remember that fruit is the ideal substitute. Fruit supplies the same nutrients as vegetables, notably vitamins A and C, fibre and essential minerals such as potassium. Most children will happily tuck into a piece of fruit or cut-up portions with no worries. Beware of too much fruit juice! Fruit juice is fruit in concentrated torm, with its fibre removed. Drinking a glass of orange juice takes no effort. Eating your way through the equivalent of two or three oranges is much harder. The kilojoules (calories) are the same!