A Prune by any Other Name Is Still a Prune

Men's Health has a convenient list of healthy foods that you're probably not eating.

Making the cut -- or not making the cut, from my own present dietary standpoint -- are a few usual suspects, such as beets and cabbage, and a few less-usual, including cinnamon, purslane and goji berries.

The science underlying the recommendations is a little bit soft -- i.e., a study here, a study there, a bit of faddish antioxidant fixation -- but generally solid. I'd certainly benefit from more pomegranate juice.

My favorite part, though, is the section on "dried plums."

You may know these better by the moniker "prunes," which are indelibly linked with nursing homes and bathroom habits. And that explains why, in an effort to revive this delicious fruit's image, producers now market them under another name.

Good luck. Sure, they're chock full of free radical-gobbling antioxidants, but let's face it -- they're prunes. It doesn't matter if they technically are dried plums. Nobody's going to to call them that.

That sort of re-branding is so ... 2004. Back when politicians declared the death of reality-based communities and everyone figured they were right. Too bad. So come on, producers!
The zeitgeist is all about confrontation and script-flipping. Embrace the prunes, call them prunes, love their uncoolness until they're cool.
But really. Dried plums? I'd rather eat prunes.
The 10 Best Foods You Aren't Eating [Men's Health]
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Image: Shuttercat7*