Sunday, May 5, 2002		Article

Fruit fallacies
Aradhika Sekhon

IN the sphere of nutrition, nothing is more misunderstood than the correct way to consume fruit. Most people do not know how to eat fruit properly. This means that they do not know when or how to eat fruit in order to get maximum benefit from it.

Almost everyone has a liking for fruit. The most negative comment one might hear about it is "I love fruit but it doesn’t agree with me". In fact, the reason why everyone expresses a liking for fruit is that the human body craves it instinctively. With its sweet blends of flavours, colours and aromas, the human body is biologically adapted to like it. Without doubt, fruit is a beneficial, energy-giving food, but only if correctly consumed.

It is imperative that the body be constantly cleaned of the toxic waste that builds up within the system. The most effective way to do is through the consumption of food that is high in water content. Fruit has the highest water content of any food. All fruit is 80 to 90 per cent water. In addition all the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids that the human body requires are to be found in fruit. When correctly consumed, nothing can surpass the life force generated by fruit.

A vigorous life essentially needs energy. Digestion uses more energy than any other physical activity. Fruit requires less energy to be digested than any other food. The reason being that other foods spend anywhere from 1.5 to 4 hours in the stomach, where the initial expenditure of energy takes place. Fruit, however, doesn’t digest in the stomach. All fruits are in the stomach for a very short time. They pass through the stomach in 20 to 30 minutes and break down to release their life giving nutrients in the intestines.

The way to correctly consume fruit is to not eat it with or immediately after any other food. It is essential that fruit should be taken on an empty stomach. If eaten thus it plays a major role in enabling the body to detoxifying the system, supplying the body with plenty of energy for weight loss and other life activities. "Fruit is the most important food you can eat. But if fruit is eaten on top of other foods, many problems result," say Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, authors of the international bestseller, Fit For Life.

Many times people complain of stomachaches after consuming fruits like melon. Often this is because of incorrect consumption. If it has been eaten, say, after a sandwich, the melon is ready to go straight through the stomach and into the intestines but cannot do so because the sandwich is blocking its path. In the meanwhile, the whole meal ferments and turns acidic. The instant fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and the digestive juices; the entire mass of food begins to spoil, putrefying the protein, fermenting the carbohydrates. This is easily verifiable by the experience one might have had, of a sharp twinge of pain, or heartburn or indigestion after consuming fruit after a meal. Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, an authority of food combinations stresses that the potential value of fruit can be realised only if it is consumed on an empty stomach.

Thus, an important consideration pertains to the amount of time that should elapse between eating foods other than fruit and then eating fruit. On an empty stomach, one may eat all the fruit one likes over as long a period as one wishes. But once one has eaten anything other than fruit, one must wait for at least 3 hours, and if one has had a non-vegetarian meal, then at least 4 hours before eating fruit.

Another factor to be kept in mind while eating fruit is that only fresh fruit is beneficial. Eating fruit that has been processed or altered by heat in anyway does not benefit the body because it has neither cleansing properties nor nutrients. The same holds true for fruit juice. it must be fresh. Pasteurised or concentrated fruit juice is good only to taste.

An integral part of the fitness programme offered by Fit For Life and one that has been reiterated by traditional Indian diet principles, says that the best time to consume fruit is in the morning. The best way to go about this is to consume nothing but fruit from the time of waking up in the morning till at least noon. This helps in generating energy as opposed to utilising energy as happens when the body digest a breakfast of paranthas or toasts, eggs and coffee. Energy cannot begin to build up until the intestines absorb the food. A breakfast comprising toasts etc. forces the body to work for hours spending energy on digestion. Having a fruit breakfast thus makes sense because it makes the body more energetic and alert.