Yes, there are certain times you should eat fruit, and certain ways in which you should do it. This is the way to get the maximum benefit from the best food on Earth.
One of the things I most love about living in Thailand is the abundance of good, cheap food, especially fruits. When I lived in the US, my home was in Northern California, very close to the center for fresh fruit farms. Thailand, however, offers so much more; more varieties and quantities of fresh fruit than anywhere else I have lived, plus it is extremely cheap. For those of us living in this paradise called Thailand, we are very lucky when it comes to eating fresh foods.
Fresh fruit makes me healthier and happier. Because fruit grows so easily here, even in my own garden, most of the fruit is not chemically treated as much of as it is in California. After being in the US for some time and coming home to Chiang Mai to consume gobs of fruit every day, I quickly lose weight, gain energy and generally feel a lot better. I have been learning some of the finer points about fruit now, which ones to eat for certain benefits, and how best to consume it, and am ready now to pass on some of my findings here. My immune system seems like it has improved because I am getting fewer illness, like colds. It also fills me up so that I keep away from the processed poisons that fill our supermarkets.
Fruit is a detoxifier that provides energy for weight loss. It should be not be eaten just before a meal and not just after a meal as a desert. Fruit should be eaten by itself on an empty stomach, even as a meal by itself. When you eat fruit on an empty stomach, it passes right through your stomach into the intestines where the benefits — the injections of the many vitamins in the fruit plus the fruit sugars to boost energy levels and help in weight loss — are quickly absorbed. If the fruit goes down to your stomach where there are lots of other things, like breads or other starchy foods, the fruit is prevented from going down to where these benefits are absorbed.
If you are eating fruit after a big meal, your stomach is full of food that is going through a fermentation process as it is turned into an acid. When you add fruit to this (like with a desert), it simply becomes part of that mass, and you will not get the great benefits of just the fruit. In fact, mixing the fruit with the other food going through its natural process can cause stomach discomforts as fruit joins the fermentation process. This could range from a little gas to a painful indigestion, or even nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Some people having these stomach pains when having fruit with or just after a meal and associate this discomfort with the acids of the fruit. In reality, it is the combination of the fruit on top of a full meal of breads, meats, and dairy products that make up a typical dinner. If these people ate the same fruit by itself on an empty stomach, they are likely to not have any problems.
The full benefit of fruit is gained when it is a raw food. If you eat fruit properly, you will be able to gain all the secrets of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and losing weight. Eating fruit correctly is using common sense on how it is eaten and how it is combined. Fruits supply the body with an abundance of minerals, sugars, and vitamins. The sugar in fruit is very healthy and need not be rejected as one does (or should) refined sugars and corn syrup (which is in most processed food). And fruit sugar is even superior to honey (and it is nearly impossible nowadays to buy pure hone in a supermarket anyway no matter what the label says — but that’s another story — but for sure honey is better than refined sugars).
Fruits are commonly low with protein, but that can be quickly compensated by eating raw nuts along with the fruit. Dates, banana, avocado and a few other fruits contain small amounts of excellent proteins. A fruit and nut combination is excellent and it is further improved by the addition of green leafy vegetables. A large green salad with lots of fruits and nuts each day makes an almost ideal meal.
Fruits that are peeled and sliced and permitted to stand for long periods of time before eating are not wholesome foods. They change color, lose flavor, undergo oxidation with resulting loss of food value and tend to decompose readily. Fruits added to breads, cakes, pies and various other kinds of pastries can also on occasion cause considerable indigestion and distress. The addition of sugar, syrups, honey and other sweeteners to fruits can also result in indigestion and discomforts.
Eating whole fruit is better than drinking fruit juice. If you want to drink fruit juice – drink only fresh fruit juice, not from concentrate juice or from cans. Do not drink warm juice. If you want to drink fruit juice, drink it slowly – sip by sip, as you have to mix with your saliva before swallowing.
Do not eat cooked fruit, as cooking destroys the nutrients. With cooked fruit, you get only the taste without the health benefits. Sun dried fruit, however, like dried apricots, figs, dates, raisins, and peaches retain the nutrients.
Over-ripe fruits deteriorate rapidly in their nutritive values. Decay sets in on over-ripe fruits, and the sugars are changed to carbon dioxide, alcohol, acetic acid and potentially other harmful by-products. Some unripe fruits contain starch and various other carbohydrate substances which are distasteful and unwholesome.
So what fruits can be mixed?
For breakfast, a meal of a melon is excellent. That would include watermelons, cantaloupe, crenshaw melon and many others. It should be eaten alone. If more food is desired for breakfast, it should be taken half an hour after eating the melon.
Breakfast
Fruits should not be haphazardly mixed with other foods, or even other fruits! Fruits can be divided into three classifications: sweet, sub-acid and acid. It is best to never mix between fruit classes, for example mixing bananas and grapefruit or dates and oranges is worse than not eating anything. Bananas, dates, figs and raisins are sweet fruits. Apples, pears, most grapes, mangoes and papayas are among the sub-acid fruits. Berries, cherries, peaches, pineapples, oranges, and lemons are among the acid fruits.
The easiest way to avoid this mixing problem is by eating one type of fruit by itself. It’s that simple.
Nuts may be eaten after the end of a fruit meal, preferably after a fruit meal of acid fruits. Lettuce and celery may be beneficially added to fruit meals in small quantities.
Cheating: Yea, I am not perfect and have been known to cheat once in awhile, sometimes with something really bad. About onece a week, I will pick up one of those small size bags of Lay’s Chips in mid afternoon. It’s a craving I get, and I plead guilty. My rationale is that I stay away from a lot of other bad stuff (no sodas, no candy, etc.) and I eat really good most of the time. I still end up losing a lot of weight in Thailand and feeling healthier. So if you have a similar sin, don’t let it keep you awake at night, but try and do the right thing most of the time.
Fruits are the finest kind of food. They should be treated as such. It is the most delicious, wholesome and perfect food that you can put in your body.
Thanks, very interesting post. Some of your statements surprise me, like mixing fruits of different classifications was worse than not eating fruit at all. How about the salad that you mentioned, with different fruits, nuts and veggies?
I heard before that fruits should not be eaten directly after meals as a dessert, and I ate fruits, therefore, before meals. As from now on I will eat them earlier, or best in between meals instead of “kanom”.
I do not peel fruits with edible peel, for example apples, pears, and such, as the majority of vitamins are just under the skin.
Thanks. I am still a student of healthy eating — not an expert, and am spending a lot of time trying to learn as much as I can about eating well. I gather a lot of information from books and online, and try to keep a binder of notes and things learned. The mixing of different classes of fruits is important because a high acidic fruit will just counter the benefits of an alkaline fruit, like mixing a banana with a lemon just leaves nothing. But the mixing of leafy veggies, like a lettuce, and mixing a non-fruit protein food like walnuts will not diminish any of the benefits, but will compliment them. One of my sources for this is a raw foods expert and promoter, Dr. Herbert Shelton, and this is one of his articles that covers this specific mixing of different types of fruit: LINK.
Yes, fruits and vegetables do have pesticides and toxins present, but eating a diet high in raw fruits and vegetables will assist your body in remaining protected, mucus-free and clean. If you are blessed enough to afford organic, pesticide-free produce, then we encourage you to do so. But for most of us, organic is simply not an option. Many desperately sick, even with terminal cancers, have been healed by juicing standard produce from the local grocery store. “You do your best and God will do the rest”. During a cleansing fast, do not start resorting to bottled dead juices that have been on the shelf for six months. You are setting yourself up for a more difficult fast. There is a rush of well-being when you swallow a mouthful of living juice.
I eat a lot of fresh and raw fruit especially berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc). I love it. If I am going to have some fruit juice, I enjoy organic brands but I prefer making my own fruit smoothies and juice blends from fresh fruit and ingredients.FYI – Strawberries are great natural teeth whiteners. As for other fruits, it is better to eat than to drink them if you are concerned about the wearing down of enamel from fruit acids and sugars.