FRUITS - THE WONDER FOOD
And - how we harm ourselves by eating them wrongly


There are many arguments about whether man is herbivore (vegetarian), carnivore (meat-eater) or omnivore (one who can eat and digest both). In actual fact, there is mounting evidence to suggest that man was a fruitivore! It is possible to live only on a combination of fruits and nuts and never suffer any malnutrition - in fact we would probably live in the "pink" of health.

However, fruits as they are eaten at present by most of the world, can be positively harmful.

Most people eat fruits :

(a) after food,
(b) combined with milk for dessert,

(c) cooked or stewed or baked.

This is not right.
Fruit must be eaten on an empty stomach.
Fruit must never be combined with milk or grains.

Fruit must be had uncooked.

Why? This becomes clear when we understand how fruit is digested in the body.
After being chewed well in the mouth, fruit enters the stomach for a short period (15 to 20 minutes for most fruits, 1/2 hour for bananas,) and then proceeds to the intestines where it digests itself with its own enzymes. If it is eaten after a meal it sits on top of the food and ferments because it does not get a clear passage to go down to the intestines. Not only is the fruit rendered completely useless -it can become a cause of acidity, indigestion, gas, colic, constipation and other diseases.

For this same reason it must not be combined with any other foods. The other foods need to sit in the stomach for several hours for digestion.

Cooking the fruit destroys its self-digesting enzymes and it becomes a burden for the body.

In fact acidity, colic, indigestion, constipation can all be helped substantially by eating fruits atleast 1/2 hour before food. Chronic sufferers of these problems should abstain from having any cereal, bread, roti or paratha for breakfast - they must have only fresh fruits.

When "dying" of hunger, fruits are your best bet. They provide energy very quickly and efficiently without using up valuable energy reserves of the body (other foods use massive amounts of energy in the process of digestion).

Thanks Fruitarian One, your post is loaded with useful info.

Happy fruit eating.

DannyMacK

Do you think there is a problem with blending fruit with celery or romaine? Or do you think it is better to eat first the fruit, wait an hour, and the the celery or romaine?

Fruitarian One- I was wondering if you would be willing to post an example of what you consume on average per day?? thanks!!

Fruitarian One do you eat the rind or the peel of fruits?

Kiwi and mangoes are easy to eat the skin but I will sometimes eat even though bitter the lemon and orange peels.
I also eat the rind of a banana.


Why Vegan?
Because I have the most love and admiration for all animals of the earth!!!
a rawvegan hopeful, rawdev4life!!!

Hi Gang!!!

Felix...it's all personal choice ...personal I see no sense in mixing stuff up like that but that's me....if you enjoy doing that then go for it. It's important to be happy about what your doing.

Raw Dev...I make a point of not eating the peel or skins of most fruits because I'm not instinctivly drawn to and if I'm not drawn to do it then I don't do it.

Ana...here you go







This is pretty much the average amount that I will have in a day, some people might think this is not much but I believe it's all about being hydrated, I believe that once your body has reached the point where it's back in a rehydrated state from all the years of dehydrating cooked foods that it really won't take much to satisfy you, I've noticed that I have made a change from eating fruits at random to instinctively seeking juicy seasonal fruits.

If you wanna know more your welcome to check out my journals at Fruitarian Life & Fitness





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2006 02:38AM by The Fruitarian One.

That's pretty amazing. So on an average day (including workouts) you only eat three bananas, a small bunch of blueberries and a sliver of watermelon?

Pretty much....I don't always eat those items but the amounts are are pretty much always consistant. Btw...black grapes not blue berries.

gosh, that would just be my snacks for the day, and I'm only 50 kg!

Wow! That's amazing frutiarian! What a good example of prestine health.

as a biology major/chem minor, it is my understanding that once the fruit enters the digestive system, the acid in the stomach would denature all of the enzymes (which are proteins that assist in cellular functions) the fruit has anyways. acids unfold proteins, rendering them useless to the body. the thinking that the fruit "proceeds to the intestines where it digests itself with its own enzymes" is completely false and i doubt there is evidence to support this claim. how could it digest itself with its own enzymes if the enzymes have already been destroyed in the stomach?

i realize the value of eating raw foods, in that the vitamins remain intact in the vegetable rather than being cooked out,etc... but this whole enzyme idea lacks logic. if you don't believe me, do a google search to find out what an enzyme is and you will see that they denature (become useless) in the presence of high or low pH. an acidic environment, such as the acid filled stomach, has a low pH.

i thought i would share this information in hopes that people might understand that the enzyme theory doesn't make any sense. there are many benefits to the raw food diet, however it should be understood that the food doesn't "digest itself with its own enzymes", but the digestive system within our bodies that do that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2006 01:14AM by tashatashatasha.

Hi tashatashatasha:
I didn't major in bio but of course I had to take it, and I was taught the same thing. I agree with you.
I also agree with you that this does not negate that raw foods is much healthier nontheless.

The Fruitarian One:
Thank you for sharing. I'm new to raw foods lifestyle, but I find that I eat mostly fruits and 1)I no longer have to drink as much water to feel hydrated and 2)I do not want to eat nearly as much food as before, yet I feel even better.

Hi Tashatashatasha,

I can't accept what you say about the enzymes without a further explanation, because in my experience I simply cannot digest food well at all if it is not raw. I mean I have A LOT of trouble with digesting food that is not raw. A Lot!

What would be the explanation for that except that the enzymes are still intact in the raw food and helping me to digest the food? Can you give me some other explanation for what I have been experiencing for the past 30 years?

I'm open to a further explanation, but I also think it may be a fact that a cleaner stomach will not produce so much acid that the enzymes are all destroyed. Are you open to that? I KNOW my stomach creates SO much more acid when I eat cooked food. This is something that no one can realize unless they have experienced it themselves or perhaps studied raw food vegans (we are rare).

Can you say for sure that all kinds of stomachs have been studied - even stomachs belonging to raw food vegans? Could it be possible that therein lies only evidence that cooked food eaters are harming their bodies by creating an environment inside themselves that destroys all the enzymes of the small portion of food that is eaten raw? Can you somehow show that this is not the case? Can you reference the studies that brought science to this conclusion?

I believe in science, but I also know it can be wrong, especially when the parameters of "scientific" studies are affected by the limited experiences of those conducting the studies. In other words, how do we know that the raw food vegan stomach has been taken into account?

If you cannot show that the stomachs of raw food vegans were studied, then really all we know is that acid in the stomachs of cooked food eaters destroys enzymes. Is that fair to say?

You must keep in mind that the stomach reacts to the type of food present. Lots of protein requires lots of acid. But just fruit may require little if any acid.

Hey Tashatashatasha,

Coincidentally, I just found another possible answer to my question to you about why I can digest raw foods so much better than cooked.

According to a study cited by Jono (2nd page of the post called "Are you sure you're not getting enough protein...?", there is something called the "Maillard reaction". When proteinaceous foods are subjected to high heat, the protein is altered in such a way that the food becomes more resistant to digestion by gastrointestinal enzymes. For a further explanation, see the post.

That makes a lot of sense to me, but I also still think the enzymes in raw food would be able to function in a cleaner stomach. I agree with what Brome said above.

In fact there may be several factors involved in why raw food is digested more easily than cooked. Some factors may be beyond today's science. Hope this doesn't sound too flaky, but for instance, science cannot recreate the life force. That means their knowledge of all that makes up a living food is incomplete. There may be something unknown to science in live foods that has its own effects when absorbed by another being. Is that too far-fetched?

Hi Fruitarian One. Hope you don't mind this discussion coming up on your post. Thanks.

Not at all Alley!!!

I think it's safe to say that we are all gonna have different information and beliefs, my experience has been the same as yours Alley and I totally believe in the existance and work of enzymes.

At the same time I'm willing to keep an open mind about it all.

As far as I'm concerned as long as I'm healthy and strong then who really cares.

I found this website that very simply describes what is going on in the stomach. It's basically what I was trying to say previously, only a bit more detailed.

[library.advanced.org]

I wasn't trying to start an argument, I just can't accept the idea of food digesting itself... this is what our digestive system is for. I believe in the work of enzymes as well, our body produces them to break down the chemical components of the food.

That said, I don't doubt that a raw food vegan stomach is much more healthy than a stomach of the "average" person, in turn being able to digest food easier or altering the pH of the system. This lifestyle is very natural and I believe gears your body towards optimal health because of that. Cooking food alters the chemical makeup before it even enters your body... which may indeed cause it to be more difficult for our digestive system to handle because it is not in it's natural state.

I completely support everyone's journey towards a strong and healthy mind, body and spirit. I hope none of you were offended by my previous post... I just wanted to share my knowledge on the subject of enzymes and the confusion I came across.

"How to eat fruits"

Open mouth, insert fruit, chew, swallow, repeat.

The Fruitarian One Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Gang!!!
>
> Felix...it's all personal choice ...personal I see
> no sense in mixing stuff up like that but that's
> me....if you enjoy doing that then go for it. It's
> important to be happy about what your doing.
>
> Raw Dev...I make a point of not eating the peel or
> skins of most fruits because I'm not instinctivly
> drawn to and if I'm not drawn to do it then I
> don't do it.
>
> Ana...here you go
>
> [img280.imageshack.us]
> .th.jpg
>
> [img423.imageshack.us]
> .th.jpg
>
> [img307.imageshack.us].
> th.jpg
>
> This is pretty much the average amount that I will
> have in a day, some people might think this is not
> much but I believe it's all about being hydrated,
> I believe that once your body has reached the
> point where it's back in a rehydrated state from
> all the years of dehydrating cooked foods that it
> really won't take much to satisfy you, I've
> noticed that I have made a change from eating
> fruits at random to instinctively seeking juicy
> seasonal fruits.
>
> If you wanna know more your welcome to check out
> my journals at Fruitarian Life & Fitness


Thanks so much! I wasn't expecting pix but i enjoyed them much!

I have really enjoyed this respectful debate and I learned from it. I wasn't even aware that there were different ideas on the topic (of digestion), but then again I only went as far the basic-level, typical college bio class. I've been doing some searching around in books and on the web and have found the topic very interesting!

I'm not sure for now what I think -- I'll have to think about it a while and maybe read more. However, I do know that already my health is improving (thank God!), and I've only been raw for about week and a half! )

To FruitarianOne, Thanks for your very kind words. Much appreciated. Peace and health to you!

To Tashatashatasha,

Thanks for putting in the link. I will definitely look at it later today when I have more time. It is all very interesting.

I also didn't mean in any way to offend or argue - just debate. This forum is great. I feel like I've learned a lot in just the few days since I became a member.

Thanks again and I look forward to whatever other info you might have to share.

I have 2 mcintosh apple trees. They produce a lot of fruit. I give some away, but have always made applesauce. If cooked fruit is so bad for you, I'm wondering what else I can do with all the apples, as they go rotten in the frige after a while. Any other ways to preserve in raw state? Thanks, jan

Cider! Make Cider!

If you like a drink once in a while you could some traditional cider, it should keep for a while.


[homepage.ntlworld.com]

I like the idea of juicing the apples, too.

I make raw applesauce with apples and raisins, but that won't keep for a long time. You could dehydrate the apple slices.