What about Fruit combining??
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I just received this query from one of our members; see her questions first followed by my answer:
<!—StartFragment—>I heard today something i have not heard before, and am hoping you might be able to give me either some validity to it, or say it is bogus. what i heard is this: that if you eat fruit with a meal, it basically rots the other foods you have with it. i guess that would mean no nutrition is coming from the other foods. According to what i heard, fruit should be eaten by itself a couple of hours away from other meals – the exception being acidic fruits – lemons and limes.
I hope you can set me straight – would the apples, pears, and berries added to the green smoothies then just have dissed the whole thing?
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Great question. It is true that if you eat most fruits with other foods, the sugars in the fruit will accelerate fermentation and can create purification in the belly. Best to eat fruits about 20 to 30 min before other stuff, or wait for a couple of hours after a meal.
In my experience, eating fruit with just greens (like in the green smoothies) or in big salads, digests just fine. When you start adding in complex carbs, animal protein or dairy, it can create that “rotting” effect.
This does not mean that you get “no” nutrition from the food, it means that it can slow digestion, create a sour stomach, and lead to overgrowth of certain unfriendly microbes. Overtime this can affect absorbtion.
I sometimes eat fruit with meals, but do not make a habit out of it for the reasons above.
Thanks for the question Stephanie!
Tif
As for resource for the above info:
Most of this I learned directly being a biochemistry major (fruit sugar and fermentation process), but there are also very good books that break down the food combining principles: My favorite is written by my mentor Paul Pitchford called Healing with Whole Foods; another is called Fit for Life by the Diamonds.