FRUITS WANT TO BE FIRST AND NOT LAST
It is fortunate that many Indians do not eat fruit on a regular basis.
This is good news as most of the few that do eat it on regular basis may be doing more damage to their health than good by eating it at the wrong time.
The rush to the fruit table after a sumptuous meal at marriage parties is a common occurrence these days. This shows:
- The new found love of Indians for fruit.
- That they are ignorant of special features of fruit’s digestion.
Myth: Fruit is healthy at any time.
The Fact: Eating fruit at wrong times may cause fatty liver, the same disease that alcoholics suffer from.
The following facts about the contents of fruits and its digestion may help you to see it in the right perspective:
- 10% of the food energy is spent in extracting energy from it, which means the body has to spend energy before it gets energy from the food. Fruit is an exception to this. It gives energy to the body without taking from it.
- Glucose, also called blood sugar and fructose are the two kinds of sugars found in fruits. While glucose goes directly to the blood, fructose goes to the liver, where it gets converted into glucose and then enters the blood.
- If one eats fruit on empty stomach, there is no problem, because Glucose gives energy first followed by Fructose. But if one eats fruit after a meal when our blood sugar is already high, the fructose gets stuck in the liver. Since the liver is where sugars are converted into fat, fructose that is stuck there becomes fat and turns our liver into a fatty liver, the same disease that alcoholics suffer from.
- Stomach, through which all the food including fruit has to pass, is laden with a very strong acid. If a fruit is eaten on an empty stomach, it gets out of the stomach before the strong acid there has a chance to damage its nutrients. But fruit after the meal is forced to stay longer in the acid, as the other foods block the way. This forced stay in the acid,in the best scenario, results in loss of valuable nutrients and, in the worst scenario, causes gastric problems.
- So always eat the fruit on empty stomach or at least give a gap of 30 minutes between the fruit and a meal and 2 hours between the meal and a fruit.
- Fruit eaten on an empty stomach in the morning helps in cleaning up the body.