Eating Fruits the correct way!

Eating fruits is good for health and you may be eating all the right kind of fruits but are you
eating them the right way? If you are not eating them correctly, you may not be getting the
best out of them! And getting it right is so simple
Based on my personal experiences and experimentations there are a few things that I would
like to share about eating fruits the right way, which I have also been sharing with my clients
and patients. In my opinion, this is the best way to get The Best out of your fruit diet.
Remember, just eating fruits is no good, if you are not eating them the correct way!

Eat only when stomach is empty and feel hungry this applies to fruits as well!
The nutrients (carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, etc.) which are available in plentiful
in fruits are easy to digest and absorb when fruits are eaten empty stomach.
No other food or drink, including water should be taken after eating fruits, until the
fruit is digested in stomach and moves to the small intestine.
No other food or drink should be combined with fruits.
Do not eat fruits after a normal cooked meal consisting of grains, pulses, milk
products, vegetables, etc. Such a meal would require about 3 hours digesting in the
stomach. If fruits are eaten along with or immediately after such meals, it would stay
in the stomach even after its own digestion, and only after digestion of the remaining
food stuff it would move to the small intestine. Any food stuff which stays in the
stomach for longer than necessary period may start getting fermented and would
lose its nutritional value. In other words, if digestion of food takes longer than normal
duration, the food may lose its nutritional value.
The only time fruits may be eaten with the meals is when you want to strengthen
your Agni/digestive fire. This can be achieved by adding some citrus fruits or lemon
to the food. This is why citrus fruits and lemon are common additions to the green
salads.
Remember, food is first digested in the stomach. Almost no nutrients are absorbed in
the stomach under normal circumstances. All nutrients fat, carbohydrate, protein,
vitamins and minerals, are absorbed in the intestines. Absorption of nutrients
depends on proper digestion.
I have found that it takes about 30 minutes to digest a small to medium sized citrus
fruit such as oranges, mosambi, pineapple, kiwifruit, grapefruit,
pomegranates/dadam, jamphal, pear, a handful of grapes and strawberry, etc. Try it
out by yourself!
A similar portion of sweet-tasting fruits such as custard fruit/sitafal, mangoes, fully
ripped banana, papaya, apricots, sweet berries, sweet cherries, fresh dates, fresh
figs, peach, water-melon, rock melon, apple (sweet), sweet plums, chhiku, etc. takes
a few minutes more to digest.
Fruits such as avocado, and green/raw vegetable salad would take about an hour.
Raw nuts would take about one-and-a half to two hours. If you roast or fry the nuts, it
would take about 2 to 3 hours to digest!
All dried fruits such as dates, figs, prunes or raisins should be soaked before
consuming and should be taken only in moderation. Actually, you dont need dry
fruits these days. Why eat dry fruits when you have loads of fresh fruits available at
much cheaper price! (Also note that almond, cashew, peanuts, pistachios, etc. are
not dry fruits, these are NUTS, and should be consumed with caution as they carry a
lot of calories in the form of proteins and fats!)

It is a good practice to alternate between cooked meal and fruits. The traditional
cooked meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) can be consumed only three times in a
day at the most, so whenever feel hungry in between, eat only fruits.

Fruit diet: when on long term fruit diet, you may take about 100 to 200 gm of fruits as
many times as you feel hungry and feel like eating.
Fruit Fast: I believe that when Fasting on fruits, one may consume fruits three to four
times in a day, each time, having up to around 300gm of a combination of one or
more fruits. Why so? Well, when the glucose supplied by the fruits or food consumed
at the last meal is used up, the glycogen stored in the liver and skeletal muscles will
start supplying the required glucose, hence, begins the Fast. There is no Fast in my
opinion unless you start consuming your glycogen. Therefore, for affecting a Fast, the
interval between the two consecutive fruit meals should be at least two to three
hours.
The common myth - diabetics cant eat fruits! There is nothing like that. If you take
precautions as mentioned above, there wont be any problem. Just go for the fruits
with lower glycemic index and adjust your insulin intake accordingly. (Please check on
the following site for a list of food items with glycemic index.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_10
0_foods.htm- ).
If possible, increase the proportion of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts combined to
about 50% of the daily total food consumption. For treating any disease or illness,
increase it to 70 to 80% fruits as suggested by Dr Ulric Williams.
Food should be taken only between 8am to 8pm (preferably between Sun-rise and
Sun-set), including fruits, whether Fasting, dieting or on normal diet.
Fruits and anti-oxidants: Anti-oxidants are present in fruits in plentiful but only if you
consume them fresh. And no juices please, including freshly squeezed juices! Fruit
juices are acidic in nature while most fruits are alkaline. You also lose nutrients
present in the fibers and skin if you juice the fruit

Hope, you find this information useful. Happy Fruit-Eating!

Nimesh Shah
Yoga and Natural Lifestyle Consultant
Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant
Diploma in Yoga (recognised by Yoga Alliance International)
Studied at Wellpark College of Naturopathy, Auckland, New Zealand

E-mail: nimeshkshah@gmail.com
Vadodara, Gujarat, INDIA

My answers and suggestions to queries on my write up - Eating Fruits, the

correct way!
I received some interesting questions after publishing Eating Fruits the correct way note.
I think I should share it with all as they seem to be quite common questions wondering
around in most minds

Q. Can I live on fruit-only diet?

A. Yes. On fruits and nuts for at least five years without any problem, if you are too
concerned about your Vitamin B12, and even longer, if you keep you mind cool.
Q. Is it true that fruits only diet is no good for girls, as they need extra supply of calcium
and it also affects their hair and skin?
A. Not true at all. In my own experience, the quality of skin and hair improves, and you get
plenty of calcium and other minerals from fruits too. Aging process slows down, including
the greying of hair.
Q. Will the bulk of stool form, if we eat fruits only?
A. Yes. Initially, you may find the bulk of stool reducing, but as soon as you start consuming
your daily caloric requirement, the bulk will return to its normal size but may change
completely in its consistency, due to absence of other food stuff from the diet. I have found
this to be true in my own experience.
Q. What about quantity of fruit to eat? How many times in a day we can eat fruits?
A. You may eat as much fruit as you wish, as many times as you wish, as long as you eat
only when your stomach is empty and you feel hungry!
Q. What should be the gap between two fruit only meals?
A. One to two hour, as fruits move from stomach to small intestine in about half an hour to
one hour. Once stomach is empty and you feel hungry, you may eat. One should never
ingest another meal, if food from the previous meal is still in the stomach.
Q. I want to know why after eating many fruits there is no feeling of full stomach and
satisfaction like normal meal.
A. It is only a matter of habit; it doesnt have any physiological explanation. Because we are
used to eating the so called normal food stuff like bread, cooked vegetables, milk products,
sugar, salt, spices, etc., we actually become addicted to them. When we replace our regular
cooked meal with fruits, the craving for these items doesnt get satisfied, hence, giving a
feeling as you described in your question. Some people may even have a feeling of intense
desire to consume the regular cooked meal when switching to fruit only diet, and may
even feel nauseated, head-ache, anxiety, restlessness, etc. which is nothing but what is
commonly known as withdrawal symptoms. It generally subsides in a few days.
Q. You said No drink should be mixed with fruits. What about milkshakes? Are they
advisable?
A. No. More explanation is given below in another answer.
Q. What about eating fruits with peels on or off? I also heard somewhere that seed inside
fruits should also be eaten. That seeds clear digestive track. Is it true?
A. We can peel-off the yellow skin of an Orange, but we should eat the thin white skin. Apple,
Jamfal, etc. should be eaten with the skin after washing them properly. Seeds of Dadam,
water-melon, etc. are ok to eat. Such seeds contain good quality proteins too. I dont know
much about the seeds of orange, etc.
Q. Why raw or fried nut took longer to digest?
A. Because heating changes its composition.
Q. Why dry fruits need to be soaked before eating?
A. It is not always necessary.

Q. Do you put on weight when eat Banana or Mango?

A. You dont put on weight just because you are eating fruits, but you put on weight when
your calorie intake exceeds your daily calorie expenditure. Banana has about 116 Kcal. per
100 grams of edible portion while Avocado has about 215, fresh Dates 144 (dried Dates
317) and Seetaphal 104. Most other commonly used fruits are below 100 Kcal per 100gm.
Mango has about 80, Apple 59, Grapes between 60 and 70, Orange 49 and Papaya - 32.
So if you watch out your calories there is no reason to put on weight
Q. Why do you say that foods or fruits should be eaten in a particular way? Eating a whole
Avocado on its own would be too much fat too soon, instead 1/3 avo, with other foods might
help break the fats in the avo down, for easier digestion. To my way of thinking, all foods, be
they fruits, grains, veges, nuts, etc, are all made up of all the different nutrient groups. And
once they enter the stomach, they are a mush of nutrients. To stomach, why should the
mush matter, what they were, when they entered the mouth. In fact, because different food
groups contain different nutrients, they seem to work together to complement each other,
e.g. foods containing iron to be eaten with foods containing vitamin C, as iron absorption
increases in the presence of vitamin C. And so on. I always eat fruits, veges, nuts, grains,
and herbs, oils and anything else that I eat, all together and so far, I have managed to stay
healthy and young and fit as. How do you explain that??
A. Good to know your keen interest in the food and diet from health point of view. Your
questions are more related to Food Combinations rather than fruit diet and clarifying that
would require a lot of space here. Therefore, I recommend that you read the following book,
which would give you a good scientific explanation that you are looking for. (Food
Combinations Made Easy by Herbert M Shelton).
It covers in reasonable details how the different category of food stuff could be combined for
efficient digestion. Please write to me, if you have any further question after reading the
above book.
My only addition to what Shelton has to say is the following,
1. That, for proper nourishment, you may be getting most of what your body needs, but for
that how much food you have to ingest? Are you getting the most out of your food intake?
My note is about getting the best out of the fruits. Therefore, it is all about the
efficiency. Also, that the body has various bacterial mechanisms in the intestines to
breakdown and eliminate the inadequately digested food stuff due to wrong combinations
or whatever other reasons, which goes almost unnoticed by most. This is reflected in the
smell of the stool and the gas, and amount of gas formation in the intestines.
(In your case, your ayurvedic prakruti too plays an important role, as you have a strong
digestion by constitution, and so is your disciplined exercise regimen. In such cases, the
excesses of the food and eating habits may show-up only as we get into the older age).
2. Fruits should not be combined with milk as fruits dont need to stay in the stomach for
more than a few minutes before entering into small intestine, while just a 100ml of plane
milk would need at least one-and-a-half to two hours of digestion in the stomach. This
means that even after digestion, the fruits would have to just sit in the stomach till the milk
is digested. Longer the fruit stays in the stomach, it degenerates and loses its nutritional
value as a result of fermentation at a high temperature in the stomach. We know what
happens when we cut a fruit and leave it in the open at around 30 to 40 0C for an hour!
Wish you well..
Nimesh Shah