Confessions Of A Fruit Monster

[rcalaimo]

umm sounds Like an old ngo

[Thravor]

The myths about fruit being somehow bad for you comes just from the way the people have cultured their diet. They eat all the stuff firmly believing they are omnivores and mix the fruit with all kind of junk.
Last year i was told a story of one man who said he really can't eat durian because he got so bad last time after eating it. After eating durian he drank pepsi cola and finally getting sick. What does he blame for his stomach aches since the episode? Pepsi Cola? No, you guess it, he blames durian

Fruit should be eaten on empty stomach and never mixed with anything (best also avoid mixing different fruits together).
Yes, there is sugar in fruit, but it is packed in a perfectly balance with water, minerals and fiber needed for a proper digestion, absorption and assimilation of sugar and all of the other nutrients.
The glycemic index and glycemic load is quite surprisingly for most people lower than the starchy carbohydrate foods like pasta, rice, potatoes etc.

We are biologically not suited to eat like omnivores. We are perfectly adapted to eat like the other of our genus- hominoid apes. We are frugivores by natures design. We cannot kill and tear apart and eat animals only using what nature has provided us with. Our modern diet is a cultural habbit, not a scientifically sound nutritional decision. We have aquirred taste for sweet and perfectly equipped to see, choose the ripe, pick, peel and enjoy fruit.
We can go opportunistic, but this does not fit in any way for omnivores only, every creature in nature is opportunistic and will eat whatever else can get whenever the primary source of food is scarce.
We know tiger eats durians, yet we don't call them omnivores. We know cows eat bone flour, yet we don't call them omnivores.
The idea of us being omnivores is because of culture, traditions, climate and industrial demands and have nothing common with a perfect nutrition for humans according the anatomical and physiological signs and paleoanthropological research.

Beside that i like durian veeeeery much

And can eat 2 of them in one sitting (about 12 pounds) without any bad feelings. The same for lychee or any other fruit, except pineapples and kiwis (but depends on variety and ripeness).

Diabetics can eat much more fruit than you would think, they just have to avoid eating fatty foods. My wife eats a lot of fruit everyday (8 pounds) and she has diabetes 1 (having it for more than 20 years). Her insulin dose is lowered by half on fruit compared to standard modern diet.

Also check www.foodnsport.com for the 80/10/10 Diet book from Dr. Graham, where he explains why diabetics should avoid fat, not fruit sugar.

And.... has somebody here mentioned CEMPEDAK? It is one of my favourite fruits. If you are in Thailand keep searching for it, looks like a small jackfruit, taste like a sweetest caramel with a light smell of durian

Best wishes to all of you.

[Marie]

Fruit should be eaten on empty stomach and never mixed with anything (best also avoid mixing different fruits together).
Yes, there is sugar in fruit, but it is packed in a perfectly balance with water, minerals and fiber needed for a proper digestion, absorption and assimilation of sugar and all of the other nutrients.
The glycemic index and glycemic load is quite surprisingly for most people lower than the starchy carbohydrate foods like pasta, rice, potatoes etc.

Beside that i like durian veeeeery much

And can eat 2 of them in one sitting (about 12 pounds) without any bad feelings. The same for lychee or any other fruit, except pineapples and kiwis (but depends on variety and ripeness).

Diabetics can eat much more fruit than you would think, they just have to avoid eating fatty foods. My wife eats a lot of fruit everyday (8 pounds) and she has diabetes 1 (having it for more than 20 years). Her insulin dose is lowered by half on fruit compared to standard modern diet.

Also check www.foodnsport.com for the 80/10/10 Diet book from Dr. Graham, where he explains why diabetics should avoid fat, not fruit sugar.

And.... has somebody here mentioned CEMPEDAK? It is one of my favourite fruits. If you are in Thailand keep searching for it, looks like a small jackfruit, taste like a sweetest caramel with a light smell of durian

Best wishes to all of you.

Tharavor,

Thank you for your very informative post.

You mentioned a very interesting tip there -- fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach. This principle is stressed in a popular book on proper diet written by two famous nutrition specialists.

Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, joint authors of the bestseller "Fit for Life", espouse the extremely unconventional idea of consuming nothing but fresh fruit and fruit juice from the time you wake up in the morning until at least noon.

Why this suggestion, which is contradictory to the common advice, "Eat a huge breakfast for energy" ?

The Diamonds explain that if you eat nothing but fruit and fruit juice, you will be able to create, not burn up, a huge chunk of your available energy for the day. Fruit requires very little energy to be digested, because it does not digest in the stomach. If well chewed, fruit needs no further digestion. Nutrients are absorbed in the intestines; and because fruit reaches the intestines in minutes, instead of hours, its nutriments are instantly assimilated and consumed by the body.

Tharavor, why is it not advisable to mix fruits in the stomach?

I have not found any information about CEMPEDAK. Is this word Thai? It does not sound Thai to me. However, I think I have sampled something similar to what you have described. I failed to ask my Thai host about the name, but I enjoyed that fruit as much as durian. I don't see it, though, in my favorite markets in Bangkok.

[Thravor]

Tharavor,

Thank you for your very informative post.

You mentioned a very interesting tip there -- fruit should be eaten with an empty stomach. This principle is stressed in a popular book on proper diet written by two famous nutrition specialists.

Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, joint authors of the bestseller "Fit for Life", espouse the extremely unconventional idea of consuming nothing but fresh fruit and fruit juice from the time you wake up in the morning until at least noon.

Why this suggestion, which is contradictory to the common advice, "Eat a huge breakfast for energy" ?


Tharavor, why is it not advisable to mix fruits in the stomach?

I have not found any information about CEMPEDAK. Is this word Thai? It does not sound Thai to me. However, I think I have sampled something similar to what you have described. I failed to ask my Thai host about the name, but I enjoyed that fruit as much as durian. I don't see it, though, in my favorite markets in Bangkok.

Sawadee Marieke,

I know Fit for Life, Diamonds based their book on the Health Sciences Course from T. C. Fry. It is available online btw. http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/credits.html

the extremely unconventional idea of consuming nothing but fresh fruit and fruit juice from the time you wake up in the morning until at least noon should actually continue until you go to bed Just imagine eating all the fruit you care for as long as you wish. It's a dream come true.

I don't think you should eat a huge breakfast for energy, it is a fallacy. We should eat when hungry, when nature calls, not when a culture calls. Most of us are eating huge dinner with hard to digest food and horrible combinations, no surprise that we wake up in the morning tired and if we don't get "the fix" (heavy breakfast) we experience detox symptoms.
Fruit is easily digested and so it helps purify your body, because it does not "steal" the energy for digestive and eliminative purposes. Your body does always the work and it needs fresh air, sun, rest and sleep and natural food to acomplish this task.

About mixing fruits- it is ok, but if you just eat one at a time, you allow for best digestion. Just look on animals how they eat, do they mix everything, add spices and salt? No, they do not and they seem to be doing fine on the natural foods. If we are not from other planet, we are also under the laws of nature. One is gravity, another one is the natural selection of food for every species. Every creature is designed pretty well to eat some kind of food, without use of any tool, heat etc. The primary source of food is not only the most healthy one, but nonetheless the most tasteful, delicious, enjoyable one. For humans, this must be fruit. No other natural food in the world is so appealing to our senses.

You can see picture of Cempedak in my album from Thailand:
http://www.rawquest.dk/thailand

I don't hide that i am truly in love with fruit and i have lived 5 years mostly on fruit (In Thailand mostly on durian )

There are actually more and more people trying to eat fruit as a base. Check this forum if you like to chat about fruit: http://fruitrevolution.proboards59.com/index.cgi

Thanks to you all for your wonderful informations about Thailand. I love this country.

[Marie]

Sawadee Marieke,

I don't think you should eat a huge breakfast for energy, it is a fallacy.

The idea of having to avoid a heavy breakfast, and ideally feeding only on fruit and fruit juice from morn till noon, seems to need further explanation.

The rationale behind this advice is linked with the efficient functioning of the body cycles. According to Fit for Life, on a daily basis we take in food (appropriation), we absorb and use some of that food (assimilation), and we expel what we don't use ( elimination).

Roughly, the time schedule for these cycles is:

Noon to 8 p.m.-Appropriation (eating and digestion)
8 p.m. to 4 a.m.-Assimilation ( absorption and use)
4 a.m. to noon-Elimination (of body wastes and food debris)

During the elimination cycle, it is then ideal to consume fruit or fruit juice only because these require the least amount of energy for digestion. Any hard-to-digest foods will disrupt the digestion process, and the by-products of foods that should have been expelled will now augment the toxic load.

For those who wish to lose weight especially, this is bad news, for the toxic pack could result into unwanted weight gain!

You can see picture of Cempedak in my album from Thailand.

If you're the slim guy in the picture, is this your secret for staying lean?


And oh, yes, what I had in mind as CEMPEDAK resemble the fruits in your photos. Can you tell me if this a Thai word?

Cheers!

[rcalaimo]

I was just thinking about alot of cultures and food habits. Deep in the Amazon, Fridged areas of the north, High mountainous areas, Dry desert areas, seasons,etc. How do peoples get fruit year round to sustain life if people are designed to only eat fruit?

[Nu]

Marie,
จำปะดะ is the Thai name for the fruit in question. If I remember correctly, it is grown in the south. In the province where I came from, it is called จำดะ. I love this fruit also. We can even eat the seeds. We boil them in salt water and eat them just like that. It has a combination of starchy and nutty taste. You can also deep fry the fruit in the same fashion as กล้วยแขก with seeds and all. The whole thing, the flesh and seed can be eaten when prepared this way. I am sure for the fruit purist, this method of consuming it will be frown upon.

[Peterg]

I was just thinking about alot of cultures and food habits. Deep in the Amazon, Fridged areas of the north, High mountainous areas, Dry dessert areas, seasons,etc. How do peoples get fruit year round to sustain life if people are designed to only eat fruit?

There you go, you have just shot down the theory that the human race is made up of fruitivores!

[Marie]

Marie,
จำปะดะ is the Thai name for the fruit in question. If I remember correctly, it is grown in the south. In the province where I came from, it is called จำดะ. I love this fruit also. We can even eat the seeds. We boil them in salt water and eat them just like that. It has a combination of starchy and nutty taste. You can also deep fry the fruit in the same fashion as กล้วยแขก with seeds and all. The whole thing, the flesh and seed can be eaten when prepared this way.

Thanks, Nu, for giving us the Thai name of what Thravor referred to as CEMPEDAK. I have not tried eating its seeds, but we boil the seeds of jackfruit, too. And yes, they also taste the same way- "starchy and nutty". And, oh, there is a 'cousin' of jackfruit--LOL, I don't know the name- whose seeds can also be boiled, or sauted together with its flesh. In one style of cuisine which I grew up with, both jackfruit and 'jack fruit's cousin' are simmered with small shrimps, coconut milk and chillies. Quite yummy, I must say.

I am sure for the fruit purist, this method of consuming it will be frown upon.

Incidentally, I am no fruit purist. I am a sheer fruit monster.-555 I devour fruit by any conceivable method available to mankind.

[Peterg]

Can anyone tell me when Lychee's are in season. Was pretty dissapointed to find none currently in the markets here in Bangkok.