So before the holidays the company that I am currently contracted to decided to take us out for a holiday meal. I got talking to one of my ‘bosses’ who is a raw foodist.
We got talking about the principles behind it and while it was interesting, one thing that peaked my curiosity was the statement he made about the order you eat your food. He was saying that you should eat your fruits and vegetables first because they digest the fastest and if you eat other things (I can only assume he means meat etc) and then you eat your fruits and vegetables. Now the next thing he said (I am finally getting to the point) was that when you eat the other ‘things’ first then your fruits and vegetables is that the fruits and veggies start to ferment in your stomach and thus causing you to stay fuller longer.
Now really I was just wondering if someone could validate this for me. If it is true is there some kind of benefit to eating fruits/veggies first then meat or is it one of those things where it’s all the same in the long run.
While I can’t validate it for you, I can say that when I did some experimenting with raw food and some juice fasting I noticed less bloating when I ate fruit separately from other foods. The typical food combining conventions of most raw food style eating plans put a premium on food exiting the body as quickly as possible and I guess it makes sense that if you only have to break down one type of food at a time it will go more quickly. Not that the body cannot efficiently break down more then one type, but you can see the logic.
My conclusion was while there was something to it as far as rapid digestion and elimination, it made eating so darn difficult. It’s hard enough to eat well in this world, and when I have to use certain combinations even with the good stuff, it was just a pain.
Something else to consider is your overall digestive condition. No matter if you combine your foods or not, if you are sitting on a lot of “backlog” in your digestive tract, it is going to be harder to digest efficiently no matter what you eat and/or how those foods are being combined.
well that makes sense. I was just thinking that the fermenting maybe ruined the nutrients in the fruits/veggies that we are eating. How it would do that I am not sure.
[quote]b33fcake wrote:
. . .He was saying that you should eat your fruits and vegetables first because they digest the fastest and if you eat other things (I can only assume he means meat etc) and then you eat your fruits and vegetables. Now the next thing he said (I am finally getting to the point) was that when you eat the other ‘things’ first then your fruits and vegetables is that the fruits and veggies start to ferment in your stomach and thus causing you to stay fuller longer.
Now really I was just wondering if someone could validate this for me. If it is true is there some kind of benefit to eating fruits/veggies first then meat or is it one of those things where it’s all the same in the long run.
Thanks for the input all.[/quote]
First of all, people who make claims should validate them. Ask this guy how he knows that fruits and vegetables will ferment in the stomach? What evidence is there?
Even if it were true, what is the proof that such fermentation is bad? The stomach by design is highly acidic. What’s wrong with staying fuller longer?
It’s just as reasonable to think that if you eat the veggies after the meat, any additional time in the digestive tract will allow more of the nutrients of the veggies to be extracted.
well for the most part I don’t think he was making a claim. I asked him about his eating habits and he gladly explained. Although, granted I could of asked why I just never really thought of the questions till after we talked.
The question that kind of spawned this post was whether fermentation was bad…because when I think fermentation I think of beer and hops and barley…i.e. carbs. But I guess you can’t really create carbs out of thin air. So it probably wouldn’t be a big deal anyways.
The question that kind of spawned this post was whether fermentation was bad…because when I think fermentation I think of beer and hops and barley…i.e. carbs. But I guess you can’t really create carbs out of thin air. So it probably wouldn’t be a big deal anyways.
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The first stuff I ever read about nutrition was Fit for Life which espoused this view, that things ferment in your stomach and fermentation is bad. I believed it because I had no better information at the time. Later I was exposed to better quality sources of information that have some supporting evidence. In general I have never read any real evidence that eating fermented stuff is bad; in fact, some fermented foods like yogurt and kim-chee have proven health benefits.
As far as I know, some fermentation can occur in the gut, but it is not nearly so inevitable as raw-foodists say, let alone harmful.
Raw foodists eat a ton of vegetables, and that’s the main thing that’s good about their diet in my opinion.
From what I have experimented, the fermentation problem happens only with some fruits, like apples, who ferment really quickly. This causes me to feel bloated and can also cause burps. I have never had any problems with vegetables.
[quote]b33fcake wrote:
So before the holidays the company that I am currently contracted to decided to take us out for a holiday meal. I got talking to one of my ‘bosses’ who is a raw foodist.
We got talking about the principles behind it and while it was interesting, one thing that peaked my curiosity was the statement he made about the order you eat your food. He was saying that you should eat your fruits and vegetables first because they digest the fastest and if you eat other things (I can only assume he means meat etc) and then you eat your fruits and vegetables…[/quote]
Hmm. I don’t think so. Raw foodist do not eat anything but nuts, seeds, fruits, and few vegetables. They don’t even drink juice or water. “Raw” as in nothing packaged/processed or cooked. Not even roasted nuts or hot tea.
No I understand that part, although after reading my post again it doesn’t appear so.
He was trying to generalize it if you didn’t follow the raw foodist principles to the tee. As is the case for him…i think he said he followed it for the most part but he’d have a treat meal or something a couple times a week. So in that case…veggies first then meat for his treat meals.
