The Wonders & Simplicity of Fruit

Mar 13

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The Wonders & Simplicity of Fruit
Fresh ripe fruit is delicious and ready to eat when harvested. These succulent foods are some of the most refreshing, hydrating, and enzyme-rich natural foods in the Plantae Kingdom. In nature, the colors and scents of the flowers and fruits attract insect, bird, and bat pollinators. As the pollinators move around and between flowers feeding on the nectar and fruit, they pick up pollen and carry it to where pollination takes place. Unique associations exist between different kinds of pollinators and flowers. These symbiotic plant-animal adaptations are key to the species survival. In addition to pollinators, other wildlife and many of us rely on and delight in the plentiful flowers and fruits, too!

Colorful, whole-food, sub-acid fruit salad
Nature-made – easy to prepare & scrumptious
Whole blackberries, blueberries, & raspberries with chopped kiwi in a bowl
or
Cut the kiwi in half & eat it on its own with a spoon

Fruit is nutritious and cleansing, filled with vitamins and minerals. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine created a beautiful, downloadable Nutrition Rainbow, showing the colors, phytonutrients, and health attributes of fruit and vegetables, including these color-nutrient associations: blue–anthocyanins, red-purple–resveratrol red–lycopene, orange–beta carotene, yellow-orange–vitamin C & bioflavonoids, green-white indoles and lutein, white-green allyl sulfides. Fruit neutralizes toxins and assists the body in eliminating them. Eating fruit on an empty stomach, such as in the morning after a night of sleep, may be an ideal time to eat fruit to glean their exquisite phytonutrients and prosper from their cleansing, toxin-neutralizing, alkaline-forming, and antioxidant protective attributes.

Distinct among natural foods, fruit is composed mostly of simple carbohydrates (monosaccharides). Because of this, fruit is best eaten whole with the soluble and insoluble fiber intact. The fiber allows the body to slowly assimilate the nutrients, including fructose (the main type of sugar in fruit). In contrast, when fruit is juiced or blended, the nutrients, including fructose, are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream which may raise glucose levels too high for some of us. Even whole, fruit should be eaten judiciously. To maintain healthy glucose levels, fruit should have a smaller role in our diet than vegetables.

Fruit digests easily (two to three hours) in a well-functioning digestive system. At Nature’s Hearth, we found that following the principles of proper food combining for digestion enhances nutrient assimilation, relieves indigestion, and yields many health-giving benefits. The principles are integral to the The Body Ecology Diet, authored by Donna Gates. Lee Dubelle created the Proper Food Combining Chart available on her website. Some of the details on her chart are excerpted below:

Acid fruit (~2-hour digestion time) including lemons & limes [minute amounts of fructose], cranberries, currents, grapefruits, pineapples, sour grapes, oranges, and pomegranates
Sub-acid fruit (~2-hour digestion time) including apricots, blueberries, figs, kiwi, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, and raspberries
Sweet fruit (~3 hours digestion time) including bananas, mangos, papaya, and persimmons (when dried, fructose becomes more concentrated)

Lee DuBelle recommends that acid fruit be eaten alone, or maybe with protein fat. It is well-established that lemons and limes aid in the digestion of seafood and meat. Lee DuBelle suggests that sub-acid fruit and sweet fruit each be eaten alone. At times, we eat sub-acid fruit with either acid fruit or with sweet fruit; we avoid combining acid fruit with sweet fruit in the same meal.

During seasonal harvest times, some organic farms offer their customers the opportunity to go into their fields and pick their own fruit and vegetables; being this fresh, the produce is at its peak and most flavorful. You can search organic farms to see if there are pick-your-own farms nearby you here: Find Organic Farm Stores Near You

fruits

Amy Wing

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