The Fruit Controversy by Frederic Patenaude, Witarianizm

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Shocking Report!
The Fruit Controversy
This Shocking Report will debunk the following false
statements that have been floating around in the
natural health movement lately:
“Today’s fruit is too
hybridized
so we shouldn’t eat it”
“Today’s fruit contains too much
sugar
so we should avoid it”
“If you’re trying to
lose weight
you should not eat fruit”
“It’s not possible to live on a
fruit-based diet
”
“Fruit eaters have problems with their
teeth
because of the sugar in fruit”
“If you have
candida
you shouldn’t eat fruit”
“Fruit contributes to
hypoglycemia
and blood sugar problems.”
www.fredericpatenaude.com
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Is There a Food Better Than Fruit?
By Frédéric Patenaude
Fruits are such a delight to the senses. Of all the foods available to us, fruits are the
most attractive, delicious and enjoyable. Of all natural foods, that is, the foods we
can eat in their natural state, fruit is the food we are most attracted to and that first
entices our senses. Humans are born with a natural instinct for sweet foods and in
nature, that instinct naturally draws us to fruit.
When we are hungry - and I mean really hungry - fruit is often the most satisfying
food we can eat. Is there anything better than to devour a delicious ripe mango on a
hot summer day? Or to bite into a luscious, freshly-picked apple? Or to enjoy a
sweet, juicy ripe orange? Is there any man-made dish that can beat the perfection of a fully ripe
cherry?
Fruits have been consumed by human beings going as far back in time as we know, whereas grains,
legumes and dairy products have only been cultivated for 10,000 years or less, which is just a breath in
the life of humanity. Anthropological studies have shown that fruit has been an important part of the
human diet for hundreds of thousands of years.
Fruit has always been recognized as one of the healthiest foods there is. In the minds of most people,
fruit is seen as a healthy food we should eat more of due to its vitamin content. But even when
realizing the exceptional nutritional qualities of fruit, very few people actually give it the place it
deserves in the diet. Fruit is still eaten as a “snack” or a “dessert,” but is rarely seen as a staple food. In
the mind of the masses, fruit is a “healthy snack” but not something that can really sustain a hard-
working man, like meat or bread. They don’t realize that fruit should be a staple in the diet, and has
been for thousands upon thousands of years, long before bread and rice were cultivated, and long
before cheese, sandwiches and twinkies were invented.
Fruit eating offers many benefits:
* Fruit is the best source of the natural sugar needed for energy.
* Fruit is packed with vitamins, and still represents the best source of vitamins in any food.
* Fruit is packed with anti-oxidants.
* Fruit is easier to digest than grains. Fruit is basically pre-digested. Digesting ripe fruit hardly
requires any digestive enzymes, and is thus less taxing to the body.
* Fruit is alkaline forming (whereas meat, fish, grains and legumes are acid-forming).
* Fruit contains an abundance of pure water.
* Fruit is easy to eat. It doesn’t require much preparation.
* Fruit is beautiful. All of our senses are nourished by fruit, not just our taste buds.
* People who eat lots of fruit live longer. A study published in the
British Medical Journal
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(September 2001), showed that fresh fruit offers the best bet for a long life. The results of a study
showed that frequent fruit eaters had a 32 percent lower risk of dying from cerebrovascular
disease such as stroke, and a 24 percent lower risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, than
those who ate fruit less than once a day.
* Fruit contains lots of fiber, which is necessary for optimum digestion.
Eating fruit before meals and other food combining rules
Natural Hygienists have known for a long time that fruit doesn’t combine well with
other foods. The reason is that fruit contains simple sugars that require no digestion.
Thus, they will not stay for a long time in the stomach. Other foods, such as foods
rich in fat, protein and starch, will stay in the stomach for a longer period of time
because they require more digestion. So if you eat fruit after a meal, the fruit sugar
will stay for too long in the stomach and ferment. This is why people experience
digestive trouble when eating fruit that way. They then blame that particular fruit
for their trouble and claim that they are “allergic” to it.
Natural Hygienists have been recommending for a long time that fruit be eaten alone with no other
foods. They have also recommended eating melons alone and avoiding mixing acid fruits with sweet
fruits such as bananas. These are great recommendations, but can be definitely be simplified.
Many people have a difficult time eating a meal of fruit alone. They’ll eat a meal of melon and not so
long after they’ll be hungry again, for the simple and obvious reason that melons are not calorie dense.
Eating a small cantaloupe (200 calories) is not going to sustain you for very long. But because they
have read somewhere that mixing melons with other fruits is not allowed, they’ll try to wait until the
next meal to eat something else and then will often in the meantime overeat on dried fruits and nuts to
compensate.
The solution to this is very simple: since fruit digests so fast, it is possible to eat fruit before any other
food. You can, when you are hungry, eat as much fruit as you care for. One type of fruit only would be
ideal. Then wait a little bit, like 5-10 minutes, and have any other food you desire. This can be a salad,
a little avocado with tomatoes, some nuts, or anything. It can be cooked food too. If you’ve been trying
to follow food-combining rules without success, this new information could be very valuable to you.
The same goes with mixing other fruits together. You can eat all the melon you want, and then, if you
are still hungry, eat another type of fruit to satisfy your appetite. It is not necessary to eat melons alone
if they are eaten before another foods. You can even have melon and then have an avocado after. The
only thing that is important to remember is to have the fruit first - not after, and ideally only have one
variety at a time.
Fruit & Physical Exercise
Fruit is the ideal food for exercise. The best post workout snack or meal is not muffins, yogurt, or
protein shakes, but fresh fruit. Runners and other athletes have long known that there is nothing better
than high-water content, sweet fruit, such as oranges or melons, after a workout. They contain enough
water to hydrate the body and their natural sugars are quickly utilized for energy production.
Regular physical activity improves insulin sensitivity, which is the effectiveness of insulin in
transporting sugar to your cells. In other words, if you exercise, you’ll be able to utilize fruit sugar a lot
better and will be less likely to experience ‘sugar swings’ and blood sugar fluctuations.
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Is Fruit Alkaline or Acid Forming?
It has been known for a long time that fruit is one of the most alkaline forming foods there is. Even if it
is acid to the taste, like oranges, after digestion the end result is alkaline-forming.
However, some authors have recently claimed the contrary. According to Dr. Robert Young, author of
“The pH Miracle,” fruit is acid-forming due to its high sugar content. He then goes on to explain his
unproven theory that the sugar in fruit ferments and produces acidity in the body.
Dr. Robert Young is completely mistaken on this point. Fruit is alkaline-forming, even if it contains
sugar. The natural sugar that fruit contains is perfectly utilized by the body and doesn’t necessarily
ferment to produce acidity. The fact is that fruit diets have been used for hundreds of years to combat
acidosis. People go on grape cures, oranges cures, etc., and it helps to eliminate excess acidity in their
bodies. It has been known for hundreds of years by naturopaths and Natural Hygienists and other
health practitioners, both traditional and alternative, that fruit is alkaline forming - and that fact is not
at all challenged by the nonsensical theories of Dr. Young about fruit being acid-forming.
Fruit & Minerals
Some authors now recommend that we should avoid eating a lot of fruit because it
doesn’t contain enough minerals. According to them, fruit grown today with modern
agricultural methods, even when it’s organic, doesn’t contain enough minerals. They
recommend that we eat more vegetables instead.
But do these people realize that if fruit grown today has less minerals than it used to have, then
vegetables, which are grown in the same soil, have less minerals too? Are they suggesting that we eat
fewer vegetables too? Then we shouldn’t eat anything at all? Common sense warns us against such
advice. Fruit grown today still contains minerals and is still packed with vitamins. The solution is not
to stop eating fruit, but rather to seek out the best-quality fruit we can find. Fruit is still essential in the
diet as it provides natural sugars for energy and is still the best source of vitamins.
Is fruit too hybridized?
Many authors now claim that we should avoid fruit because it is too hybridized. According to them,
hybridized fruit contains too much sugar. Let’s look at those arguments for a minute. The process of
hybridization is a natural one. There is nothing wrong there. What humans have done is the same that
nature has done for thousands of years. We have selected the seeds from the best-tasting fruits and
planted those seeds instead of the seeds of inferior fruits. The same process of hybridization and seed
selection has been done for all vegetables, such as tomatoes, lettuce, etc., so that today all the food that
we buy has been hybridized for hundreds of years.
Problems arise when fruits are hybridized for purely commercial reasons. For example, we have
witnessed the arrival of seedless fruits in the marketplace in the last few years. These fruits have been
hybridized extensively solely in order to produce a fruit of inferior nutritional quality but with other
qualities that the market is looking for (such as a seedless fruit). With that in mind, I totally agree with
the hybridization detractors who have launched a war against seedless grapes and watermelons. Those
fruits are certainly of inferior quality.
In the future, we can hope that humanity will come back to its senses and grow food with exceptional
taste and nutritional value, not food with certain cosmetic aspects that the market seeks.
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In the meantime, we will still have to buy the best fruit that we can find. By eating a large variety of
foods, we can still ensure a complete nutritional balance on the foods that we find in the stores.
And the fact that these fruits contain a lot of sugar is certainly not a problem, unless one decides to eat
only fruit, which I do not recommend. Fruit sugar is utilized perfectly by the body and is the most
natural source of energy we can consume. As long as we eat whole fresh fruit with all of its natural
water and fiber, that fruit sugar is not going to be a problem.
Of course, I would not recommend that you base your diet on one fruit, such as bananas. I believe in
eating a large variety of foods. Bananas are of no more importance in the diet than kiwis or blueberries.
I believe in eating according to the season and not eating one food, such as bananas, every day - even
though they may be available all year round.
Is fruit too high in sugar?
The body needs natural sugar as a source of energy. When starchy foods such as
potatoes and bread are eaten, the digestive enzymes break down complex sugar
(starch) into simpler sugars. When fruit is eaten, the body uses the simple sugars
(fructose or others) directly, without needing to break them down any further.
However, this is not like eating refined sugar. In the case of refined sugar, the
food is devoid of nutrients and fiber. Thus, the sugar enters the blood quickly and is not slowed down
by the process of digesting fiber. Plus, the calories found in sugar are “empty” because they do not
provide any vitamins or minerals. Fruit, on the other hand, is a nutrient-dense food. Which means that
for every calorie it provides, it also gives many micro-nutrients - vitamins and minerals.
If you cut out most sweet fruit (sugar) and most or all complex carbohydrates (starch), then you will
need to get your calories from other sources - protein or fat. It is difficult to get a lot of calories from
protein, and high-protein diets are generally recognized to be harmful for health. So what will happen
inevitably is that you’ll end up eating large amounts of fats. The consequences of eating a high-fat diet
are well-researched. (See Klaper, McDougall, Fuhrman, Barnard, etc.) Most leading vegetarian and
vegan experts recommend a diet with about 10-15% of the calories coming from fat. Certainly, no
credible health expert would recommend a diet with more than 20-25% of the calories coming from
fat.
But many raw-food enthusiasts are not aware of this. They live on a very high-fat diet. They eat raw
nut butters, nut pates, refined oils, flax crackers, etc. They’ll make a salad with 2-3 avocados thrown in
there (sometimes more!), and the bag of macadamia nuts becomes their comfort food. On average, they
get more than 50% of their calories from fat, often up to 70%. Without a doubt, such a large amount of
fat in the diet is extremely unhealthy and is the main reason why most people fail on those diets.
An unfortunate side-effect of that unhealthy diet is that they can no longer handle sweet fruit. It has
been proven that high-fat diets decrease insulin sensitivity (the effectiveness of insulin in carrying
sugar to the cells), and thus raise blood sugar levels.
1
So those living on high-fat diets, that is, most
raw-foodists, will inevitably experience more blood sugar swings when they eat fruit. So the problem
is not the fruit per se, but the high amounts of fat consumed. Once you substantially reduce the amount
of fat that you eat, by eliminating all oils and reducing the quantities of avocados, nuts, and other fatty
foods, your body will be able to process and utilize fruit sugar much more efficiently.
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The Fruit Controversy by Frederic Patenaude, Witarianizm

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