No food til noon or only fruit til noon?

[MamaBeth]

I came across this in a book, but I don't recall which one... anyone want to refresh my memory why this would be something to do - or not?

[Tangerina]

Only fruit til noon.... it is the best time to eat fruit if you are going to because it should be eaten alone. Not eating until noon could be fine, I guess, but there are so many studies showing that if you don't eat a good breakfast you are way more likely to overeat during the day, plus breakfast gets your metabolism going.

[Revvell]

well, I have to say ~ one thing I like about the raw food lifestyle is, there are no rules. Do what you want, when you want. If you want to eat lasange or a raw fruit pie for breakfast, do so. If you feel not to eat at all before noon, do so. If you want a green smoothie or just a peach, do so. It is soooo freeing, isn't it?

Revvell ~ playing with my food (OH! & the sheepies). :D

[rawnora]

Everything that's been said so far is true, although it may seem to conflict with the truth about what is really healthful. When transitioning to a raw food diet, following "the rules" too closely can be risky to a person's health goals. Although it is very healthy to not eat before noon, in transitioning raw fooders it can lead to bingeing and the formation of bad habits like overeating for the rest of the day, and it can interfere with a person's ability to stay functional during transition. Personally, I find that if I can wait till noon I end up eating less over the course of the day, and I feel better. I wasn't able to do this until I'd been raw for many years, however. If I attempted it, I'd end up eating everything in sight by late morning and while I wasn't eating I'd be weak and irritable. For some people, not eating till noon is no problem but not eating at night is a difficult habit to break. For others, delaying breakfast is very hard.

If you're one of those who can handle going without breakfast, there is no question that not eating in the morning is extremely beneficial. Our bodies are cleansing all the time but the most intense elimination takes place from 4am until noon (as evidenced by morning bad breath, body odor, urination, defecation, etc.). The body can do these eliminative tasks much more efficiently and thoroughly if it is not burdened with the additional task of digestion. During sleep, the body has been busy converting the food that was eaten the previous day into fuel that will be used for the coming day's activities. There is plenty of time during the day to eat again so that the body will have the raw materials needed to make fuel for the next day. It needn't occur during the morning hours when the body is busy eliminating waste.

If a person must eat in the morning, it's best to eat only juicy fruit because this is the easiest food for the body to break down (it's actually already broken down for us) and doesn't divert too much energy away from elimination. However, even this rule can be broken if eating only fruit causes a person to become so "hungry" and unsatisfied that s/he races to the nearest burger joint. It's all relative. Even though there are some very hard and fast rules that always work to produce optimal health, applying them loosely in transition actually aids the process.

"Fit for Life" is probably the book you're referring to. It's not all raw (not even close) but it is the best mainstream-marketed book ever written on the subject of health, imo.

Regards,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

[MamaBeth]

Nora, I think it was Fit For Life that I read... I've read so many diet and nutrition books I can't keep them straight anymore LOL!

[eatyourbroccoli]

shouldnt we just eat when were truly hungry, be it 8 am or 1pm?

this lifestyle gets so confusing sometimes.. :( :o

[Revvell]

shouldnt we just eat when were truly hungry, be it 8 am or 1pm?

I agree.


this lifestyle gets so confusing sometimes.. :( :o

Nah. People confuse that and so many other areas of their lives. It's allll so simple. what to do? *shrug*

[GoingtoRAW]

Rawnora,

I believe you are right about the name of the book "Fit for Life." I read that book back in the '80's and I followed the part about only eating fruit before noon and it actually helped me to get control of my eating at least while I followed it anyway. After about a week of doing it I felt great, I had more energy and my disposition changed. Instead of drinking coffee and eating something sweet or heavy in the mornings I stuck with fruit. Even now while I am transitioning to 100% raw I have gone back to following that principle because it still helps me to keep control of my eating. For me, how ever I start my day is how I end it. If I spend the morning just eating everything in sight, even if it is raw, I will just eat and eat all day. I don't like to live like that. I only want to eat when I am hungry. I love raw because I have been able to eat whatever I want as long as it's raw and I have continued to lose weight and feel great. Eating only fruit in the morning has just helped me to not start off the day eating and eating and eating. By noon I have had as much fruit as I am hungry for and I am very satisfied. Then the rest of the day I continue to eat only when I am hungry and raw food keeps me very satisfied. I have been trying for years to lose weight and this has been what works best for me because at least for part of the day I am not thinking about food :p because I already know that all I will eat before noon is fruit. For someone as "food obsessed" as I am this has really worked for me because I'm not thinking about food all the time.

[Lay-Lay]

My rule: No rules, but RAW. OH YEAH!

[Nini]

I read Fit for Life a couple of years ago and have been having only fruit until noon ever since. Feels so great!

If you are really into food combining, this is the book to read.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Whether it is easier to eat before noon or not, it probably depends more on you and how you are feeling and your level of health. I find it much easier to either skip breakfast or eat really lightly before noon when I'm all raw, but when I'm not I feel like I need to eat something heavy.

[rawnora]

shouldnt we just eat when were truly hungry, be it 8 am or 1pm?


Ideally, yes. The problem is, almost none of us experiences true hunger. Eating in the morning is almost universally a response to symptoms that are mistaken for hunger but are really cleansing. The only exception to that would be someone who has gone through the protracted process of recovery from food addiction, who eats from hunger exclusively. If such a person doesn't eat sufficiently to supply fuel for yesterday's activities and the body had to tap into its reserves, real hunger might be felt the following morning.

I was as resistant as anyone when I first learned this. The symptoms always went away when I ate, therefore they must be hunger! The truth is, I found out, that the body cannot digest food and cleanse at the same time. When the need to digest food interrupts its eliminative activities, the symptoms of cleansing stop. Digestion precipitates a flurry of hormonal and other biochemical activity that constitutes stimulation, even if we might experience this in varying ways. These feelings are what we feel when we seem energized after eating. If you feel this way after eating, you can be sure that you ate to suppress symptoms rather than out of true hunger. It is often said by people who have recovered their ability to feel real hunger that eating causes them to feel a slight let down in energy, rather than the opposite.

I wrote a detailed essay about this on my website that you may be interested in reading, called "Are We All Emotional Eaters?"

Best wishes,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

[Sunshine9]

In the beginning when I transitioned towards a high raw lifestyle, eating only fruit for breakfast really helped me. Now I find though that I have what I desire, which usually is nothing until 11am or so. Just water. If I wake up especially hungry though, I eat!! And I prefer to start the day with a more protein oriented breakfast or a light fat than pure sugars. Just me..

[jujube]

I think it also depends on what time you wake up. Someone who's up at 5 AM will probably want to eat earlier than someone who wakes up at 9:00 or 10:00. For the early riser, waiting until noon would mean being awake for seven hours without eating anything.

I rarely eat before 11:00 these days, but I also wake up late and go to bed late. When I was on a different sleep schedule, I felt better eating earlier in the morning (and stopping eating earlier at night). I think that as long as you have some good distance between dinner and the next day's breakfast, your digestive system will have sufficient rest.

[luckitri]

Well I think that when I was the 90 pound weakling I was truly hungry because I had a physically demanding job but now that I have doubled my weight I wish I could just go without for a month......but I haven't learnt how to do that and still be functionable for my job.......this is a great thread because it is verifying what I have started doing since I started eating fruit again. So just following what my body tells me to do is also what the experts say should be done. So nice to not have conflict for a change!

[spicyfull]

Keeping it Simple and easy does it....................

[ljannise]

I always find it so odd when I read not to eat fruit at night because when I eat my blueberries in the evening, I'm glowing in the morning. Blue eyes, fluffy hair & everything! It seems to me (in MY case) that I do better eating mine in the evening before a big rest (aka sleep) Since the body naturally uses our sleep to repair things around & in our bodies, all those antioxidents can roam free without stresses that incur during the day.

Yes, I think about things too much, but I like to think I'm just a keen observer. ;)