Digestion Times

[Carolyn]

I need some help!! I'm needing to find out the digestion rates for things ... specifically raw mueseli, fruit smoothies, and salads (with the works ... and raw dressings). Just rough ideas.

I've done a search, but didn't find anything specific, and I do have Alissa's book, but it's at home and I'm at work and won't have access to it until this evening.

I've wound up bloated and gassy today (basically uncomfortable!), and am fairly certain I just didn't wait long enough between meals. (Probably the smoothie and salad, would be my guess.)

If anyone has any general ideas of the times, please let me know! I really don't want to make any more goofs today and wind up more miserable.

Thanks so much!!

[Doe]

Carolyn,

Alissa believes it is a big enough hurdle to eat 100% raw to begin with, without adding in other factors. Maybe that is why you haven’t seen anything about digestion times. Unfortunately I have not read her book. Our library doesn’t have it. One day!



The only digestion times I've ever seen said:

Melons: These include watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, and others. Eat melons alone and on an empty stomach. Do not combine them with other fruit or any other food. Wait 30 minutes before eating any other food. Melons are extremely high in water content and are very good morning cleansers.
Sweet Fruits: These include apple, orange, banana, pear, pineapple, strawberry, grapes, and others. Eat fruit alone and on an empty stomach. You may need to eat oranges alone due to their high water content; oranges and other citrus fruits are not acid-forming. Combine fruits sparingly. Do not combine fruits with any other food. Wait 30 minutes before eating any other food. In the case of bananas, you should wait at least an hour. Sweet fruits are also great cleansers. Juice sweet fruits sparingly, because the pulp (fiber) is very necessary in a healthy diet. If you do drink juice, make sure it's fresh and not pasteurized or concentrated.
Vegetable Fruits: These include cucumber, tomato, zucchini, squash, avocado, pepper, and others. Botanically, these are fruits because they can be picked from a plant without killing the plant and they often contain seeds. ... Eaten alone, it takes about one hour for vegetable fruits to digest since they are a high-water-content food (eaten raw).
Raw Vegetables: These include onion, carrot, celery, lettuce, and others. ... They are high-water-content neutral foods that fair well in either an acidic or alkaline environment. Salads made with raw vegetables and vegetable fruits are great companions to either cooked vegetables or cooked animal products ... Eaten alone, raw vegetables take between one and three hours to digest.
Legumes, Seeds, and Nuts: These include pinto, garbanzo, lentil, rice, sunflower, pumpkin, walnut, pecan, and others. Beans are not the best foods because they are a combination of protein and starch in and of themselves, so eat them sparingly. Raw nuts and seeds are a great source of protein; cooked nuts and seeds are not as nutritious and should be treated like any other protein. You can eat legumes, nuts, and seeds with any raw vegetable or vegetable fruit. Since rice is a seed, a meal of beans and rice would not be the worst combination, but such meals should be eaten sparingly. ... Of course, the use of legumes or cooked nuts and seeds in any meal is not highly recommended. Eaten alone, legumes, nuts, and seeds can take upwards of three hours to digest.
This came from: www.neohygiene.com (http://www.neohygiene.com/)

Sorry I couldn’t do better in answering your specific question.

Teri

[Carolyn]

Hey Teri ... thanks!!! That was exactly what I'd needed! I think I may have had a bit of an overlap time between the smoothie and salad ... and the smoothie had banana in it, which probably explains it. I'd thought a half hour would be ok, but guess not. I'm paying for it now!!!

Thanks again!! :)

[Carolyn]

Ok ... maybe it was just stomach aches and bloating from detox earlier. Or something like that. Because now my face feels like it's sunburnt almost. (Even my lips feel like this!) It's really, really weird! Must be a form of detox ... anyone else have anything like this ever happen??

[tracyinfo]

Was there any pepper or nutritional yeast in any of the food you ate? Sometimes red pepper will make my face burn for about 10 mins. I have to limit myself to a small pinch, or face the consequences. Also, if I eat a sauce that has alot of nutritional yeast in it, I will experience redness for about 10 to 15 mins.


Ok ... maybe it was just stomach aches and bloating from detox earlier. Or something like that. Because now my face feels like it's sunburnt almost. (Even my lips feel like this!) It's really, really weird! Must be a form of detox ... anyone else have anything like this ever happen??

[Carolyn]

Hi Tracy,

The only red pepper I had was an actual red pepper (like a green pepper) in my salad. I don't *think* that was the type of red pepper you're referring to, is it? I've never had problems with it before. My face is still feeling a bit stingy. It's really strange!

[tracyinfo]

Carolyn, I was not referring to a red bell pepper. I was referring to the hot spicy kind of pepper. Oh well, it was just a thought.

[Carolyn]

That's what I'd thought, Tracy ... sorry I sounded so silly about the red bell pepper. It's been a very long week ....