Sharon in Colorado
12-15-2005, 01:08 PM
This is the 2nd part from a e-newsletter I receive.
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Fruit: The Most Misunderstood Food, PART 2
by Dr. Douglas Graham
www.foodnsport.com
Is fruit a snack, a dessert, a meal, or to be avoided entirely?
I get so hungry when I eat only fruit.
One of the most common complaints related to fruit is the idea that fruit's satiating power is not lasting. I tried that 'fruit in the morning' thing and about an hour later I was starving, is about the way the story usually goes.
At first glance, this may look like a valid indictment of fruit's inadequacy as a meal, but the situation deserves a bit more investigation. When I ask the nature of the fruit meal, I am usually told, I had an orange, or, a slice of melon, a banana or some grapes.
For most people, a typical breakfast usually contains close to 750 calories. A medium sized piece of fruit averages about 75 calories. When we eat a breakfast of just a piece of fruit or two, we are eating only 10-20% of the calories that we previously did, thus we feel empty and low on energy.
Even if the goal is weight loss, this is too extreme a reduction to be satiating, maintainable, or nutritionally adequate. When explaining that fruit has a lower caloric density than all other foods except for vegetables and, therefore, fruit must be eaten in greater volume if one endeavors to consume sufficient calories, there is sometimes a glimmer of comprehension before the curtain of dismissal falls again.
Yeah, but how much fruit can I eat at one sitting? You're telling me to eat more than one slice of a melon or two bananas? Yes, I say. We can train ourselves to comfortably eat satisfying fruit meals, allowing ourselves to actually eat fruit until completely satiated. this could mean that you eat an entire melon for breakfast or six, twelve, or even a greater number of bananas for lunch. There are three main factors involved in feeling satiated, and here is how fruit figures in each.
It is very likely that as a child you heard your mom say, Don't eat sweets before your meal, it will spoil your appetite. In effect she was explaining that fruits are a satiating food, although she may have been speaking of candy or other less acceptable foods at the time.
Even a small rise in blood sugar to the above-normal range results in a satiated feeling. Fruit certainly supplies the necessary sugars for such a rise and, hence, is very satiating. This is why many people are initially satisfied to eat just a small amount of fruit.
Another reason why fruit eating results in satiation is their high content of essential nutrients. The nutritional composition of fruit comes closer to mimicking the full spectrum of human nutrient needs than that of any other food group.
Also, the nutrients in fruit are the most easily accessed and absorbed, as fruit requires less digestion than do other foods. Many of the nutrients in fruit require no digestion at all-they are readily absorbed. These include, but are not limited to: water, sugar, minerals, vitamins and many phytonutrients.
Although not digestible, the fiber in fruit is soft and soluble and thus gentle on the delicate membranes of the digestive tract while affording relatively easy access to the nutrients it encapsulates. These factors combine to make fruit the most satiating of foods.
Last but not least, our level of satiation is directly related to the volume of food we consume. As such, in order to feel satiated, we must ingest a significant volume of food. All of our essential nutrients can be concentrated into a tablet or cube and consumed in just a few bites.
While some experts may consider such a concentrated meal to be nutritionally complete, research has repeatedly shown that people are not satisfactorily satiated because of the meager volume. Exactly because of its low caloric densitY, fruit perfectly supplies satiating volumes of food per meal.
In fact, for many people who have become accustomed to the commonly consumed low-volume, fat-rich meals, deriving satisfaction from a meal of all fruit at first typically poses a seemingly insurmountable volume challenge. My stomach can't hold all of that! people believe.
Yet, if they take the challenge and stick with it for a few days, they will learn they can eat sufficient quantities and they will feel satisfied and reap the benefits of improved health.
Fruit makes the ideal meal
It takes a bit of practice to learn how much fruit is sufficient for a meal which will satiate for several hours until the next meal. It is equally true that a mental adjustment is required in order to expand one's understanding of how much fruit is actually appropriate at a meal.
With sufficient experience, one's ability to consume extremely satisfying fruit meals will grow to become one of life's great pleasures. After all, fruit is health food. Anyone interested in attaining, maintaining, and gaining increased health should consider consuming fruit as their predominant food.
-------------
Fruit: The Most Misunderstood Food, PART 2
by Dr. Douglas Graham
www.foodnsport.com
Is fruit a snack, a dessert, a meal, or to be avoided entirely?
I get so hungry when I eat only fruit.
One of the most common complaints related to fruit is the idea that fruit's satiating power is not lasting. I tried that 'fruit in the morning' thing and about an hour later I was starving, is about the way the story usually goes.
At first glance, this may look like a valid indictment of fruit's inadequacy as a meal, but the situation deserves a bit more investigation. When I ask the nature of the fruit meal, I am usually told, I had an orange, or, a slice of melon, a banana or some grapes.
For most people, a typical breakfast usually contains close to 750 calories. A medium sized piece of fruit averages about 75 calories. When we eat a breakfast of just a piece of fruit or two, we are eating only 10-20% of the calories that we previously did, thus we feel empty and low on energy.
Even if the goal is weight loss, this is too extreme a reduction to be satiating, maintainable, or nutritionally adequate. When explaining that fruit has a lower caloric density than all other foods except for vegetables and, therefore, fruit must be eaten in greater volume if one endeavors to consume sufficient calories, there is sometimes a glimmer of comprehension before the curtain of dismissal falls again.
Yeah, but how much fruit can I eat at one sitting? You're telling me to eat more than one slice of a melon or two bananas? Yes, I say. We can train ourselves to comfortably eat satisfying fruit meals, allowing ourselves to actually eat fruit until completely satiated. this could mean that you eat an entire melon for breakfast or six, twelve, or even a greater number of bananas for lunch. There are three main factors involved in feeling satiated, and here is how fruit figures in each.
It is very likely that as a child you heard your mom say, Don't eat sweets before your meal, it will spoil your appetite. In effect she was explaining that fruits are a satiating food, although she may have been speaking of candy or other less acceptable foods at the time.
Even a small rise in blood sugar to the above-normal range results in a satiated feeling. Fruit certainly supplies the necessary sugars for such a rise and, hence, is very satiating. This is why many people are initially satisfied to eat just a small amount of fruit.
Another reason why fruit eating results in satiation is their high content of essential nutrients. The nutritional composition of fruit comes closer to mimicking the full spectrum of human nutrient needs than that of any other food group.
Also, the nutrients in fruit are the most easily accessed and absorbed, as fruit requires less digestion than do other foods. Many of the nutrients in fruit require no digestion at all-they are readily absorbed. These include, but are not limited to: water, sugar, minerals, vitamins and many phytonutrients.
Although not digestible, the fiber in fruit is soft and soluble and thus gentle on the delicate membranes of the digestive tract while affording relatively easy access to the nutrients it encapsulates. These factors combine to make fruit the most satiating of foods.
Last but not least, our level of satiation is directly related to the volume of food we consume. As such, in order to feel satiated, we must ingest a significant volume of food. All of our essential nutrients can be concentrated into a tablet or cube and consumed in just a few bites.
While some experts may consider such a concentrated meal to be nutritionally complete, research has repeatedly shown that people are not satisfactorily satiated because of the meager volume. Exactly because of its low caloric densitY, fruit perfectly supplies satiating volumes of food per meal.
In fact, for many people who have become accustomed to the commonly consumed low-volume, fat-rich meals, deriving satisfaction from a meal of all fruit at first typically poses a seemingly insurmountable volume challenge. My stomach can't hold all of that! people believe.
Yet, if they take the challenge and stick with it for a few days, they will learn they can eat sufficient quantities and they will feel satisfied and reap the benefits of improved health.
Fruit makes the ideal meal
It takes a bit of practice to learn how much fruit is sufficient for a meal which will satiate for several hours until the next meal. It is equally true that a mental adjustment is required in order to expand one's understanding of how much fruit is actually appropriate at a meal.
With sufficient experience, one's ability to consume extremely satisfying fruit meals will grow to become one of life's great pleasures. After all, fruit is health food. Anyone interested in attaining, maintaining, and gaining increased health should consider consuming fruit as their predominant food.