: Eating fruit before, during and after meals I've read a lot of opinions stating that fruit should be eaten well before a meal, and not during or after the meal. There are variations saying to eat fruit on an empty stomach,

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Eating fruit before, during and after meals
I've read a lot of opinions stating that fruit should be eaten well before a meal, and not during or after the meal. There are variations saying to eat fruit on an empty stomach, only in the morning, etc. The main reason given is that meals take longer to digest, and will block the fruit, causing it to sit there and putrefy or something.

The theory sounds reasonable, but I'm a natural skeptic, so I tried to find some credible evidence, studies, etc, and find that most of the information is from opinions, theories, or quotes from one or two authors or advocates of some special diets - very little from any type of scientific sources.

One thing I found that would seem to shoot down most of the theories is something from this article that says "Studies of gastrointestinal transit have clearly demonstrated two related phenomena
important to understanding this process:

Substances do not move uniformly through the digestive system.
Materials do not leave segments of the digestive tube in the same order as they arrive.

In other words, a meal is typically a mixture of chemically and physically diverse materials, and some substances in this mixture show accelerated transit while others are retarded in their flow downstream."

I also read a quote from a Dr. Zafar A. Nomani (Professor Emeritus of Nutrition, West Virginia University):

"When dietary fiber in fruit touches the inside lining of the stomach, it stimulates muscle contraction and expansion and has a churning effect. Hence the movement of the digesta. It contributes in preventing constipation, upset stomach or acidity. This has been shown in hundreds of studies. "

I have not been able to find much else, except the same repeated stuff from non-credible sources. I'm hoping someone here might have something credible one way or another - preferably something that does not contain anything from Dr. Bass or "sequential eating", as that is mostly what I see, but I don't really consider this to be very credible.

And I hope this subject is pertinent to this section; if not, I apologize; let me know and I'll delete it.

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