Is it better to eat fruit before or after a meal?
Some say that fruit should not be eaten either before or after a meal; there are also rumors that fruit in the morning is gold, while fruit at night is rotten! These claims have left many people afraid to eat fruit, agonizing endlessly between deliciousness and health. Similar dilemmas include whether tea and soup should be drunk before or after a meal. Life Times invited Fan Zhihong, associate professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University, to give a detailed explanation for everyone.
Claim 1: Fruit cannot be eaten before a meal. There are three main reasons given in support of this claim: first, on an empty stomach the acidity in the stomach is relatively high, which irritates the stomach; second, fruit contains a large amount of tannins, which combine with stomach acid and easily form stones; third, fruit is relatively high in sugar, and eating it on an empty stomach easily produces acid and causes discomfort.
In response to these claims, Fan Zhihong points out that the first reason only makes a bit of sense for people with stomach disease, because the organic acids in fruit (pH3~5) are far lower than stomach acid (pH<2); the second reason is aimed at people with excess stomach acid, and the vast majority of people will not feel discomfort when eating common fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, watermelon, and strawberries before a meal; the third reason also does not hold for people with a healthy gastrointestinal tract, because sugar is not digested in the stomach at all, but in the small intestine. If something could not be eaten just because it is relatively high in sugar, then chocolate, biscuits, cake, and so on could not be eaten before a meal either.
Claim 2: Fruit cannot be eaten after a meal. The reason given in support of this claim is that if fruit is eaten immediately after a meal, it will be blocked in the stomach by the food that arrived earlier, so that the fruit cannot be digested normally in the stomach and instead ferments there, thereby causing symptoms such as abdominal bloating, diarrhea, or constipation, and over time this will lead to digestive dysfunction.
Fan Zhihong says that this reason sounds plausible, but its premise is that one is already very full before eating the fruit, and that the amount of fruit eaten is relatively large. People with insufficient stomach acid and poor gastric motility are relatively prone to this situation and need to pay appropriate attention to controlling the amount of fruit eaten after a meal. People with strong gastric motility, normal gastric acid secretion, and a small amount of fruit eaten after a meal do not need to worry.
When fruit should be eaten can be decided according to one's own digestive capacity. If digestive capacity is poor, or the stomach feels bloated, there is no need to eat fruit before a meal, nor to eat fruit immediately after a meal. At the same time, the amount of fruit eaten at one time should not be too much; small amounts eaten several times are preferable; if digestive capacity is strong, it can be eaten at any time. It should be noted that fruits rich in proteases, such as mango, papaya, pineapple, kiwi, and fig, are indeed not suitable for eating too much of on an empty stomach.
People who are overweight, obese, or have high blood pressure or high blood lipids are suited to eating fruit before a meal. If weight gain is needed, then it is best not to eat fruit before a meal, so as not to affect the activity of digestive enzymes and the appetite for the main meal; if one is overweight or obese, or has problems with high blood pressure or high blood lipids, eating some fruit that is high in water content and low in calories first helps slow down the pace of eating and eat less of the higher-calorie dishes, which helps control body weight; for patients with high blood pressure and high blood lipids, increasing the intake of some fruit and using it to replace a small portion of staple food can greatly increase the intake of potassium and dietary fiber, which helps control blood pressure and blood lipids.
People with diabetes are suited to eating fruit between two meals. For people with diabetes, fruit and staple foods are both sources of carbohydrates, and treating fruit as a snack between two meals helps stabilize blood sugar, neither raising postprandial blood sugar more nor causing hypoglycemia before the second meal. (Life Times)