Ask Dr. Gourmet

I would like to thank you for your wonderful and very informative website and your delicious and healthy food recipes. It has been about 10 months that I am following your website and your recommandations and I've got my family and friends also hooked on your website.

I have one question as well. I got the following "Eating Fruit" email and I just want to verify the correctness of the information with you since I highly value your medical opinion.

EATING FRUIT

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths.. It's not as easy as you think. It's important to know how and when to eat..

What is the correct way of eating fruits?
IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS! * FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD.
Let's say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining - every time I eat water-melon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet etc - actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!

Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will not happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.

There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

Dr. Gourmet Says...

Thanks for your kind words about the Dr. Gourmet website.

The email that you received about fruit is quackery and not true at all. Plain and simple. The "doctor" referenced in the email was a quack and not a doctor at all.

Here's information from a reliable source about this silliness:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/natural_hygiene.html

There are many quacks today that pretend to be physicians but are quite simply dangerous.

I appreciate you sending this so we can debunk it.

Thanks for writing,

Timothy S. Harlan, MD, FACP, CCMS
Dr. Gourmet