Can We Have TOO Much Fruit ? - A Chinese Medicine View On Improving Digestion
In Chinese Medicine fruit can sometimes get a bad wrap and I can see why.... Our western culture tends to do things in excess, and often bikini clad models just drinking smoothies all day can give us a false impression of ‘healthy’. Our digestive system LOVES warm and gently cooked foods because they allow the processing of what we eat to be much easier and less work for it.
Essentially we have an ‘internal fire’ - like a cooking pot, which cooks all our food and fluids down so they can be absorbed and separated into the nutritive aspect and the waste. Eating an too much cold, raw or sweet foods can douse this fire which can weaken the body’s function of extracting nutrients and processing what we are putting in.
The saying ‘we are what we eat’ is true, although more-so, ‘we are what we digest’. When eating fruit don’t ‘over’ do it, instead opt for more veggies.
* Eat fruits at room temperature or stewing fruits with spices can aid the tummy to break them down better.
* Choose to eat whole fruits opposed to fruit juices to utilize their fiber component.
* Balancing fruits with other foods like gentle grains like oats which have a more ‘drying’ nature can help the tummy
Ofcourse fruits are an incredible gift from mama earth and are abundant in nutrients! Eating a wide variety and having a higher ratio of veggies to fruits can ensure we are getting lots of the benefits they have to offer without overloading the gut with excess sugars or impairing it’s function.
Some symptoms your digestive system might need a little less fruit and more veggies and fiber (if you are consuming a lot of fruit per day):
- low energy or brain fog
- loose, sticky or incomplete bowel movements
- easy bloating
- feeling the cold easily
These symptoms can be due to other imbalances in the body too but often simply replacing a few serves of fruit with gently cooked veggies can make all the difference. Personally I opt for a little fruit in the morning and stick to veggies and other plant foods for the rest of the day.