Raw Food Explained: Life Science
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Fruit: Best Food Of All by William L. Esser
Of all the foods that we can eat, fruits are the best in every respect. They are objects which enchant the eye, delight the smell and thrill the normal taste beyond the sensation incited by any other food. In itself, fruit is perfect. It requires no preparation of any kind other than cleansing, coring or peeling. Cooking, seasonings, additions and substractions make it less, not more palatable.
Beyond its appeal to the senses, it possesses most of the essential proteins, minerals and vitamins necessary for maintaining health at its highest level. Obtained in large enough variety, fruits (with the addition of nuts which are also fruits) would be ample for the maintenance of ideal health.
Many facts indicate that humans were originally frugivorous or fruit-eating animals, not omnivorous as we are presently. That humans have strayed from their natural diet for the past few thousand years does not mean that organs have changed so as to be suited to the prevailing diet. The changes that have occurred are the weakening, softening and degeneration of a creature of true grandeur. If any change has occured, it is that we have become diseased creatures. We have lost our physiological excellence. For this reason, it is more important that we adhere more closely to our natural diet. The ruinous habits of eating must be dispensed with entirely. Only pathology has resulted from our unnatural dietary.
Fruits constitute our ideal diet and should comprise most of its bulk. Vegetables, nuts and seeds can be added with great benefit when the rules for food combining are observed. It is never the fault of the fruit. Fruit should be ripe at eating time. Overly-ripe fruits should be shunned. Fruit is most luscious and at the peak of perfection when it is plucked from tree, stalk or vine in a just-ripened condition. No store-bought fruit can approach freshly-picked fruit for quality or flavor.
Whenever possible, fresh fruit should be bought from the grower, rather than at the market which obtains much of its stock from storage houses. Those living in colder climates have little choice during winter time, however. Much care must be exercised in selecting the best available.
Ability to judge various fruits in the market to determine their fitness is an accomplishment which can only come with experience. Most fruits, regardless of whether they belong to the acid, sub-acid or sweet classification, possess an elating sweetness and flavor when they are ripe. Experience will teach you to judge a good apple among a whole bushel of inferior ones at a single glance. Care must be taken to avoid fruits which have been damaged by frost, blight, rot or any other similar influence. Fruits today are sprayed excessively against insects and before they are eaten, they should be carefully washed and brushed, in order to eliminate the poison from them.
Some unripe fruits contain starch and various other carbohydrate substances which are distasteful and unwholesome. On the other hand, decay sets in on over-ripe fruits, and the sugars are changed to carbon dioxide, alcohol, acetic acid and other harmful by-products. Over-ripe fruits deteriorate rapidly in their nutritive values. These changes, plus the loss of water, account for the sponginess and insipidness of fruit which has been stored for long periods of time.
Fruit is potentially alkaline. Alkalinity occurs after it has passed through the processes of digestion. If the fruit is of poor quality, improperly combined or the digestion is weak, it often remains in an acid and its absorption creates many unpleasant symptoms such as nervousness, sleeplessness, frequent urinating from bladder irritation, intestinal gases, mucus in the stools, throat irritation, etc. Most of the time, however, the symptoms which follow the eating of fruit are not the fault of the fruit, but of impaired digestive faculties. There are those who will eruct and experience flatulence and distress in the bowels regardless of what they eat. People so affected are ill and should put a stop to
eating until their digestive system has recovered its powers. Fruits should not be haphazardly mixed with other foods, or even other fruits! Even the best digestion cannot successfully cope with indiscrimate and chemically-incompatible mixtures. A good policy is not to eat more than one or two kinds of fruit at a single meal.
Fruits can be divided into three classifications: sweet, sub-acid and acid. Sweet fruits can be combined tolerably well with sub-acid fruits but should not be as a matter of practice. But the combining of sweet fruit with acid fruit can prove quite distressful. For example mixing bananas and grapefruit or dates and oranges is worse than not eating anything. The best plan in combining fruits is to mix only fruits of the same classification. For example bananas, dates, figs and raisins are sweet fruits. Apples, pears, most grapes, mangos and papayas are among the sub-acid fruits. Berries, cherries, peaches, pineapples, etc., are among the acid fruits.
Melons of all kinds should be treated as a fruit category in themselves and should be eaten alone. Nuts may be eaten after the end of a fruit meal, preferably after a fruit meal of acid fruits. Lettuce and celery may be beneficially added to fruit meals in small quantities.
As with any food, chewing plays a vital part in the thorough digestion of fruits. Every particle should be systematically liquified, thereby insuring absorption and assimilation. This is doubly important when you realize that most fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach. The swallowing of carelessly-chewed food is a major reason why food lies in the stomach and ferments. The digestive juices are unable to break down large pieces of food and bacterial decay sets in. Drinking a glass of orange juice or any other fruit juice in one or two gulps does more harm than good. It should be sipped slowly and tasted, if eaten at all, not swallowed as though one were trying to quench a fire. Fruits should never be eaten cold. Room temperature is ideal.
Fruits should not be considered merely as a dessert or a between-meal refreshment, nor in the same light as the “apple a day keeps the doctor away” philosophy. They are due much higher regard. To take them as a “laxative” or to cleanse the bloodstream, or to take fruits in any way which savors of medicine instead of food is wrong.
Fruits are the finest kind of food. They should be treated as such. Sick people should not be eating. A sick body requires rest and fasting, not food, regardless of the nature of the illness. The major part of one’s diet should consist of fruit. It is the most delicious, wholesome and perfect food that can be had.
- 1. Humans Developed To Their Hight State Entirely On Fruits
- 2. Fruits Still Best Meet Our Needs Despite Their Present Lower Quality
- 3. Some Charges Made Against Fruits And Fruit Eaters
- 4. Questions & Answers
- Article #1: Fruit Eating By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
- Article #2: Fruit: Best Food Of All By William L. Esser
- Article #3: Proteins In The Fruitarian Diet By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
Raw Food Explained: Life Science
Today only $37 (discounted from $197)