Life is Short- Eat Dessert First!

My mother always told me, Life is Short, Eat Dessert First! My mother is a wise woman, perhaps even more wise than she even knows! Traditional notions of common sense tell us we are being "bad" if we eat dessert before dinner.  In fact, we often are told not to "spoil our dinner" by eating dessert before hand.

I don't mean to rock the boat for those of you conservative foodies out there; but it turns out, the opposite may be true!  In fact, if we elect to consume a fruity dessert post supper, we may have spoiled our dinner, literally, as our tasty dessert sits rotting on top our just eaten dinner like a inner-being compost.

The Beauty Detox Solution, by Kimberly Snyder, states that fruits should not be consumed post-meal. Why? Because fruit is digested and processed through our bodies at such a rapid pace - most fruit enters and leaves our bodies within 20-30 minutes! So when you think you are being healthy by opting for a fruit dessert instead of that cheesecake, you make want to think again.

Turns out, fruit, is digested nearly effortlessly by our amazing bodies if we consume it on an empty stomach.  Our bodies are able to digest and absorb the minerals and vitamins from raw fruit the best this way.  If, on the other hand, we have just consumed a meal full of starches, proteins and/or fats, that food will accumulate in our stomachs while our bodies begin to digest and break down the food to send it through our intestines.  This can take hours, depending on the food we just consumed.

Therefore, if we consume fruit AFTER dinner, or a meal, the fruit cannot bypass the other food that is still trying to be digested by our bodies and will ferment and basically ROT in our bellies, prohibiting us from obtaining the benefits of the fruits at all.  This is referred to by Kimberly, in her book The Beauty Detox Solution, as "sludge."

This sludge prevents our bodies from effectively digesting food - and the energy that is used to digest our food cannot then be energy that our bodies can use for other purposes.  In my interpretation of her book, the main premise is that more energy = more beauty.  In order to obtain maximum outwardly beauty, we need to consume not only the correct foods, we need to also pair the correct foods together and consume them in the right order (light foods such as fruits, should be consumed on their own (on an empty stomach or at least 20 minutes before you consume a meal or other food(s), then greens and non-starchy vegetables, then finally starches or proteins last) so as not to jam up our stomachs and digestive tracts with a big fermented rotten mess!

Makes perfect sense to me!
 

Shown above is a DELICIOUS creamy, frozen and smooth fruit sorbet I made with our Vita last night.  We ate it after dinner.  Oops... I guess I read the portion about fruit rotting in our stomachs a day late.  Oh well, life is about living, eating and learning right? Next time I make this sorbet I will eat it 20 minutes before dinner!

How to make the fruit Sorbet-

Blend together any variation of frozen fruit you feel like, I used:
Frozen blueberries
Frozen pineapple (I cut fresh pineapple and freeze it which makes for great addition to smoothies plus pineapple is good for digestion and supports weight loss in Type A bloods)
Frozen cranberries 
1 cup soy/almond/hempt milk
Blend on high until 4 little mounds form in the Vita.  Scoop and serve!

Note: You can try adding 2-3 ice cubes if you want the sorbet to be a bit "icier."  Enjoy - but remember to eat dessert first...fruity desserts, that is :)