Heart Health Fuhrman Ornish

I have just recently changed my mind on fruit.A few months ago I would have said I see no problem with unlimited fruit as long as it was whole fruit but I have recently come to the conclusion(via experimentation on myself)that eliminating or limiting fruit improves digestion for some people.

When I was very low in potassium I needed tons of fruit to raise my blood potassium level in order to get my blood pressure down.Now that that's been done I started limiting fruit and my digestion greatly improved so I cut out all fruit and my digestion improved even further.I think the sugar must feed someting thats not healthy....but I can still eat all the brown rice,beans,and vegetables I want with no digestive probelms.

I don't know if my specific experience translates to others but I thought I would mention it.

Hi Dolores,

Hi jc,

Interesting and valuable observations.

The best information seems to be that sugar (cane sugar, sucrose) is equal to fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup) as causing health problems. As Dolores said, whole fruit is healthful, whereas fructose or sucrose added to foods is not healthful. And they both are problems.

jc points out that his digestion improves by limiting fruit. If fruit is difficult to digest for a person, there is not much joy in eating it!!

There are many digestive enzymes, and many of us have strengths and weaknesses in digesting different foods. I have no problems at all with broccoli, but potatoes are gassy for me. (One source of gas is the stomach not finishing its part of digestion, before the food gets to the small intestine.)

Perhaps my experience with lactose intolerance might be applicable to other's digestive experience.

For nearly 30 years, I was the most sensitive lactose intolerant that I have ever met. From age 32 to 60, if I ate even white bread with whey, I had diarrhea in about 20 minutes, and again a day later. And it was painful the day later, because the intestines were swollen and irritated. For near 30 years, I carried my lactase pills, so I could take 4 pills, and eat dairy and deserts with reckless abandon, for about 10 minutes. (The cheapest brand was Walmart Equate Dairy Digestive Supplement).
Today I have no trace of lactose intolerance. No trace at all. There are only 2 changes which might have caused this dramatic change, this addition of lactase to my normal stomach function. One change is that I corrected a vitamin D deficiency. This can only be done by checking blood level of D, and supplementing if the blood level is low. 35 to 55 is ideal. The other change is that I changed from 6 meals daily to 2 or 3 meals.

Best regards, EngineerGuy