A Fruity Email

A while ago I received an email from a neighbor. The title was "Dr. OZ on eating fruit (must read)." Since my neighbor is into all that health stuff, I figured I should take a look at it. I will reproduce the email below in case anyone received a similar email and googles it. My own comments are included for both comic and practical purposes.

This is informative!

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

What's the correct way to eat fruit?

IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUIT AFTER A MEAL! FRUIT SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

Eating fruit like that plays a major role in detoxifying your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

Anytime someone says you need to detoxify, ask him to draw you a toxin. If they are such a danger doctors should be able to draw pictures of toxins and explain why they are bad.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD.

Let's say you eat two slices of bread, then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it's 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.

Eat your fruit on an empty stomach, or before your meal! You've heard people complain: Every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc. This will not happen if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. Fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas. Hence, you bloat!

There's no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruit becomes alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruit, you have the Secret of Beauty, Longevity, Health, Energy, Happiness and normal weight.

Beauty, Longevity, Health, Energy, Happiness and normal weight- my lack of fruit is the source of all the problems in my life.

When you need to drink fruit juice drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT the concentrated juice from the cans. Don't drink juice that has been heated. Don't eat cooked fruit; you don't get the nutrients at all. You get only the taste. Cooking destroys all of the vitamins.

I agree that many juice based drinks are a lot unhealthier than they look. I prefer drinking a Classic Coca-Cola instead. As for "cooking destroying vitamins," this sounds like the raw foods movement. I learned about this when Cal had a raw foods night at the DC. I also learned raw foods do not taste good.

Eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit-fast to cleanse your body. Eat fruit and drink fruit juice for just 3 days, and you will be surprised when your friends say how radiant you look!

I learned from infomercials that I can get all the benefits of eating fruits by drinking them if I use Jack Lalanne's Power Juicer.

KIWI: Tiny but mighty, and a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E and fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange!

AN APPLE a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants and flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C, thereby helping to lower the risk of colon cancer, heart attack and stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits and protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

EATING 2 - 4 ORANGES a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent and dissolve kidney stones, and reduce the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. Also a key source of lycopene, the cancer-fighting oxidant. Also found in watermelon: Vitamin C and Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene, good for your eyes.

This is nice, but I do not care about these trivial pieces of information. I am not going to say "My kiwi has twice the vitamin C of your orange!"

Then I got to a line that affected me.

Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer!

Oh my gosh! I drink cold water during and after meals all the time.

Can you believe this? For those who like to drink cold water, this applies to you. It's nice to have a cold drink after a meal, however, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you've just consumed, which slows digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

I must have a lot of cancer by now. I am going to die!

My Response
I did a little research and sent my neighbor this email:

Fruit is great food and everyone (including me) could always eat some more of it. However, some of the claims in this email are false. I researched online and found a few websites that talk about this email. It seems Dr. Oz did not say these things.

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/fruit.asp

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/coldwater.asp

Do not believe everything you are sent in an email or read online. Even if it is from a retired professor who should know what she is talking about, do not believe any unreasonable claims until you have researched them. If you do send out an email to people and later discover it had false information, send another email to everyone telling them of your earlier mistake and informing them of the new things you have learned.