Tom:

> 1) Some fruits, like prunes (a dried fruit) and papaya, have a laxative effect
> and pass through the system quickly - they come out looking the same as they
> did when they went in. It seems we don't digest or assimilate such fruit, we
> extract some water from it and then quickly expel it from our bodies.
>

I experienced that once: I ate a papaya at breakfast in the morning
(and nothing else), and it came out about 2 hours later, watery and
loose. I don't know to what extent it was digested, but the final
volume was about the same. I didn't understand why the instinct didn't
work (because the fruit was really delicious). Did I make mistakes the
day before? Or is modern papaya too denatured?

But less juicy fruits are OK (bananas, dates,...)

> 5) Some fruitarians habitually overeat (due to sugar addiction and the fact
> that their diet is nutritionally deficient). However, despite overeating,
> many fruitarians are emaciated, with weight at anorexic levels. This suggests
> that the fruit passes through them, but they absorb little nourishment
> (calories and vitamins) from the food. In effect, they don't seem to digest
> or assimilate the fruit!
>

A few remarks about insufficient digestion and emaciation:

1) Juicy fruits do not contain many calories. Suppose a fruit contains
roughly 10% sugar and 90% water, then 2 kg will provide only 800 kcal
(and we need 2400 kcal/day).

2) Emaciation is not necessarily caused by indigestion, but also by
deficiencies (proteins, minerals?)

3) Eating more than the optimal quantity won't help gaining weight;
maybe on the contrary, since it overloads the body and makes the
elimination process more difficult. The trouble with modern fruits is
that the instinctive stop is not clear.

4) Some people find fruits more digestible when eaten with their skin
(or at least a part of it). I wonder which nutrients the skin brings:
fibres? Vitamins? Or maybe the instinctive stop comes
sooner. Personally, I now eat bananas, mangos, kiwifruits and cucumbers
with their skin, but I don't like oranges, pineapples, avocados that way.

5) Overeating itself can cause soft stools. I suspect that the body
expels the fecal matter to make some room for the (heavy) meal just
ingested. When we eat less, the transit is longer, hence the
assimilation is improved (and maybe the fecal matter has more time to
solidify).

Best wishes,

Jean-Louis