Why do we usually eat fruit before the main course at breakfast and after the main course at dinner.

Is there a digestion reason behind this or is it just tradition.

Why do we usually eat fruit before the main course at breakfast and after the main course at dinner.

Is there a digestion reason behind this or is it just tradition.

i assume "we" applies to you and your family. definitely not to me and a lot of other people i know.

Not really, it seems fairly common to eat fruit before the B&E or the sardines on toast. A few minutes spent observing one's fellow diners at a hotel breakfast buffet would confirm this.

I've never heard of it.

When I lived in France, we ate salads or sorbet between courses to clean the palate. But not fruit.

I eat fruit for breakfast when staying at a hotel just because it's on offer. No other reason.

When at home, I eat fruit because I like it. But generally, as a snack between meals. Not shortly before or after (unless for desert).

So I'm none the wiser...

All I've learned is that two members don't think fruit should be eaten at breakfast time.

So I'm none the wiser...

All I've learned is that two members don't think fruit should be eaten at breakfast time.

I'll have to agree with the wiser comment as we didn't say that at all.

It always amazes me how quickly the simplest request for information can degenerate into personal abuse on this forum.

A few minutes spent observing one's fellow diners at a hotel breakfast buffet would confirm this.

.....really? When I hit the hotel buffet I go straight for the high fat high protein option, whatever passes for bacon and probably fried rice or dim sum if availible, fruit is last on the list and as mentioned above - because it's there. If they have a juicer watermelon juice or fresh OJ as well. I do feel that B+B rates at many hotels are loaded because of the breakfast offered so I do try to get my monies worth.

You could argue that some light food notifies your stomach that larger amounts are coming so prepare for digestion (Think Woody Allen movie) but I doubt that there is any physical need to do so - just social conditioning. White wine is chilled - red wine is not.

I'm inclined to agree it's more an etiquette thing when a "multi-course" breakfast is served.

In hindsight this was a better query for the food forum but I was interested in the effect of fruit in aiding the digestion of heavier foods.

It always amazes me how quickly the simplest request for information can degenerate into personal abuse on this forum.

What personal abuse? Mine for saying that you are none the wiser for not reading what we had to say? Or you for not taking the time to read our comments?

Just to set the record straight...

I was laughing when I wrote my second reply as it seemed funny at the time as you'd left yourself wide open by saying 'none the wiser'...

...on the 'assists digestion' track - is this why ham and pineapple pizza was invented?

OK Desi, I was in Snappy Tom mode.

Cuban, the words pineapple and Pizza should never be used together.

In terms of digestion it makes no difference whatsoever whether you eat the fruit first or last or in the middle. It all winds up churned together in your stomach.

Off topic, but amen to the pizza comment. As a native NYer, I hold pizza sacred and words cannot describe what I think of things like broccoli, corn, pineapple etc finding their way onto it.

OK, I thought the acid may make a difference.

I agree absolutely with the NY view on pizza, which obviously retains it's Italian heritage.

The very idea of pineapple on pizza was abhorent to me until I actually tried it.

Now, 1/2 pepperoni, mushroom and olive, 1/2 Hawaiian will do me most of the time!

Edited October 6, 200817 yr by Ulysses G.

Do you ask for anchovies on the Hawaiian or the Peperoni side?

...OK to the purist fruit (probably tinned) on pizza is just wrong, I accept your point of views as valid, but have in the past and will in future consume such meals. What I will not do is put tinned peaches on pizza or 'unless no other option is open to me and I have scraped most of it off' will I eat Thai "Seafood" pizzas that come with sickly sweet thousand island dressing - or similar. Nasty.

It always amazes me how quickly the simplest request for information can degenerate into personal abuse on this forum.

....just trolling or already drooling ?

the question is ridiculous!

It's not uncommon to encounter a fruit salad in the appetiser menus of restaurants, and I often eat a fruit-only breakfast in hot climes.

I can imagine a mechanism whereby it may do some good:

It takes time for satiety centres to register an increase in blood sugars after eating. If you are eating a large meal you continue to feel hungry (partly*) because of this delay beyond the point where you have eaten 'enough' but it hasn't reached the bloodstream. (* There are other factors such as stretching (fullness) of the actual stomach). People who eat rapidly often eat more during this lag period and this is thought to be a contributor to the western trend toward obesity - rushed meals.

Fruit is high in readily available sugars and will be digested rapidly and hit the satiety centres sooner, so you are (in theory) going to be less driven to consume large quantities of the main courses/dessert when they arrive.

This is the principle behind slimming aids which provide a sugar hit to be taken before main meals. During the eighties there was a product that worked on this principle and did wonders for me. Unfortunately HIV came along and their marketing department failed to react - they were called "Ayds" (as in slimming aids but also homophonic with AIDS). Anyway they disappeared off the shelves, but they were basically sweets to be eaten before meals to kill your appetite.

So that's my (and others) theory on why it's a good idea to have a light, easily digestible starter to a meal and not just launch into the heavy stuff. Other advice based on the same underlying mechanisms are to eat slowly and chew food thoroughly to speed later digestion processes thus reducing the lag between sufficiency and satiety.

Why do we usually eat fruit before the main course at breakfast and after the main course at dinner.

Is there a digestion reason behind this or is it just tradition.

Many people, I suggest, would only have one course for breakfast due to time constraints. For the last year I have avoided all toast/cerealeggs/bacon etc apart from plain oats which I mix with a little cold soya milk and yoghurt ,which I make myself, mixed and topped with mango and/or papaya.

I find its filling and I would think quite healthy. Oats are supposed to lower your cholestrol which is a bonus. After this and a brewed coffee I feel almost human.

I remember reading some time ago that fruit takes 20 mins to digest in the stomach, and a well done steak takes over an hour, so you can imagine what happens in your stomach if you eat steak then fruit on top, complete turmoil,,

Same with breakfast,E&B then fruit,

I have Frosties,fresh papaya,banana, and currants in a cold milk for breakfast, it certainly kickstarts me for the day,

Cheers, Lickey.