On my Picky List post I told you that if you eat an apple before a fatty or sugary meal it will help decrease the absorption of cholesterol and keep your insulin levels regulated. Would you like to know how?
It’s the fiber and pectin that play the greatest role. You see fiber is essential for proper digestion and absorption of foods. Unfortunately, many of us are not even coming close to having enough fiber intake in our diets to make our digestion efficient. (When I talk about fiber, I’m not talking about grain or wheat fiber either…more to come on that)
Pectin is a potent antioxidant and is also a soluble fiber (which means it is a fiber your body can break down). Fiber aids in digestion because it adds bulk to the digestive tract and slows the digestion process and it also helps carry undigested material out of your body.
The fiber from the apple prepares your colon for what is about to enter. In our example pizza which has very little “good fiber” in it and is full of dairy and fat which is hard to digest without “good fiber”.
To help you understand lets take a look at eating pizza without consuming an apple first. This is what happens:
1. Due to the pizza containing virtually no “good fiber” it is rapidly digested into mostly sugars from the crust. There is also no “good fiber” to bind the fats and carry them out of your body so you also absorb more of the fat.
2. Because the pizza is converted into mostly sugar your insulin rapidly rises to deal with all the sugar.
3. Over production of insulin will make / cause you to age faster because insulin is a mitogentic hormone (makes your cells replicate faster) so your aging process is sped up. That’s why most anti aging techniques focus on keeping your insulin levels low.
Low insulin levels= slower aging = younger looking you!
Now let’s look at eating pizza after consuming an apple first:
1. You supplied your colon (gut) with “good fiber” so it is ready for the onslaught which the pizza will shortly bring.
2. The pizza enters your gut and the “good fiber” from the apple binds to the fat and sugar from the grain in the crust (remember all grains become sugar when digested).
3. The “good fiber” from the apple keeps the insulin levels lower because the sugars are not absorbed into the body so quickly and many are eliminated out the other end…same thing happens with the fats. Less fats means less chances of raised cholesterol.
Aren’t you glad the apple is no longer the forbidden fruit?
I’d love to hear from you, if you have questions, email me at draaron@unitedwellness.net
Dr. Aaron
