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Fruit and Fermentation
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A. "The answer is a definite no," said Dr. Mark Pochapin, director of the Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Fruit can be eaten at any time."
Nothing can rot in the stomach, Dr. Pochapin said. Rotting, or fermentation, means bacterial action on food resulting in decomposition. And because of the presence of hydrochloric acid, the stomach has very few bacteria.
"One of the main purposes of the stomach," he said, "is to sterilize food by mixing and churning it within the muscular, acid-containing stomach."
In the days before refrigeration and supermarkets, food spoiled easily, and stomach acid helped protect the body from food poisoning, he said.
"The place where fruit produces gas is in the colon, not the stomach," Dr. Pochapin said. The colon is loaded with bacteria and acts as the body's sewage system.
Food takes 6 to 10 hours to reach the colon, which explains why it does not really matter when fruit is eaten, Dr. Pochapin said. Fruit contains sugar and vitamins, which are absorbed in the small intestine, and complex fibers, which pass through the gastrointestinal tract without much digestion. When the fiber reaches the colon, the colonic bacteria feed on the fiber and produce gas as a byproduct, regardless of when and with what the fiber was ingested.
C. CLAIBORNE RAY
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