Lot of people ask me if there is a right time to eat a fruit. Many look surprised when I tell them to eat a fruit as a snack at night post dinner if hungry. Some say don’t eat a fruit after 2pm or after 6pm. So when should one eat fruit and if hungry at night, should you still go pick a fruit? 🤔As per Ayurveda, you should avoid eating a fruit with a meal or immediately after a meal and avoid certain pairings with other foods. Fruit is best eaten on an empty stomach or at least 2 hours before a meal. There are several reasons for this from the digestive juices being released, fibre delays the movement of food, certain digestive juices which are released to metabolise fruits can affect other foods like milk etc if consumed together. However, if hungry late at night please have your fruit but not along with milk. Put a gap between the two. A warm glass of milk or haldi (turmeric) milk is as good for health as is a piece of fruit.Certain fruits can be combined with milk like dates, figs, mango but banana and milk should be avoided at night. Also, melon and milk should never be combined. Melon as a fruit should always be eaten alone and not paired with anything. Summers are coming so please remember to relish melons as a mid morning snack. Banana in fact as per Ayurveda aides digestion and can be eaten post meal while papaya is a good fruit to eat at night.
Fruits like mangoes and figs can be combined with yogurt but try and avoid combining citrus fruits with milk or yogurt. Digestive juices released to metabolise citrus fruits can curdle milk and also confuse the body. Some research has however shown that combining blueberries with yogurt actually help in better absorption of some nutrients.
Again, having said all of this, if once in a while you have a banana shake at night, you won’t die! 😄 Don’t use this as a blanket rule but adopt as much as possible in your daily routine for a good gut and overall health. So next time your tummy rumbles late at night, go eat an apple or a mango or just have a glass of warm milk with 2 dates. 😊