Is there anything wrong with mixing fruits and cereals?

November 4, 2007 3:13 PM

Is there any benefit to not mixing fruit and cereals? My sister-in-law is seeing an iridologist, who claims this is a no-no. Has anyone heard this from a credible source?

My sister-in-law has taken up yoga and become a vegetarian. We're all proud and happy for her, and she seems to be feeling great. Recently her yoga teacher has been giving her advice based on his training as an iridologist. She has asked me if there is any science to this. She very obviously revers this yogi-iridologist, but she did ask for medical advice.

Can anyone help me find an critical evidence to support his claim that it is important not to consumer cereals and fruit together?

My bias: There is a lot to be said for complimentary therapies. But I don't like faith based medicine. I think it's important to respect my sister-in law's decisions and autonomy. So I'd also appreciate suggestions about how I could engage her rather than lecture her. Technically she asked me for information, but she's obviously feeling defensive.

posted by gesamtkunstwerk to health (21 comments total)

Iridology is quackery.

But no harm will come to your sister by not consuming grain and fruit in the same meal. As long as the quack doesn't start draining lots of money from your sister, and as long as she's happy, I don't see any reason to interfere.

I think you should duck the question.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:21 PM on November 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

While I can see the possible science behind the idea that changes in your eye color, eye tissue, etc... could be a sign of a specific illness (just like a change in skin colors can indicate such things) I feel Iridology is a bit "out there"

I've gone to several nutritional meetings while I was working as a personal assistant for a pretty wealthy business man and while it was my job to help shape his diet he was always directed TO add fruit to his cereal and or oatmeal / grits etc... as a way of improving his health, not destroying it.

YMMV

(P.S it might be good to dodge the question, but then, when is the "right" thing easy?)
posted by crewshell at 3:30 PM on November 4, 2007

Can she ask her teacher why? The only thing I can think of is some sort of glycemic index thing, where the teacher thinks that the combination would cause a person to absorb the various sugars faster. If you could get the teacher's reasons why the combination is bad, you could Google those notions and get some sort of answer.

As an aside, I think she should ask her teacher why so she can do some research on her own, including talking to you, so that she doesn't blindly follow every bit of advice from her teacher.
posted by JulianDay at 3:32 PM on November 4, 2007

No, and it's more than the sum of the parts to mix fruit and cereal. Vitamin C (in many kinds fruit) boosts iron absorption, and cereal will be a rather large source of iron in a vegetarian/vegan diet.
posted by tmcw at 3:40 PM on November 4, 2007

My recommendation is to give up trying to change her beliefs and just smile and nod when she's talking. At this point what she is telling you is more of a religious belief on her part than a rational conclusion that can be changed with a rational argument.

My sister believes in some kooky stuff like this and I've just given up trying to change her mind on it in order to maintain a good relationship.
posted by 517 at 3:58 PM on November 4, 2007

I am not a nutritionist, but I was under the impression that fruit takes a helluva lot longer to digest than starches. Maybe that has something to do with why she's saying to not eat them together.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:05 PM on November 4, 2007

She has asked me if there is any science to this.

That part of your question can be handled easily. The wikipedia page says this more succinctly than I was going to:

It has been pointed out that the premise of iridology is at odds with the notion that the iris does not undergo changes in an individual's life. Iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth. There is no evidence for changes in the iris pattern other than variations in pigmentation in the first year of life, eventual freckles and variations caused by glaucoma treatment. This stability of iris structures is at the foundation of iris recognition for identification purposes.

Much like fingerprints, your iris does not change through your life. It is not possible, then, to learn anything new from your iris a year from now than you could learn today.
posted by odinsdream at 4:15 PM on November 4, 2007

I'm a medical librarian, and people who hear "all the research points towards XYand Z" come to me for validation. Generally, I find that phrase susepct. Anyway, I found no such literature, but I thought I would ask.

I probably will just smile and say "try it for a month", but I worry about the precident since, yes, he's taking her money.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 4:18 PM on November 4, 2007

Your SIL's guru is probably into food combining in either its Western or Ayurvedic manifestation. I've noticed that people who go for one fruit loop idea will soon being looking into more fruit loop ideas, so I'm afraid you should toughen up and prepare for this to be the first of many forays into the fruit loop world.

There's no evidence that food combining is hurtful or beneficial, but it's certainly a dietary tic that can drive other people nuts trying to accomodate you.

If it was my family, I'd be saying something like: "To be honest, I think it's a load of cobblers. But I don't see how any harm can come from it, so if it makes you feel better, don't let me stop you."
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:18 PM on November 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Every time we nod and smile while someone listens to a quack, it's enabling pseudoscientific bullshit to gain another foothold in our society.

The key passage from that wikipedia article:
In controlled experiments [5], practitioners of iridology have performed statistically no better than chance in determining the presence of a disease or condition solely through observation of the iris.

In fact, we know that the iris is static, because iris-recognition is used just like retinal scanning or fingerprinting. If the iris was constantly changing, none of this technology would work.

Now, is non-mixing-of-foods going to harm your sister? Probably not, but it's only a small step from iridology to harmful colon-cleansing routines, or blowing money on palm readings, for that matter. It opens the door to belief in all kinds of other new-age 'alternative' medicine. Would you support her if she chose to forgoe radiation therapy for herbal-infused tea? I sincerely hope the answer is no. The same logic applies here.
posted by chrisamiller at 4:23 PM on November 4, 2007

I'd suggest your SIL should press the iridologist for the rationale behind this idea. If it sounds like bafflegab it probably is.

(Then again, if she really reveres this person, she probably doesn't want to confront the possibility that they're a quack and won't appreciate your going all iconoclastic on her. You have to decide on the appropriate balance between rationality and maintaining harmony - the hive mind can't really help with that part.)
posted by Quietgal at 4:25 PM on November 4, 2007

Can anyone help me find an critical evidence to support his claim that it is important not to consumer cereals and fruit together?

No, they can't. No such evidence exists. This is quackery.

Respect your sister's beliefs but make sure she doesn't start listening to this guy for actual medical advice. I had a friend with two young children who died because she trusted people into this sort of crap.
posted by Justinian at 4:46 PM on November 4, 2007

Possible ideas about why fruit/cereal is not the ideal breakfast - that's a significant amount of carbs to be consuming in one meal, especially if that's all you're eating and its at the beginning of the day. Not sure what they are suggesting to eat instead, but if its either grain OR fruit with some kind of protein and a small amount of healthy fats, that would make sense to me.

As long as all she's doing is listening and considering advice, she'll be fine.
posted by DecemberRaine at 4:50 PM on November 4, 2007

Yoga is a great way of finding out how each individual's body works, and a great way of learning how to listen to your own body and to do the things that make you, personally, feel your best.

It should, with a good teacher, be a fundamentally experimental thing. Try things one way, try them another way, see which one works best for your body, and do that. Your body may need modifications for a certain pose in order to get the benefits of that pose, for instance, even though other people don't need those modifications.

Her yoga teacher should therefore really not have any problem with your sister-in-law approaching any of his teachings in this manner. If she finds the idea of not mixing cereals and fruits interesting, then she should try it for a few weeks and see how she feels. If she feels better, then she's found that this is something that works for her, and she can determine if the hassle of maintaining this habit (if any) is outweighed by the benefits she experiences.

And if she doesn't feel any change, or somehow feels worse, then she has found that her body doesn't work the same way that her yoga teacher's body works, so that's that.

There's no reason to throw out his advice without trying it (unless, of course, it seems actually harmful). Nor is there any reason to follow his advice blindly if, after trying it, it's not working for her. Any decent yoga teacher (or any teacher) should agree with that. (And if he balks, then she should seriously re-examine that relationship.)
posted by occhiblu at 4:52 PM on November 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Too many good answers to mark a best, but I've around to the idea of respectfully saying "there is no evidence to support such an idea (except for "beautiful Sanscrit texts!"), there's plenty of evidence to the contrary, please procede at your own risk, and if you want to eat at my house, meatless is as far as I'm going."

Damn, Justinian. Sorry about your friend. I have to admit that I'm afraid of setting a tolerant precident precisely because people do hurt themselves, and every so often a baby does starve to death living on soy milk, etc.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 5:02 PM on November 4, 2007

Can anyone help me find an critical evidence to support his claim that it is important not to consumer cereals and fruit together?

There is none. I looked. It won't hurt you to not eat cereals and fruit together, but it will mark your sister-in-law and her quack con-artist yoga guy as brainless idiots.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:15 PM on November 4, 2007

See Müsli, health benefits of. Fruit and cereals is what you eat for breakfast to climb mountains.
posted by stereo at 7:03 PM on November 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

bread is a cereal, so the iridologist's advice should also preclude fruit jam spread on toasted, buttered sourdough. i've been eating this for longer than your sister-in-law has been alive, with no ill effects. if you can't spread strawberry jam on toast, what the hell else is it good for? the iridologist is a contemptible quack, and your sister-in-law is one of these new-age, woo-woo morons who make up the market for contemptible quacks. how you handle this at your dinner table is a social issue, not a medical issue; i'm disinclined to proselytize normal eating as long as the subject remains silent and doesn't try to lay this bs rap on me, if they don't have the good sense to do that, they deserve to hear whatever i have to say in response.
posted by bruce at 7:20 PM on November 4, 2007

Well, eating fruit and cereal together gives me gas. That's all I know about it.
posted by bricoleur at 7:51 PM on November 4, 2007

stereo, why would you be spelling muesli in its original Swiss german? Do you spell tofu 豆腐 ?

But as to the original question, while there is no evidence that combining these foods does bad things, there is plenty of evidence that we don't get enough unprocessed carbs or fruit. Most vegetarians look after their diets but I think anything that makes eating well more difficult is to be discouraged.

Also, I echo any comments about iridology and its corrosive effect on rational health treatment. Mumbo jumbo is conquering the world.
posted by wilful at 9:57 PM on November 4, 2007

stereo, why would you be spelling muesli in its original Swiss german? Do you spell tofu 豆腐 ?

Maybe because stereo lives in Europe, where that spelling is common? What a weird nitpick.

It makes less sense to me that your s-i-l's yogi is anti fruit with cereal than anti-processed cereal (unless by cereal you mean whole grains). Ultimately, I think where food and feeling well is concerned, occhiblu's advice makes sense, and should appeal to anyone with an interest in yoga.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:15 AM on November 5, 2007