When to eat Watermelon

Hi Laurie, I'm a 24 year old male. I've read all about the advantages of watermelon. However due to short lunch hour I'm unable to keep a gap between watermelon and main course.  I would like to know whether this reduces the health benefits of watermelon in anyway. Or would you suggest me a better way to squeeze watermelon as well main course in a short time. Thanks, Joseph B.

Hi Joseph,

I'm not sure where these ideas about the nutritional value of watermelon come from--there really isn't anything magical about this particular fruit--as a matter of fact, it is one fruit that is not a very good concentrated source of anything but water!

The idea of not eating anything else with fruit comes from an email circulating that was based on recommendations back in the early 1900's: A physician saw frequent cases of food poisoning because adequate refrigeration was uncommon so it was difficult to keep food cold and fresh. He noted that lots of times people would blame their nausea and diarrhea on the fruit they ate, but that in fact it was probably due to spoilage from some other food they ate, such as meat or fish. He recommended people eat fruit alone (not with a meal containing meat) so if they became sick with food poisoning at another time of day, the fruit wasn't wasted as well. If fruit was eaten alone there was little chance they would get sick (foodborne illness rarely comes from fruit).

Other than that recommendation (which doesn't apply nowadays) there's no scientific reason to eat fruit alone, and no reason not to vary your fruits from day to day to get a nice mix of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to keep yourself healthy!