Normal people may obsess over the titillating aspects of now-former CIA Director David Petraeus's extramarital affair, but I am more interested in his digestive health. While scanning coverage of this confusing train wreck of a sex scandal, this phrase in the Washington Post got my attention: Petraeus had "a standing order to ensure he had fresh, sliced pineapple on the road before he turned in for bed."
As I've written before, I am somewhat obsessed with digestive health, so I thought, why pineapple, why right before bed, every single night? It may be that General Petraeus uses this juicy tropical fruit as a digestion aid. Pineapple is packed with bromelain, a natural food enzyme that breaks down protein and is said to help with digestion.
Many natural health and functional medicine experts say that as we age our bodies stop producing enough digestive enzymes to adequately break down food and absorb nutrients, and that the resulting poor digestive health is one of the main causes of disease. They often advocate supplementing with food enzymes such as bromelain.
Of course, it may be that Petraeus doesn't use pineapple as a digestion aid, instead gobbling it up nightly because of bromelain's purported abilities to reduce inflammation and help with tendonitis, bursitis and muscle injury—certainly his muscles could use some support after decades of military workouts.
Then, it could just be that he likes the taste of pineapple (what's not to like, if you can get somebody else to prep it for you?) and with multiple global conflicts to worry about, and multiple women to manage, it makes sense that he'd crave consistency in bedtime snacks!
More must-reads about digestive health:
