Foods Combination for Optimal Health  

Different types of foods digest at different rates and with different enzymes. Some foods digest better in an acidic environment, while others digest better in an alkaline environment.

When you eat several foods that digest at different rates, call for different enzymes or need different pH levels, your digestion gets out of whack and things begin to rot and ferment in your body. This “sludge” turns into stored toxins. When your body can’t digest food properly, it misses out on being able to absorb the nutrients in food, leaving you with low energy, breakouts and poor sleep. It’s an all around bad deal.

All food combining guidelines take into account the speed at which food digests. Fruit digests the quickest, then greens, then non-starchy vegetables, then starches and finally, digesting the slowest is protein. Eating foods in the correct order (according to their transit times) ensures a traffic jam-free (and toxin-free) digestive tract.

When you get the combining right, your body gets to use the nutrients in the food. This leaves you with more energy, which inevitably equals more beauty.

Here are the food combining basics:

• Starches + Veggies = OK
• Proteins + Veggies = OK
• Proteins + Starches = No No
• Plant Proteins + Plant Proteins = OK
• Animal Proteins + Animal Proteins = No No
• Starches + Starches = OK
• Fats + Proteins (animal or plant) = No No (or pair moderately)
• Fats + Carbohydrates = OK
• Fats + Starches = OK
• Fruits are best eaten on an empty stomach
• Fruit + Raw greens = OK (except melons)

 

Bottom Line:

• Improper food combining is one of the primary factors that cause gas, flatulence, heartburn, and upset stomach. What’s worse, the resulting poor digestion can also contribute to malnutrition, even if you think you’re eating a decent diet
• Disease is just as much a matter of eliminating toxins as it is about eating proper foods. Elimination, however, is dependent on a healthy digestive system
• Food combination takes into account the area and complexity of digestion of each food, to ensure it goes through your entire digestive system with ease
• One of the most important factors when it comes to healthful eating is to make sure you’re eating foods, native to your local area, that are in season
• The two foremost rules of food combining are: 1) No proteins and starches at the same meal, and 2) No fruits and vegetables at the same meal                                                                           

 Why Food Combining Matters

If the food you eat is not digesting properly, not only can painful gas, heart burn, acid reflux and other stomach problems arise, but your body will also be deprived of critical nutrients.
The short definition of digestion is: you put food or liquid into your mouth, swallow it, and then your body breaks these molecules down into a size it can absorb. What your body doesn't use is excreted as waste. These are the four processes listed above—digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination. But food is actually broken down in a number of different areas, including in your mouth, stomach, and the first and middle sections of your small intestine, called the duodenum and jejunum respectively. Furthermore, you have two kinds of digestion:

1. Mechanical (chewing and churning) digestion
2. Chemical digestion

Food combination takes into account the area and complexity of digestion of each food, to ensure it goes through your entire digestive system with ease. Dr. Wayne Pickering explains:

“There’s only one food that chemically breaks down in the stomach and that’s protein. Proteins require pepsin, a very highly acidic [enzyme] in conjunction with hydrochloric acid. But the hydrochloric acid doesn’t have the ability to break the food down. It just sets the medium for the concentration of the amount of pepsin that’s poured into the stomach to digest whatever food that’s in there. The intelligence of this human body is phenomenal.”

There are 3 primary categories of food: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins, again, begin their digestion chemically in your stomach. Carbohydrates are divided into two categories: fruits and starches. While fruits pass through your digestive system with relative ease, starches require three levels of breakdown; the very first stage is in your mouth. That’s why it’s crucial to carefully chew starchy foods.
According to the rules of food combination, you do not want to mix proteins and starches in the same meal. This means, no bun with your hamburger, no meatballs if you have pasta, no potatoes with your meat... Why is that? Dr. Pickering explains:

“Starches require an alkaline digestive medium to digest. If you put your fist in your stomach while it’s digesting steaks and all that, chances are, you wouldn’t have a hand anymore. The acid is intense... When you mix them both together – an acid-type of food and an alkaline – basic chemistry shows that they don’t digest. They neutralize. Then what happens? If the food is not digesting... it’s going through your body [undigested], throwing it into all kinds of turmoil.”

The Three Commandments of Food Combination

There are 3 basic commandments of eating and it's recommended not to deviate from them:

1. No proteins and starches at the same meal, as they neutralize each other and prevent proper digestion of either food. To ensure proper digestion of each food, wait two hours after eating a starch before eating protein. And wait three hours after eating protein before eating a starch.
2. No fruits and vegetables at the same meal. Fruits are either a single or double sugar, whereas the starches are a triple sugar. Fruits mechanically break down in your stomach, but chemically, they don’t break down until they reach the third and fourth stage of your digestive system, which are in your small intestine. Starches, again, are broken down in three different stages, starting in your mouth.
According to Dr. Pickering, this is also why it’s crucial to not eat dessert after a meal. When you do, it gets trapped in your stomach with all that other food, where it starts to rot as it’s not being chemically digested there. Therefore, eat fruit 30-60 minutes before dinner. The same applies if you want to eat another piece of fruit. Acidic fruits, such as lemons for example, also do not combine well with starches. Lemon and banana is but one example of a combination that is sure to lead to gastrointestinal upset...
Many people consider tomatoes a fruit, yet it’s commonly added to salad. Dr. Pickering classifies tomatoes as a “fruit-vegetable,” because even though they don’t have the sugar like most fruits, they’re still an acidic fruit-vegetable. As such they’re okay to combine with other vegetables. He suggests the following recipe for an excellent salad:


“Any kind of vegetable that has seed in it; for example summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, and okra—those are all fruit-vegetables. Your tomatoes go well with those. And since lettuce and celery have a neutral effect, as far as the breakdown of food, the celery and the lettuce combine very well with all of that. You can also add avocados.”

3. “Eat melon alone, or leave it alone, or your stomach will moan.” In short, melons do not digest well with other foods and will frequently cause problems unless consumed by itself.

The When and What of Eating

According to Dr. Wayne Pickering, the amount and sequencing of the foods you eat can also make a difference. He recommends the following eating schedule:

• Morning meal: The least concentrated foods, in the greatest amount. Ideal food choice: fruits
• Middle of the day: More complex foods, but in a smaller amount than your first meal. Ideal food choice: starchy carbs
• Evening: The most concentrated foods, but in the least abundant amount. Ideal food choice: protein

 Source: www.mercola.com  ,  www.thechalkboardmag.com