I’m a really big fan of balanced meals, you know, a fruit, a veggie, some protien, and carbs. Apparently I might have it all wrong. Have you ever heard of food combining?
Growing up my mom would mention it from time to time. “Oh no I can’t have that, I’m combining.” She swears by it.
I’m a pretty darn healthy eater, but summer is rapidly approaching and I’m getting a little nervous about it. So at my mother’s recommendation, I’m going to give this combining business a try, but first I need to figure out what the heck it actually means.
The basic idea is that by eating certain combinations of foods, and certain foods entirely on their own, your body will digest them optimally, keeping your the ph in your body properly alligned and therefore promoting weight loss. Sounds good. It also sounds complicated. Here is the basic gist.
The Nine Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining:
1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion.
2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion.
3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal.
4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial decomposition and produces some potent poisons.
5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion.
6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals.
7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach.
8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food.
9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids.
It seems a little extreme as a lifestyle (I’m not really sure I could live the rest of my life without peanut butter and banana sandwiches) but it I think I could handle it for a week. I’m not above doing some weird stuff to lose a few pounds, as long as it’s healthy, so if I have to eat cottage cheese and canteloupes separately for a little while, why the heck not?
Have you ever heard of/tried food combining? How did it go for you?
I have not tried it but it runs counter to the advice i’ve gotten wich is that if you are going to eat a starch, say a baked sweet potato, have it with some fat in order to blunt the insulin spike. If you think about it from an evlutionary perspective though would you likley have dug up a tuber and killed a gazelle at the same time? Then again many nutrients are much more available to the body when combined with fat, like carrots cooked with butter. The beta-carotine and vit-a are better absorbed in the presense of fat.