Food combining has to do with eating certain foods together so as to optimize the digestive process. Eating a large variety of foods at one sitting forces the digestive system to try to accommodate for the different types of nutrients. As a result certain foods don't get digested well, experience fermentation and can cause discomfort or even ailments.
For instance, it is unwise to eat heavy proteins (acidic) and heavy carbohydrates (alkaline) together. Beans are an interesting example, since many people experience great discomfort after eating them. Beans are about 25% protein and 50% carbohydrate, providing an awkward combination for the digestive system since the conditions required for digestion of acidic nutrients are quite different from those of alkaline substances. While it is possible to 'help out' with digestive enzymes, it is best to minimize consumption of foods and food combinations that are difficult.
Enumerated below are the foods which should and should not be eaten together.
The topic of Food combining is not that complicated, though sometimes there are differing opinions found in books and articles. The bottom line is, use these principles as a guide, be aware of food characteristics and experiment with your own food choices to see what works for you.
Miscellaneous notes
tomatoes eat with green and non-starchy vegetables and protein
avocadoes best with salad
melons eat alone
Food-combining is a new science; it is the result of modern civilization and of the food-industry that developed concomitantly with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. If we were living off the land -- as the human race has done throughout most of its history -- this science would not exist today.
Food-Combining Principles
The principles of food-combining include the following:
1. Foods are chemicals. Our bodies are similar to test tubes in a chemistry-laboratory. As in other chemical-experiments, so in our bodies, depending upon the combination of elements, reactions ranging from sedative to explosive can be created. And, the more ingredients there are in a man-made supermarket-product, the greater the chance of a digestive explosion.
2. We digest food at various rates in various acid/alkaline environments, like automobiles that have varying levels of acceleration and speed. If you put a slow vehicle in front of a faster one on a one-lane road, the faster one must proceed more slowly in order to prevent an accident. With food in the digestive system, the faster food crashes into the slow food and causes an accident in the forms of indigestion, bloating, and poor assimilation. These accidents happen especially when you eat such foods during any one given meal.
The Basic Food-Combining Groups
The previously mentioned two observations logically-lead to the development of the following basic food- combining groups. Following each group is a list of the best examples of raw foods in each group:
1. Proteins - (average digestion-time: 4 hours):
Seeds: Pumpkin, sesame, sunflower.
Nuts: Almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, pine nuts, walnuts
(no peanuts or cashews).
2. Starches - (average digestion-time: 3 hours):
Sprouted grains: Amaranth, barley, millet, quinoa, rye, teff.
Sprouted legumes: Chickpeas, lentils, peas.
Winter squashes: Acorn, hubbard, kabocha, spaghetti.
Sweet potatoes & yams
3. Vegetables - (average digestion-time: 2 'A hours):
Sprouted greens: Alfalfa, arugula, buckwhet mustard, radish.
Fruit vegetables: Cucumber, red bell-pepper, summer squash,
zucchini.
Leafy greens: Arugula, asparagus, broccoli, bok choy,
cabbage, cauliflower, celery,chard, collard
greens, fresh corn, kale, lettuce, mizuna,
mustard greens, scallions, spinach, watercress.
Low-starch root vegetables: Beets, burdock, carrots,
parsnips, radishes, turnips.
4. Fruits:average digestion time: 2 hours
for melons 15-30 minutes
Acid: Grapefruits, lemons, oranges, pomegranates,
strawberries.
Sub-acid: Apples, apricots, most berrie, grapes,kiwis, mango,
pears, peaches.
Sweet: Bananas, all dried fruit, persimmons.
Melons: Canary, cantaloupe, crenshaw, honeydew, Persian,
Santa Claus, watermelon.
Two Excellent Mono-Diet Foods
When eaten alone, the following two vine-ripened fruits provide great benefits:
• Vine-ripened tomatoes cleanse the liver of deposited fats.
• Vine-ripened strawberries cleanse muscle and fat cells of waste-
material.
Three Examples of Daily Food-Combining Mismatches
• "Healthy" granola usually contains rolled oats (starch), nuts (protein), and honey and dried fruits (sweet fruit) in a disastrous-albeit-tasty combination. The combination of protein and starch creates various gasses, including sulfur. The combination of starch and sweet fruit creates fermentation and alcohol.
• There are 28 ingredients in the "average" store-bought cake-mix.
• The conventional "holiday-meal" in North America includes more than 100 ingredients in
various combinations!
