Food Combining and Meal Patterns
The following is an excerpt from Vegan Nutrition; Pure and Simple by Michael Klaper, M.D. soft bound ISBN: 0929274237 with permission from Gentle World.

Some people feel that the combinations in which foods are eaten are important for healthy digestion. Intricate schemes have been devised for "proper food combining," with many interpretations of what the digestive tract really needs for optimal function.

Every individual must determine what, if any, food combinations are best for them. These patterns may vary from person to person, and with each person as time passes, and their body's needs change. Some authors recommend avoiding the eating of protein-rich foods like beans with starchy foods like potatoes, recommending a bean/green salad combination instead - and eating the potatoes separately, at a later time. Others advocate eating only one food at each meal, and some, raw foods instead of cooked foods. Many in the "scientific establishment" declare that food combining is irrelevant, and that the human digestive system can handle most any food in any order presented to it. All of this means that each person must be a good observer and student of his or her body. If a certain combination of food leaves you bloated and uncomfortable, it is probably an unwise one for you.

Different Strokes

Each person must find the meal pattern that makes them feel the best. We should eat according to our body's needs, in response to actual hunger, rather than by the time of day, or our craving for taste sensations. As one becomes familiar with the many enjoyable tastes and textures of "natural" vegan cuisine, especially the desserts and treats, desires for "junk' and other seductive "non-foods" decrease and usually disappear altogether.

Children eating a balanced vegan diet grow up full size and strong. However, children are children, and adults are adults. Although they both have the same basic nutritional requirements, there are some important distinctions to be made, dictated by the simple differences in their appetites and size of their stomachs.

It is important that growing children nourished by vegan nutrition be assured of adequate supples of calories, proteins and vitamins. Their meals should accent foods with "high nutrient density', like nut butters, chick pea hummus, pastas, tofu, grain products, fruit spreads, etc., as opposed to "low nutrient density' foods with large proportions of water or non-digestible fiber, like celery and melons.

Fully grown adults, especially those with excessive body fat who need to lose weight, have a different situation. They should accent "low density" foods, like fruits and green vegetables, and avoid oily foods like tahini and nut butters.

For these adults, a frequently successful eating pattern for the day is "fruit-protein-salad." That is, make the morning meal a fruit bowl, or smoothie, with the "protein meal" enjoyed at midday. When these "heavier' foods, like potatoes, grains, breads, and pastas, are eaten in the middle of one's physically active day, hunger is usually assuaged until dinner. The evening meal can then again be light, with fruit or a green salad as the central theme.

Too many people consume a heavy meal at dinner, and then limp loggily to the TV room and then to bed. A walk after eating lunch or dinner is a great idea; It gently increases the abdominal blood flow and the movement of the intestines, both of which greatly aid in digestion.