Food Combining 101
Basically are 5 types of food: 1. Starches, 2. Proteins, 3. fat-proteins, 4. non-starchy vegetables, 5. fresh fruits. Starches require the body to produce alkaline solution to digest them, which happens in the saliva and stomach. Proteins are digested by acid, which is produced primarily in the stomach. All of us chem wizards ( haha, yeah right....) know that when acids and alkali are combined, they neutralize, leaving food in the stomach to sit for hours, until the body passes it through undigested. When this happens, all sorts of problems are caused, including heartburn. Nutrients cannot be absorbed and utilized by the body; the digestive system gets clogged up and cannot clean itself out properly, contributing to toxemia, the amount of toxins trapped in the body that cause virtually all health problems and aging. Therefore, starches and proteins should never be mixed in the stomach. It takes a minimum of 2-3 hours for these types of foods to be digested and leave the stomach. Unfortunately, popular belief has most people thinking that they need to have "balanced meals" with all the the different food groups, which couldn't be farther from the truth. Naturally we need all of the different food groups for the different types of nutrients they provide, but eating them together simply defeats the whole purpose because the nutrients won't even be assimilated. As i understand, tofu is one protein that can be eaten with starches, as it is alkaline in nature, and i have never had a problem doing so. Fats and fat-proteins (nuts, seeds, mature coconuts) should never be eaten with proteins. Pure fats (oils, avocados, young coconuts) can be eaten with starches, but fat-proteins cannot. Non-starchy vegetables (includes raw corn, but excludes cooked corn) may be eaten with any of the first three groups. Fat-proteins digest particularly well with raw veggies as opposed to cooked, however. Now fruits...fruits be cooked as the simple sugars will break down and end up fermenting in your stomach. Not to be gross, but as an example, if you've ever thrown up fruit, you've noticed that it's very sour (fermented/spoiled) and is definitely not the same fruit you swallowed. Fresh fruit should also always be eaten ALONE. It only takes about 30 minutes to pass through the stomach as it is already in a predigested state (about 20 min for melon and 45 for bananas, if you wanna be picky), and if eaten with any other types of food, it will get held up in the stomach and rot. One book i've read stated that dried fruits take longer to digest because they are devoid of their natural juices, and are therefore ok to eat with fat-proteins. The same book also stated that it was ok to eat bananas with starches and fats such as avocado because it takes longer in the stomach than other fruits. A little confusing at first, i know, but it quickly becomes second nature if you really give it a chance :D. It is just as important to only eat when you are hungry and your stomach is empty as it is to properly combined meals, of course. And....if i realize that i've left out any major points, ill post em. Any questions? ;)
so a peanut butter sandwich is ok, right? but it's not good to eat a pear after my breakfast cereal?
Rachlove2, ive read that peanuts shouldn't be eaten at all since theyre extremely mucus -forming, but i'm niether here nor there as they've never caused me a problem. Since they're a fat-protein though, they really shouldn't be eaten with bread. If it's one of your favorites though, i'd try following all the rules and going without it for a little while to clear out your system, then have one and see how it makes you feel. If it doesn't bother you it's fine. The problem is that most people are so used to eating wrong that they dont take any notice to how their bodies are reacting to what they eat. Try eating your pear first, go finish getting ready or something for about half an hour, then come back and finish your breakfaxt, like an appetizer ;D
Lindsayloo, that's fascinating stuff! it's new to me, so what books can i check into to learn more? thanks for bringing it up! :)
:o Wow... This is awesome. Thanks so much!
Edit: Sorry, but I'm a bit confused at this part... should there be a "shouldn't?" (wow, that sounds odd!)
Now fruits...fruits be cooked as the simple sugars will break down and end up fermenting in your stomach.
Oops, Silentcricket, you're right, that should be "fruits should never be cooked..." Firefightress, the book that introduced me to the issue is Fit For Life II by Harvey Diamond and Marilyn Diamond, and i'd definately recommend it; the whole book is great. Another is The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.
thank you, i just ordered them (along with "Raw Food/ Real World") and am looking forward to learning more and trying it out!
Hi LindsayLoo: Thanks for the info on food combining. Without the intention to offend, I must admit that I am a little skeptical of the theories put forward by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. Mr. Diamond received his education from an unaccredited correspondence course, and from what I've read/heard, offers little in the way of medical and scientific evidence to support his theories. While I do not have complete and unshakable faith in mainstream medicine (I am currently applying for acceptance into a Doctor of Naturopathy degree program), I understand its place in the world, and credit it where credit is sometimes due. I worry about the popularity of diets such as these because of the amount of weight people lose in such a small space of time. Harvey himself claims to have lost 50 lbs in a month, which is extremely unnatural, unhealthy and dangerous. I was particularly concerned after reading the following article: http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/fitforlife.html. I've quoted two especially worrisome points:
"...according to an analysis by Katherine Mulgrave, a nutrition professor at the University of Maine, the Fit for Life diet is low in calcium, zinc, iron, and vitamins B12 and D."
(Shelton was a promoter of Natural Hygiene, the origin of food combining)
"On September 21, 1982, the Los Angeles Daily Journal reported that a federal court jury had awarded $873,000 to the survivors of William Carlton, a Los Altos man who died after being on a diet of distilled water for 30 days at Shelton's Health School. According to the article, Carlton had died of bronchial pneumonia resulting from a weakened condition that also caused him to lose 50 pounds during his last month of life. The article also stated that he had been the sixth person in five years to die while undergoing treatment at the school, which closed in 1981."
I'd like to look further into this, as I have little time right now to actually critique the Diamonds' theories myself. I understand that some of what they say is valid, but that much of it is suspect and should be viewed from a critical perspective. I am an advocate of choosing a path that fits---that is right for the right person. If an idea or regime truly improves one's health I think it is important not to discount it, and I am open to hearing more in favour of 'food combining'. I'll offer a little more of what I think about all this as soon as time permits... I am in the process of creating my own wellness system and have much to say about natural 'medicine'.
idioglossia--I was wondering about some of this--thanks for checking the credentials
yes, thank you Idioglossia for the information. i did read some excerpts and reviews on the Diamond's book and having noticed that weight loss was mentioned as one of the outcomes attributed to the diet, i did make a mental note of that since I do do not want to lose weight (in fact I want to gain weight since I'm interested in gaining muscle mass whenever possible). in my line of work i really have to make sure i don't jeopardize my physical health, strength, or endurance-- even more so now that my "diet" is scrutinized! ::) i was still curious enough about it to check out the book and read it before I make a decision, though (and the book was only $8, so i figured "what the heck!").
i'm glad you pointed those things out. it's always best to get all the facts and all the sides before making any decision, especially ones that can have such a huge impact as on our health!
thanks for helping keep us informed!!
No offense taken, Idioglossia, you have some good points. As Nietzsche said, “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” I think that the theory of food combining is being misinterpreted as a weight loss diet- it is not, it's a way of eating that is meant to restore health to the body naturally. People who follow this regimen are supposed to lose weight only if they need to lose weight. I think it gets confused with other diets that are meant for weight loss that go by similar names. My comments are not on Harvey's entire program, but simply on food combining. For instance, you meantioned a man who died while fasting. He died because he was not going about his fasting the proper way, not because he was in a hospital that is completely ignorant. I must note here that thousands of people die in tradtional hospitals, but that's not what this is about. By no means am i advocating trust in Harvey. There are so many people out there who think or pretend to know what they're talking about that it's impossible to try out all of their theories. So who do you trust? You trust yourself. Live by your own experience. Food combining just made sense to me so i gave it a try, and low and behold, i've never felt better. Surely there are few, if any, people on this site who will ever return to eating meat. We know we're in the right by experience. With my personal experience behind me, i highly recommend that anybody who cares about their health give food combining a try.
Lindsayloo,
You said any questions? So yes, I have a question. You stated this above:
After I get back in the morning from a run/hike (whatever), I love to have a banana with peanut butter. It's usually what I have for breakfast most mornings. Since I just have a musician's pea-sized brain (the part controls my musical ability must have taken away from all other parts of my brain and sucked all the remaining cells out) and this topic is going way over my head, is that acceptable? Or will I drop dead, or into a diabetic coma if I continue this habit?
I'm vegan because of animal rights issues, and I just enjoy the health benefits I get from the dietary choice/lifestyle I have made for myself. I do eat organic because I'm not really into ingesting pesticides, and I care immensely about their effects on the environment (as well as on me). Just being at the airport yesterday morning, and not bringing any food with me, I bought a banana and an apple and trust me, I could taste the pesticides. I felt sick afterwards (but that also might have due to lack of sleep).
Thanks to both you and idioglossia , for educating us on this topic!
Hey Davedrum, i've been thinking about it and i'm really not sure how to answer your question since i've read differing opinions on bananas. Since dried fruit can be eaten with nuts and seeds by most people, i assume that the sugar content is not the issue, but rather the length of time required for digestion, and since bananas take longer to digest than other fruits, i would assume it's ok to also eat bananas with nuts and seeds. Concidering you eat this all the time, i assume you don't have problems with it. That said, i think it's an issue of having finer tuned senses to detect bad food combinations, similar to your incident with pesticides. I'd bet that anybody not used to eating organic would never notice the same pesticides in their apple. I agree that bananas with peanut butter is really yummy though... ::)
This style of food combining strikes me as rather odd. Humankind as a whole rarely makes a habitual effort to eat this way. (Not that this is a bad or unusual thing; humankind as a whole doesn't eat like US either. :P) But it would seem to me, that if this were the paramount, most effective way for us to ingest our food, far more people would have constant digestive trouble. I have to give my digestive system a little more credit than that I think; (in my own opinion, I'd have to give my Designer a little more credit than that, but I know that's hardly a shared view. So... :-X) that for in order for it to achieve it's highest level of functionality, I must carefully layer my meals in certain orders, so that it won't produce enzymes that will entirely void many of the nutrients I might be ingesting? I can't fathom it.
Don't get me wrong, some of the ideas seem pretty valid. I'll agree, fruits should definitely be consumed raw; 80% of vegetables are probably the most beneficial that way as well. (I say 80%, because it's been shown that LIGHTLY steaming certain vegetables, like carrots and spinach, actually improve their ingestibility and the availability of their nutrients.) But, if I were to decided that I'd like to eat some Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) for a snack, then I would be consuming a fatty protein, correct? However, Pepitas are an absolutely FANTASTIC source of iron; 1/4 of them provides 20% of your daily iron intake. However, this iron is only chemically available to your body if eaten with a good source of Vitamin C. Essentially, if I were to follow this food combining theory, then I wouldn't want to grab an orange or some strawberries to snack on along with my Pepitas, because I wouldn't want to eat them with a fatty-protein. I just can't wrap my head around. :-\
Again, just my rambling. I apologize if I seem like an old-fashioned foagie or something; I just can't imagine that my 95-something year old great grandmother would have flourished even further had she abandoned her habit of eating homecooked, nutritionally-balanced meals.
LindsayLoo --which is it? The first and last, or the middle?
Thanks for generously sharing so much food for thought, LindsayLoo. You did a wonderful job clearly and compellingly presenting a LOT of data-- quite the labor of love!
I guess I'm sort of nebulously skeptical of a pure chemical interpretation of what seems to me to be biological processes (with more going on than pure chemistry), but I am fascinated nonetheless. I know you're just presenting the material to us and that your views aren't on trial-- even though you're doing a great job defending/discussing the issues we bring up-- but I have a couple questions/doubts I'd love to throw by you, if you don't mind.
I guess one of my concerns is that everyone's body reacts differently (consider those of us with chronic illnesses, such as lupus and porphyria, for whom maintaining a specially restricted diet is necessary), and most of us have changing reactions as we get older (when I was a kid, I didn't have ANY problems with heartburn from fat or sweets... now I do). I'm not sure this is as simple as acids and bases and fermentation; the organism seems too complicated in its reception of certain nutrients. Um, there's not really a question, just a niggling doubt that food combining can properly deal with these things... unless it's real rule-breaking stuff like "eat rice with everything" (it helps my husband, really!)
Another concern is that we would, in the wild (hunting/gathering or being great apes), eat a variety of things every day and sometimes together, and we would eat fermented fruit that we found as well as fresh. I hesitate to believe in a "natural" diet that involves a lot of scheduling. I realize that this concern can be dismissed as easily as "yes, it's natural to fling poop, too, but we're civilized, Duckalucky" but I am hoping for something more. :)
The biggie might be that I have heard over and over that it's okay not to get every single nutrient you need in a day's diet in one meal; just get them all during the day sometime. If you're food combining, how much time do you need between "courses?" How does the alteration of nutrient reception change nutritional requirements and balance between synergistic vitamins and minerals?
Again, thanks for a fascinating and informative topic, well presented. I'm enjoying the discussion, too.
Eek! Forgot one! Also, is it okay to take vitamin supplements and how are they to be scheduled, if you follow this kind of regimen?
yes, it's natural to fling poop, too, but we're civilized, Duckalucky
;D
;D
;D
;D
I have to admit I am a little confused by your theory. I'm not sure where to start. I might just suggest that
you read the first couple chapters of:
The Nutrition Desk Reference by Robert H. Garrison, Jr and Elizabeth
Somer. Published by Keats Publishing, New Canaan Connecticut.
ISBN 0-87983-488-9
( I hope I don't sound to much like a grown up :-) )
Duckalucky: this one (and some of your other qs) you should probably ask a dietitian. not for the internet ;)
Eek! Forgot one! Also, is it okay to take vitamin supplements and how are they to be scheduled, if you follow this kind of regimen?