Millions of Americans are plagued with heartburn, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, nausea, bowel difficulties and other digestive problems. Much more than inconvenient, these are telltale signs of poor digestion-result in in deficiency and toxicity. To eliminate these problems, follow a few simple guidelines, which will support healthy digestion. You can choose digestion habits that will bring nutrients into your cells and let wastes out of your body efficiently.
The basic steps for food combining that matters are:
Eat the right combinations of foods, because certain foods digest better together than others.
Chew your food well, to assist in the digestive process. Nutrients must be absorbed properly through your intestinal walls and transported throughout your body to all the cells that need them.
Wastes must excrete from the body.
Deficiency may occur if food is not properly digested and absorbed. Toxicity occurs when undigested food “sits” too long, either in the stomach or in the intestines, where it rots, ferments and putrefies, creating toxins.
Although eating a variety of foods is a great idea, we are not designed to digest them all at the same time. Learning which foods go well with each other is what “food combining” is all about. Our digestive system has adapted and evolved over thousands of years; until recently humankind did not eat the combinations of foods that are now “normal”. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors often ate one food at a time directly from the source. They had no way to preserve or store them.
When we are young, our digestive systems are working at peak performance and indulging in digestive indiscretions may be possible. As we age, digestive capacity diminishes. Forcing the body to digest incompatible foods which results in improperly digested food that produces dangerous toxins.
Proteins digest in an acid environment, but starches digest in an alkaline environment. You cannot create both at the same time. Fruit has special digestive requirements and should be eaten alone.
Food combinations that work well together and those that do not, consider a few simple food categories: proteins, starches, vegetables, and fruits (sweet, acid and melons).
Vegetables with proteins, okay.
Vegetables with starches, okay
Eat fruit alone.
Not certain which food fall into which categories? Here are examples.
Protein: Eggs, meat, fish, fowl, nuts, seeds, avocado, sprouts, milk products.
Starch: Corn, wheat, barley, rice, buckwheat, millet, oats, beans, potatoes, yams, squash, flour products, sugar
Vegetables: Asparagus, tomatoes, okra, green beans, green peas, broccoli, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, celery, cucumber, beets, eggplant, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, radish, artichoke, beets, carrots, cauliflower, chives, ginger, garlic, leeks, onions
Sweet fruits: Bananas, currants, figs, dates, raisins, prunes, dried fruits, grapes
Acid fruits: Lemons, oranges, grapefruits, other citrus fruits, kiwi, plum, pineapple, mango, papaya, all berries, nectarines, apples, cherries, pears, apricots, peaches.
Melons : Cantaloupe, watermelon
Many of our traditional meals are comprised of wrong combinations. What we think of as a “good meal” are typically a harmful combination of starch and protein. We make the problem worse by accompanying meals with sugary drinks and desserts; these combinations cause the food to ferment and putrefy in the digestive system.
So remember HOW FOOD COMBINING MATTERS!
