The why of food combining...

Your digestive system may not look like a car wash, but it sure acts like one.    As your car goes through the car wash, a sequence of chemicals squirts out of different nozzles, aimed at cleaning various parts of your car.  Your digestive system does the same thing.

In the mouth, our saliva mixes with the food.  The enzymes in our saliva partially break down the starches before the enzymes in the stomach can break them down completely.

In the stomach, glands in the stomach lining secret acidic gastric juices to begin the breaking down of proteins.

As the food enters the duodenum, bile produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder digests the fats.   Enzymes secreted by the pancreas breakdown the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

The final stage of digestion takes place in the small intestine.  Additional enzymes combine with the bile and pancreatic juices to reduce the food to molecules which pass through the wall of the small intestine. Here, nutrients are carried by the blood stream to the liver for storage and distribution. Undigested food residues pass into the large intestine.

What does this matter?  When you eat proteins like poultry, fish, meat, and eggs, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid and the enzyme pepsin to break down the food in a highly acidic environment.  When you eat starches like potatoes or bread, your stomach secretes the enzyme ptyalin to create an alkaline condition.  Hence, when you eat starches and proteins together two categories of digestive juices (acidic and alkaline) are secreted and end up neutralizing each other.

But your body is a stubborn soul.  It then secretes more digestive juices, and more, and more.  Several hours later, the body is still working hard without much progress made in the actual digestion of the food as the digestive juices kept neutralizing each other.  Animal proteins, under normal circumstances, can take up to 24 hours to digest. But when you ingest them with starches, this time period may be doubled.  As a result, we begin to experience indigestion or heartburn (feeling of heaviness).   Eventually, the food--even those that are only partially digested or undigested--are “forced” out of the stomach by the peristaltic action of the intestines. 

Imagine this:  Much of the protein, after so many hours, has putrefied and turned completely rotten and toxic.  The carbohydrates have also fermented, since no digestion has really taken place, despite volumes of juices having been generated and precious vital energy used up for the attempts at digestion.  Because of this putrefaction and fermentation, gas pains flatulence, more heartburn and acid indigestion occur so very frequently.  This also creates a toxic environment that makes your blood more acidic and allows yeast, viruses, cancer cells and parasites to grow inside you. In essence, your inner ecosystem is damaged and you are more prone to illness.

Most of our every day comfort food is a deadly combination of starches and proteins:  hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas, even ethnic food like sushi, wonton noodles, etc.

This is why food combining is important.  But how do we combine food properly?  There are three simple guidelines.

1.     Eat fruits alone on an empty stomach

2.     Eat proteins (including animal protein and fats containing proteins such as nuts, seeds, dairy products) with non-starchy vegetables*

3.     Eat grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables** with non-starchy vegetables

*Non-starchy vegetables Include: Leafy greens, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, bok choy, cabbage, celery, lettuces, green beans, garlic, fennel, onions, chives, turnips, sprouts, red radish, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, beets

*Starchy vegetables include: Acorn and butternut squash, lima beans, peas, corn, water chestnuts, artichokes and red skinned potatoes (red skinned potatoes have fewer sugars than other kinds of potatoes).

Additional tips:

·      Wait 3 hours after eating a grain-based meal before you have a protein meal.

·      After a protein meal, give yourself 4 hours to fully digest.

·      Try not to drink iced or cold water during meals. A cup of warm tea, however, will aid digestion. Do not drink for at least 15 minutes before you eat or 1 hour after a meal.