Food Combining: Part Three

Natural Hygiene’s “take” on food is that digestion is more efficient and easier when protein, carbs, and fruits & veggies are not all eaten together. Since most protein foods require an acid digestion environment and most carbs digest properly in an alkaline environment, the idea is to combine foods at a meal that have similar and/or compatible digestive juices.

Here are the next 5 guidelines taken from my food chart published by the Canadian Natural Hygiene Society:

6. Do not eat acid fruits with proteins. (Acid fruits include oranges, grapefruits, pomegranates, kiwi, pineapple and strawberries.) These fruits do not combine well with nuts, eggs, cheese or meat.

 

7. Do not combine sweet fruits with proteins, starches, or acid fruits.When sweet fruits are eaten alone, they leave the stomach in about 20 minutes, but when mixed with proteins or starches or even acid fruits, digestion is delayed and can cause digestive problems. (Thus, banana bread would not be a good food combining food. Sorry!)

8. Eat only one concentrated starch at a meal. This rule is included because by following it, you will be less likely to overeat starches. (The combining part is less important.)  So, slightly starchy veggies (ex. beets) may be combined with more starchy veggies such as carrots or potatoes, but not with grains and legumes, which are considered combination foods, that is are starch & protein combinations.

9. Acid fruits maybe used with (less sweet) sub-acid fruits, such as citrus with papaya. This is an easy one, because the dish is all fruit. The catch is to avoid sweet fruits with acid fruits. Thus, a fruit salad properly combined would not have oranges with bananas. (Note: While tomatoes are actually a fruit, they should not be combined with any kind of fruit. Better to use tomatoes in a salad as part of a meal in which no starchy foods are served, such as baked potatoes.)

10. Sub-acid fruits may be used with sweet fruits. The chart recommends using sweeter varieties of sub-acid fruits when using this combination in a fruit salad. If you can digest bananas easily, then they combine fairly well with grapes and other sweet fruit and with green leafy veggies such as lettuce & celery. The recommendation is that these fruits be eaten as part of a fruit (salad) meal with lettuce and celery.

NOTE: Many of these guidelines may seem strange or even ridiculous. When I finish all 15 guidelines, I will present some sample menu ideas so you will see how to incorporate food combining in your meals, if you wish to experiment with this concept..