Food combining

JohnMaile

Recently, I started food combing and I wanted to sort of re-announce it to the world since I've found it very helpful and not a lot of people have even heard of it! Basically, the idea is that you eat certain types of foods together. The biggest part of this is separating protein and carbs.

The idea is that the protein enzymes, like protease, function better in an acidic stomach environment, while the enzymes that break down carbs, like amylase and especially ptyalin, work better in an alkaline stomach environment. The enzyme, ptyalin, will actually be completely destroyed with any amount of acidity present. Most people, of course, usually don't think about the pH levels of their stomach when they're eating!

In separating these two main food groups, you're allowing your body to digest what you are eating much more efficiently. When your stomach is faced with both types of food, like a hamburger for instance, your stomach gets confused in what it should do in terms of acidity (how much stomach acids to produce) and enzymes to produce, since neither kind will be highly affective in breaking down their associated foods.

The other part of this then is timing. It takes about twice as long for your body to digest protein than it does carbs, about two hours compared to an hour. This does, of course, depend on what kind of protein or carbohydrate you're eating, but two-one hours is a good rule to follow. So, in using this, you would want to eat your protein, wait two hours, and then eat your carbs. First thing in the morning for breakfast, I usually start out with my protein. Since my protein is always raw eggs, raw egg whites and whey protein, the protein is digested relatively quickly. Then, about an hour and a half later, ill eat my complex carbs.

So now fruits, vegitables and fats.... vegetables are actually pretty convenient! You can eat them whenever you want! With either a protein or carbohydrate, it doesn't matter. So there's no excuse for not eating any, ha! Fruits are a different story, however. You always want to eat fruits by themselves, typically, in following a food combining program. Another important thing to remember is to wait about 30 minutes until you eat something else. Personally, I don't eat too much fruit since there is still a lot of sugar, even though it is natural.

And then there is fat. By fats, of course, I'm talking about healthy fats like coconut oil, fish oil or even krill oil if you can get your hands on it. With these, you should only eat them with carbohydrates! This is because fats tend to suppress the release of gastric juices which are critical for digesting proteins! A good snack I like to eat throughout the days, as a result of this, is two pieces of double fiber bread with about a tbsp of coconut oil spread between them.

One other thing to keep in mind, whether your food combing or not, is to CHEW YOUR FOOD! When you chew, you're not only aiding digestion by grinding up the food, but you are also signaling your body to produce digestive enzymes for whatever you are actually eating. This goes for liquids too, like a protein shake! This is why you might hear someone say "to drink your food and chew your drinks". This way of eating has actually been called a few different things over the years including 'the chewing diet', 'Fletcherism' or the 'Merr diet'.

Anyways, I hope this is helpful to some of you. I'm sitting here at work, with really really nothing to do so let me know if you have any questions. Good luck to everyone and stay strong... and CHEW YOUR FOOD!

lkm111

I have heard of it. I read "Fit For Life" about fifteen years ago. I used some of the ideas, but obviously I don't anymore. I don't even know where that book is now. Thanks for a good reminder!