MySDMoms Staff 
The health-conscious among us plan their meals really well, choosing only clean and nutrient-rich foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But without knowing it they cause health problems by pairing the wrong food groups or eating quick-exit foods after those that digest more slowly in each meal. The secret to avoiding health issues in an otherwise well-planned diet is proper food combining.
Food combining rules weren’t created to drive you crazy. They’re actually based on chemistry. Try to practice objectivity and observe what happens when you observe food combining rules. If you feel great after a properly-combined meal and awful after a poorly-paired one then it’s probably about time that you incorporate food combining rules into your lifestyle. Your digestive system will thank you if you practice proper food pairing regularly. Advantages of food combining include:
- -Less fermentation (less toxicity and gas)
- -Better digestion, increased assimilation of nutrients
- -Eases acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, and chronic headaches or migraines
- -Prevention of dysbiosis (having too much bad bacteria in the gut), candidiasis (yeast overgrowth), and parasite infestation
- -Greater energy and mental clarity
- -Clearer, younger-looking skin
- -Prevention of body odor and bad breath
- -Weight loss, particularly in the abdominal area
So without further ado here are the food combining rules that will help you achieve excellent digestive health and overall well-being:
1. Fruit should always be eaten first, on an empty stomach. That’s right. The fruit plate should always be the first plate, not your lunch or dinner. Fruit is a quick-exit food. If you eat meat or other slow-exit food ahead of fruit then expect a traffic jam to occur in your digestive tract. Digestive traffic = fermentation. Fermentation leads to acidosis and digestive toxicity.
Eat melons alone or leave them alone as they do not combine with other fruit groups. Acid fruits (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, pineapple) can be combined with sub-acid fruits (apples, plums, peaches) but not with sweet fruits (bananas, grapes, figs). Sweet fruits can be paired together with sub-acid fruits without causing fermentation.
2. Whole grain breads and starchy carbs such as brown rice, potatoes (all types), corn, squash, yams, and legumes should not be eaten with protein i.e. animal flesh, eggs, and dairy such as cheese and yogurt. You can eat a starchy carbohydrate with another starchy carb or with non-starchy vegetables such as leafy greens, beets, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, turnips), seaweed, mushrooms, and carrots; and non-sweet fruits such as avocado, coconuts, sweet peppers, and zucchini. Don’t eat meat and potatoes or a chicken burrito; eat brown rice and beans with a baked potato on the side instead.
3. Consume animal protein with greens and non-starcy vegetables only. Do not mix them with starchy carbs, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and nut and seed butters. Bad: chicken curry with potatoes and peas. Good: grilled fish with roasted asparagus and steamed broccoli.
4. Nuts, seeds, and dried fruit are their own category and combine well with leafy greens and non-starchy vegetables. Mature brown coconut meat also falls into this category.
Practice makes perfect. Follow the rules and reap the many health benefits of combining your food properly!
[Morgan Torres Blog Tag]
