The Benefits of Food Combining:

One of the most energy-consuming tasks your body performs is digesting food. Proper food combining helps make that task easier.

The basic principle behind it is this: Starches and proteins are broken down differently in the body and should not be eaten at the same meal. When you eat protein, your body produces acid to digest it, however, when you eat starches, your body tries to create an alkaline environment to digest and breakdown the starches. This is where the problem starts.

When your body tries to do two totally different things at once, they cancel each other out and the food just sits there in your stomach and rots. If it stays there long enough, it becomes toxic.

For many people this is why they have acid reflux, bowel problems, excessive gas and an upset stomach and unwanted weight gain.

The Basic Principles of Food Combining:

• Eat fruit by itself, without any other type of food. The fruit should be fresh, uncooked fruit. It should be eaten 1/2 hour before other food is eaten. Dried fruits and bananas should be eaten 45 minutes before other foods. Melons, however, should be eaten alone. ( They only take about 15 minutes to digest.)

MELONS WOULD INCLUDE: Honeydew melon, Cantaloupe, Banana melon, Casaba, Christmas melon, Persian melon, Crenshaw melon, Watermelon, Muskmelon, Nutmeg melon

• You should only eat raw fruit in the morning and nothing else except raw fruit before 12:00. You can consume as much fresh fruit and fresh juices throughout the morning as you want as long as you don't overeat. It maybe a good idea to invest in a juicer so you can enjoy the many health benefits fresh juicing gives you.

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Eating only fruit in the morning helps your body to rid itself of excess waste in your digestive tract and because fruit goes through your system much quicker than any other food, when eaten alone, it doesn't sit in your stomach for hours. This is the key to weight loss and the principle behind this type of eating.

You may notice you have more energy when you eat just fresh fruit in the morning. This is because it takes hardly any energy to digest fruit. It's full of digestive enzymes and practically digests itself. That's why you never get that "sleepy" or "stuffed" and "bloated" feeling you get from eating other foods in "bad" combinations that sit in your stomach for hours and hours as your body tries hard to digest them causing you weight gain and discomfort.

When you eat food in bad combinations, it forces your body to use up alot of energy trying to digest them. This is why you feel tired. The food ends up rotting in your stomach and becomes toxic. These are some of the key benefits of food combining. It frees up energy in your body that would otherwise be wasted on trying to digest food in bad combinations and it keeps your digestive tract functioning at it's highest level.

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• Do not eat starchy foods with protein foods. In other words, don't mix steak with baked potatoes. Don't have hamburger with bread. Don't eat rice and chicken at the same meal.

• Only eat one type of protein at any given meal. Example: Don't mix fish with nuts.

• Do not mix sugars with starches.

• Do not eat sugars (including fruits or chocolate cake) with proteins.

• Wait 3 hours before eating again when you eat starches and wait 4 hours before eating again when you eat proteins.

• At least 70% of the food you eat in the day should be High-water content food. This would include fresh fruits and vegetables. It is good to note that eating mostly high-water content food throughout the day will also help alkaline your body. The benefits of that are discussed on another page of this website.

* If you eat a meal with foods in the wrong combinations, (ex. Proteins and Starches) you should not have any fruit for at least 7 hours.

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You need to know what starches are and what proteins are so that you don't eat them at the same meal. Vegetables, however, can be eaten with either proteins or starches.

• PROTEINS: Meat, eggs, milk, cheese, fish, nuts and all seeds, lentils, peanuts (which are legumes.)

• STARCHES: Potatoes (When they are cooked become a starch), rice, bread, beans, cereals, spaghetti and all grains.

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Now that we have gone over the basic rules of proper food combining, here is some sample meals you could prepare throughout the day, following these basic guidelines:

BREAKFAST: Start the day with freshly made orange juice. Eat a fruit salad with bananas and strawberries and sliced apples.

LUNCH: Enjoy a garden salad with romaine and iceburg lettuce, onions, tomatoes, croutons and whatever vegetable you would like in your salad. Enjoy a baked potato with a little butter.

Dinner: Prepare a Baked chicken with steamed broccoli and corn on the cob with a little butter.

* Vegetarians could instead have this for dinner: Baked beans and rice burrito with chopped tomatoes and any other vegetable you might like in a whole wheat wrap and some lightly steamed corn on the cob.

These are just some examples of different meals you could prepare. There are a lot of different recipes and combinations you can come up with when you get creative and use some imagination. Remember, you can eat to satisfaction on a food combining diet, just DO NOT OVEREAT!!!!!!

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HERE ARE JUST SOME OF THE HEALTH CONDITIONS THAT HAVE BEEN HELPED BY A PROPER FOOD COMBINING DIET:

• Stomach Cramps

• Gastritis

• Acid Reflux

• Food Allergies

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

• Constipation

• Excessive Weight Gain

WORD OF CAUTION: Never start any diet without consulting your physician, especially if you have any underlying medical conditions.

IN CONCLUSION: You should remember that this is just a very basic outline of the FOOD COMBINING priciples. If you would like to see if this way of eating would improve your health, make sure you read a book or two on how to REALLY understand and apply these principles before you think about adopting it as a way of eating. I have included a list of great books, that delve deeper into this subject, that you may want to read at the bottom of this page.

If You Would Like To Learn More About FOOD COMBINING, Here Are Some Recommendations:

• FIT FOR LIFE by Marilyn & Harvey Diamond

* FIT FOR LIFE 2 by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond

* Fit for Life: A New Beginning : The Ultimate Diet and Health Plan

Food Combining Cookbook

The Complete Book of Food Combining: A New Easy-to-use Guide to the Most Successful Diet Ever

* FOOD COMBINING FOR VEGETARIANS

* FOOD COMBINING AND DIGESTION

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