Have You Heard of Food Combining?

Food combining, also known as food pairing, is based on the premise that different foods digest at different rates in the body. Slow digesting foods (animal proteins, low fibrous foods) may take hours to digest while fast digesting foods (most fruits and non-starchy vegetables) can digest in as little as 20 minutes.

The theory behind properly food combining meals is that foods should be eaten in a certain order, based on their rate of digestion, to prevent fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract.  Let’s look into this further…. 

“When practiced properly, the principle of food pairing is so powerful it will forever improve your beauty and health.”  - Kimberly Snyder

While learning the theory of food combining can make a tremendous difference to your gut health and digestion, the key thing to remember is that we need to be able to use what we eat.  We must absorb all those valuable nutrients in order to reap the rewards.  Food pairing does this by helping us optimize digestion to get the most nutrients our foods offer.  

In order to maintain optimal weight, have glowing skin, eliminate gas and bloating and optimize digestion, we should order the way in which we eat foods and be conscious of the foods we pair together. The science behind this has to do with the stomach environment required to break down different foods.  Proteins require an acidic environment; starches and non-concentrated foods (fruits and non-starchy vegetables) require an alkaline environment.  Digesting foods together that require opposing acidic and alkaline digestive enzymes ends up neutralizing the stomach environment.  he stomach then has to secrete more digestive enzymes to try to break down the food costing us energy. The whole process can take hours, costing the body energy and increasing the chance of the undigested foods to get stuck in our systems.  Do you every feel sluggish after eating?  Improper food combining could be the culprit.

 Note: if after practicing the steps to food combining digestion, bloating, constipation or diarrhea are still problematic, there is likely an underlying gut dysbiosis or inflammation to blame.

Undigested protein putrefies + undigested carbs ferment = ROT

So what can be eaten together?  Here are some general rules when food combining:

1.         Don’t mix protein and starch.

Examples of this include:

·     Meat and potatoes

·     Fish and rice (yes, this includes sushi rolls)

·     Meat or eggs and bread (sandwiches, toast)

·     Cheese and crackers

·     Nut butters and crackers or bread

·     Nachos with cheese and ground meat (ugh)

·     Pasta with meat or cream-based sauces (sigh)

2.         Only eat fruit on an empty stomach

Fruit is the quickest food to digest, breaking down in a mere 20-30 minutes.  Eating fruit after a heavy meal for dessert can lead to digestive troubles unless at least 3-4 hours have passed.  Fruit should only be combined with greens, as in a salad, but avoid adding proteins like nuts or cheese.

3.         Fats can be eaten with proteins or starches

While fats can be combined with protein and digest sufficiently (carbohydrates are a better choice), too much fat and protein can inhibit weight loss

4.         Vegetables are fair game

Yippee!!  Veggies go with everything.  They are your food combining ally.

5.         Protein doesn’t mix well with other protein

It takes so much energy for the body to break down proteins, only one type of protein should be consumed at a time.  Animal vs. nut, seed and sea protein is more difficult to digest.

6.         Starches can be eaten together