Food combining
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Food combining is the term for a nutritional approach that believes in what proponents feel is properly combining foods, as well as beliefs about the proper timing of their consumption. According to its advocates, the most important rule of food combining is not to mix at the same meal carbohydrate-rich foods such as bread, cereals, carrots, beetroot and protein-rich foods such as meat, milk, eggs, beans, nuts and seeds. Another important rule is to always eat fruit alone and wait 20–30 minutes before eating another meal so that the fruit has time to pass through the stomach, since fruit does not require to be digested in the stomach with the help of gastric juices. As another example, advocates sometimes recommend that carbohydrates and citrus fruits should not be consumed at the same meal, claiming that the enzyme that digests carbohydrates (amylase) can only function in an alkaline environment. Similarly, when proteins are consumed, the stomach releases pepsin, which is its enzyme for digesting protein foods. Alkaline and pepsin neutralize each other when in the stomach together, thus rendering the digestive juices less effective in breaking down foods that have been miscombined.
Advocates of such food combining believe that the result of too many "miscombined" meals is a backlog of undigested food in the stomach. They believe that this can lead to chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, acne, and many other ailments believed to originate with an unclean colon. The most obvious negative effect, however, is the lack of energy after eating a large meal, hence the need for what is called siesta. Adepts of food combining claim they never feel tired after eating a large meal, but energized and ready to go. Among the proponents of this idea are some raw foodists who adopt the food combining philosophy to combat the ailments associated with an unclean colon, among other reasons.
Many of the assumptions used to justify food combining are not supported by biological and medical science, and there is currently little researched evidence supporting these theories. With this said, there are thousands of testimonials by people who claim that they have experienced improvements in several digestive related health conditions including acid reflux, bloating, stomach ache, gas emissions, and fatigue experienced after eating. Some of these conditions, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, may have a psychosomatic component in some individuals, and so are particularly succeptible to the placebo effect.[1] These conditions can also fluctuate, so an episode may have passed whether or not food combining was used. One randomized controlled trial has been reported in the peer-reviewed medical literature, which found no evidence that food-combining principles were effective in promoting weight loss[2] , but this is almost irrelevant, as the food combing approach to eating doesn't claim to be a weight loss diet, but a diet that strives for optimal absorption of food and minimal gastrointestinal symptoms.
[edit] References
- ^ [1] A meta-analysis of the placebo response in complementary and alternative medicine trials of irritable bowel syndrome
- ^ Golay A, Allaz A, Ybarra J, Bianchi P, Saraiva S, Mensi N, Gomis R, de Tonnac N (2000). "Similar weight loss with low-energy food combining or balanced diets". Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord. 24 (4): 492–6. doi:. PMID 10805507.
- Shelton, Herbert M. Food Combining Made Easy. Willow Pub. ISBN 0-9606948-0-3 (June 1940).
- Rose, Natalia. The Raw Food Detox Diet. HarperCollins Pub. ISBN 0-06-079991-9 (2005).
