Food Combining
 by
Geoff Bond
Our digestive system can be thought of as a chemical
processing plant. It has to break down into their useful component parts a
variety of different 'feedstocks' each requiring a different process. The
processes are often conflicting:
? an alkali environment / an acid environment
? a dose of enzyme A / a dose of enzyme B
? pre-treatment in the stomach / immediate treatment in the
small intestine
Remarkably, our digestive system can perform these feats, but
not simultaneously. A chemical engineer would say that each feedstock has to be
treated on its own as a batch.
For example, a mixed hamper of washing might comprise greasy
overalls and silk underwear. One knows to treat this load in batches because the
processes required are conflicting. We know that the washing machine can satisfy
all these requirements on condition that each type of wash is dealt with
separately.
The foregoing consideration leads to the concept of eating
food in batches, which require the same chemical and mechanical treatment in the
digestive tract. It is known as the principle of proper food combining.
Today we have complicated and confounded the process by
introducing new types of food into our diet. Notably starches, dairy products
and fruits with a drastically distorted sugar profile.
Foodstuffs can be classified, as can laundry, into the
categories which have to be considered independently. The latest understanding
of the biological processes gives the following important results.
? Fruits should not be eaten in combination with any of the
other categories, particularly protein. Fruits should be eaten on an empty
stomach.
1st Reason: fruits are digested in the small intestine, and
shouldn't get held up waiting in the stomach. If this happens, they will start
to ferment, interfere with other digestive processes, and have their nutritive
value compromised.
2nd Reason: fruits have a predominantly acid nature. Acid
inhibits ptyalin production in the mouth, thus conflicting with starch
requirements and inhibits gastric acid production in the stomach, thus
conflicting with protein requirement.
? Protein/Starch combinations should be avoided.
1st Reason: the human digestive system is designed for the
through-put of a high volume of low density, easily digestible foodstuff,
chiefly plant food, i.e., fruit, salads and vegetables. Starches present a
problem since their digestion starts in the mouth (with ptyalin). This
digestion is stopped by the acid in the stomach, and then continued in the
small intestine, under the action of enzymes like amylase secreted down the
pancreatic duct by the pancreas.
Proteins, and particularly animal proteins, present another
problem They undergo a prolonged churning and exposure to the acids and enzymes
present in the stomach. It can be several hours before the stomach releases the
resulting chyme into the small intestine. The digestion then continues in the
small intestine under the action of enzymes like protease, again secreted down
the pancreatic duct by the pancreas.
Unlike the chicken, which has three pancreatic ducts, the
single human pancreatic duct is a bottleneck. A choice has to be made by the
pancreas as to which enzyme to secrete first. If the starch/protein combination
contained predominantly starch (90%), or predominantly protein (90%). then the
choice is easy, and digestion can proceed as nature intended. If, perversely,
the meal is an equal mix of starch and protein, then enzyme secretion by the
pancreas is perturbed. The imperfectly digested remains travel with difficulty
through the digestive tract. The highly sophisticated machinery of enzyme
activity, hormonal feedback, and nutrient absorption is perturbed. The balance
of the intestinal flora is disturbed. Bad bacteria multiply. Helpful bacteria
are discouraged. The intestinal wall can become porous and, as described
earlier, bacteria, funguses (such as candida) and undigested food particles
travel through the bloodstream, creating mischief wherever they go. Dyspepsia,
ulcerated colitis, liver disorders, demineralization, depression of the immune
system, candidiasis, allergies, and general bad health can be the result.
The digestive system is designed to work chiefly on fruit and
vegetation. Meat is more problematic. Starch is even more so. It simply is not a
good idea to give it more than one problematic foodstuff at a time to digest.
Here the problem is compounded by the two nutrients having conflicting treatment
processes.
2nd Reason: proteins like starch also provoke the secretion
of insulin. When starches are ingested at the same time, insulin secretion is
multiplied. All the bad effects of hyperinsulinemia are therefore multiplied.
Worse, almost always, fat is present in large proportions
with protein. This fat gets stored immediately and preferentially into the fat
cells.
Finally, let's keep things in perspective. There are many
times when small amounts of protein are included in a starch dish. Such is the
case with traditional Asian cooking where there are little bits of chicken,
nuts, or fish in the rice. Conversely there are occasions when there are small
amounts of starch in a protein dish, like a few bits of sweetcorn in a tuna
salad. This is unimportant provided either the starch or the protein dominates.
The trouble arises when the proteins and starches are equally balanced and they
fight each other for priority. This is the case with so much of what we eat
today. For example, bacon and eggs with French fries, hot dogs, hamburgers or
cheese sandwich.
* Salads and Vegetables do not require any special combining
measures.
* Oils and Fats do not require any special combining
measures.
Timing: Allow these minimum periods after the meal, if you
are changing to another category with the next meal:
After Fruit. 15 minutes; after Starch, 1 hour: after Soft
Protein (largely of vegetable origin), 2 hours; after Hard Protein (largely of
animal origin), 3 hours.
Favorable Combinations
Fruits mix well with Fruits
Fruits mix tolerably well with Vegetables
Vegetables mix well with Proteins
Vegetables mix well with Starches
Poor Combinations
Starches mix badly with Fruit
Starches mix badly with Protein
Proteins mix badly with Starches
Proteins mix badly with Fruits
The Importance of Small and Frequent Meals ('Browsing')
The human anatomy is designed to work with frequent but small
quantities of food. The functioning of the stomach, as it receives food and
processes it, has been closely studied. One thing is clear. The stomach does not
operate as a kind of simmering witches cauldron, where all that is ingested at a
meal is all churned up together.
What actually happens is that the first mouthfuls slide down
the stomach wall and settle at the far end, the antrum. Here, muscular churning
takes place to thoroughly mix the food with the gastric juices.
The next batch also slides down the stomach wall, partly
stays clinging to it, and settles on top of the first batch. This batch too gets
good exposure to the gastric juices secreted by the stomach wall. As the first
batch is evacuated toward the duodenum, the second is propelled by peristaltic
action to take its place in the antrum and to be churned in its turn.
If you stop eating at this point, then digestion has
proceeded as it is designed to do. However, for most of us that is not the end
of the matter. We are by now only on to the main course. Maybe it is steak and
french fries. These slide down into the stomach. Remember that the first and
second batches have coated the stomach walls. This third batch settles in the
middle. It is not in contact with the gastric juices. This is the opportunity
for the animal meat to putrefy and the potato to ferment.
Many people then add insult to injury by eating fresh fruit
desert. This sits on top of everything else you have eaten. The fruit quietly
ferments provoking yet more gas and indigestion.
Here are major reasons why large meals are at the origin of
bad digestion and bad health.
It is estimated that the ideal volume of a meal is no more
than one and a half pints. This is the volume which just fills the stomach
without stretching it. Increase the quantity to two pints and the stomach has to
stretch but within acceptable limits. Most of us in the opulent West have been
so used to overfilling our stomachs that they have become permanently stretched
and out of shape.
The lesson is that we should eat little but often -- and
always within the principles of Natural Eating!
 This
article was excerpted from Natural Eating, by Geoff Bond. ?2000. Reprinted with
permission from the publisher, Griffin Publishing Group,
www.griffinpublishing.com
Info/Order book.
About The
Authors
Geoff
Bond has degrees in pure and applied sciences from London University in
the 1960?s. In the 70?s and 80?s Geoff spent many years living amongst
peoples in remote parts of the third world. It was there that he
deepened his understanding of human origins and Pleistocene eating
patterns. This unique, 30 year course of independent study of
"Nutritional Anthropology", has led to the development of the Natural
Eating philosophy, based only on the most rigorous of scientific
research. Visit his website at
http://naturaleater.com/
or contact him at
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