Mery Christmas everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had experimented with food combining: that is, eating certain food groups in combinations because of the different times each takes to digest. (fruits are fastest, meats take the longest). It kind of makes sense to me, but I also see flaws in the logic. Just curious about it, because this way of eating claims to eliminate maldigested food in the large intestine: and I'm sure we can all appreciate that benefit.
Call Me Constantly Curious, Marsha
food combining
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hahahahahaha..Peggy...you crack me up...LOL...Ummm..I am in deep doo doo...I received a lot of gifts from my students....tons of candy, candy coated nuts, and oodles of cookies and sweet bread...all very lovely and all very loaded with carbs.....I need to have a party to get rid of some of this stuff...or...wait and take it up skiing with me...sigh..JJ
Marsha
All kidding aside food combining is an important part of my well being. With constant attention I feel best when I eat meals and snacks that are a balance of protein and carbohydrate. I don’t know how to describe it in that I suspect it is highly personal to the degree of my problem but it works for me. I pay particular attention to not eating the no nutrition processed carbs that make up so much of the SAD diet in that they tend to set me off if eaten only on occasion and worse if eaten every day . I don’t eat any grains or the high glycemic vegetables like potatoes and and eat no sugar at all.
I am really active and spend a lot of time in my spare time walking, bicycling and cross country skiing in the winter in addition to my usual nine to ten hours on the shop floor every day. Well, six days a week anyway. It takes a lot of carbs that I get from vegetables with careful attention to how much meat protein I eat in that to much meat protein can be very immune stimulating for me. Nuts and eggs are a great help but I tread on the edge if I overdo them also.
I have read quite a bit about food combining but have had to find my own way in that the suggestions in the books were for more normal people.
Who me, normal? ;-)
I guess I would have to call it the “Pay attention for years diet” HaHaHa.
Matthew
All kidding aside food combining is an important part of my well being. With constant attention I feel best when I eat meals and snacks that are a balance of protein and carbohydrate. I don’t know how to describe it in that I suspect it is highly personal to the degree of my problem but it works for me. I pay particular attention to not eating the no nutrition processed carbs that make up so much of the SAD diet in that they tend to set me off if eaten only on occasion and worse if eaten every day . I don’t eat any grains or the high glycemic vegetables like potatoes and and eat no sugar at all.
I am really active and spend a lot of time in my spare time walking, bicycling and cross country skiing in the winter in addition to my usual nine to ten hours on the shop floor every day. Well, six days a week anyway. It takes a lot of carbs that I get from vegetables with careful attention to how much meat protein I eat in that to much meat protein can be very immune stimulating for me. Nuts and eggs are a great help but I tread on the edge if I overdo them also.
I have read quite a bit about food combining but have had to find my own way in that the suggestions in the books were for more normal people.
Who me, normal? ;-)
I guess I would have to call it the “Pay attention for years diet” HaHaHa.
Matthew
Peg you crack me up too!!!! I am going to have to get serious about what I intake too, bur sometimes it just seems overwhelming. And I love sweets, I have always had a sweet tooth. I think my whole family does. But with diabitis in our family, its not a good idea.
But this time of year is sooooo hard, especially when you are working, and everyone brings in something, or you get so much given too you, the best way to get rid of it is to have a party and and it goes like hot cakes. Funny I made so many things to give away, but the only thing I like and have a hard time to stay away from is the tarts. My big weakness, well one of them.
It seems to be that we all have to find what is good for us, and part of that is trying different things, doing research and so on.
Gentle hugs
Wendy
But this time of year is sooooo hard, especially when you are working, and everyone brings in something, or you get so much given too you, the best way to get rid of it is to have a party and and it goes like hot cakes. Funny I made so many things to give away, but the only thing I like and have a hard time to stay away from is the tarts. My big weakness, well one of them.
It seems to be that we all have to find what is good for us, and part of that is trying different things, doing research and so on.
Gentle hugs
Wendy
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You rock Peg. My favorite combination lately is shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, Meditteranean salad mix chopped finely, and bacon bits, with Oriental dressing or rice vinegar on top. Followed by 1/2 a bar of Green and Black chocolate.
Thanks, Matthew, for such a thoughtful answer. Boy our diets seem similar. No matter how carefully I eat grains, they just don't agree with me, too: rice, rice flour, all the specialty gluten-free flours: even potato starch and pot flour. Although potatoes are ok. The only exceptions seem to be corn, & corn based and tapioca flours. Damn: I liked those tea cookies.
Do you have a autoimmune disorder, too? (mine is lupus and hypothyroid caused by thyroid antibodies). Eggs and nuts are things I have to tread lightly with, too. (the skin on the nuts gets me, not so much the meat of the nut). Blanched almond meal seems to be ok. Anyway, maybe I should ease off on so much meat, like you have done. I've certainly lost my taste for it lately.
The food combining theory goes a little further: it says that if you avoid eating fruits and meats (among other combos) at the same meal, you can minimize maldigested food in the colon, because these things take different times to digest and exit the stomach. The goal is to have nothing but completely digested, nonreactive material in the colon.
I'm not all that serious about the whole thing, it's just a little dietary exercise. (Like Soduku) The bottom line is to eat the way that makes you feel best. Or at least stay off the toilet, aye?
Love you guys, Marsha
Thanks, Matthew, for such a thoughtful answer. Boy our diets seem similar. No matter how carefully I eat grains, they just don't agree with me, too: rice, rice flour, all the specialty gluten-free flours: even potato starch and pot flour. Although potatoes are ok. The only exceptions seem to be corn, & corn based and tapioca flours. Damn: I liked those tea cookies.
Do you have a autoimmune disorder, too? (mine is lupus and hypothyroid caused by thyroid antibodies). Eggs and nuts are things I have to tread lightly with, too. (the skin on the nuts gets me, not so much the meat of the nut). Blanched almond meal seems to be ok. Anyway, maybe I should ease off on so much meat, like you have done. I've certainly lost my taste for it lately.
The food combining theory goes a little further: it says that if you avoid eating fruits and meats (among other combos) at the same meal, you can minimize maldigested food in the colon, because these things take different times to digest and exit the stomach. The goal is to have nothing but completely digested, nonreactive material in the colon.
I'm not all that serious about the whole thing, it's just a little dietary exercise. (Like Soduku) The bottom line is to eat the way that makes you feel best. Or at least stay off the toilet, aye?
Love you guys, Marsha
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For anybody who wants to comment on this type of diet, either pro or not, I'd be interested in your thoughts. I don't do well with very many carbs, and this article offers a reason for it that I've never heard of before. That's one of the things that got my attention.
This probably isn't the best of sources: I have no idea the credentials of the people who've posted it, but it seems consistant with other things I've read about food combining.
http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Di ... bining.htm
Thanks for your input, Marsha
This probably isn't the best of sources: I have no idea the credentials of the people who've posted it, but it seems consistant with other things I've read about food combining.
http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Di ... bining.htm
Thanks for your input, Marsha
Hi Marsha,
I carefully read the reference you cited, and while most of what is discussed there is true, if their eating advice were to be followed, (especially the menus they provided), virtually no meat would be llkely to be consumed, and a very detailed schedule would have to be followed with regard to the consumption of milk, and acidic fruits.
There is, however, certainly very valid precedence for their position, since it is the style of eating that our paleolithic ancestors followed for many thousands of years. When they ate a meal, it almost always consisted of only a single food type. This was not by choice, but was simply the reality of their existance. They ate what was available, when it was available. As their travels brought them to other food choices, and as the seasons changed, their diets changed, but rarely were they presented with an opportunity to eat a variety of foods at one location, (that is, at one meal).
Speaking for myself, I eat in almost total opposition to their recommendations. My main meals consists of a large chunk of meat, and a generous helping of mashed potatoes, together with a vegetable or two, followed by some cookies, and maybe an apple, or a banana. The mashed potatoes would be verboten, in combination with the meat, by their rules. I believe that our bodies learn to adapt to our habits, to a large extent.
Also, they make this claim, "Milk does not digest in the stomach, but in the duodenum, hence in the presence of milk the stomach does not respond with its secretion." This statement is made in order to rationalize why some other food types cannot be digested, if eaten with milk.
I will dispute the accuracy of this statement, by pointing out that while it is true that milk is digested in the doedenum, (it can also be digested in the colon, if digestion fails to be completed in the small intestine), that has absolutely nothing to do with the mechanism by which some other type of food might be digested in the stomach. IOW, the stomach does not need to secrete anything to digest milk, but that does not mean that it will not secrete whatever gastric juices are necessary to digest any other food that is introduced colaterally with milk. The presence of milk in the stomach does not somehow magically "turn off" the ability of the stomach to digest other foods.
Indeed, the authors write as though only one type of digestive mechanism can be present in the digestive system at any given time. This is simply not true. Saliva is generated in the mouth, gastric juices are released in the stomach, enzymes are released in the duodenum, etc., and these processes can and are proceeding at various rates, at the same time, in a normal digestive system.
While it is true that significant pH imbalances in the stomach may impair certain types of digestion, that does not mean that digestion cannot proceed. The body has mechansims that allow digestion to be completed farther down the system, in order to compensate for imperfect upstream conditions. True, it would be better if everything followed a perfect plan, but the fact of the matter is, for all practical purposes, the body is very adaptable, and is designed to handle these minor discrepancies.
Having said all that, I would be the first to try proper food sequencing, if I were having significant digestive problems. As long as things are working satisfactorily, though, I tend to keep piling it all in, and I don't worry about it.
I do not, however, drink or eat any citrus products, or dairy products. Our digestive systems were not evolved with citrus products, nor with dairy products, (except for the ingestion of milk, during infancy, of course). IOW, the items that are claimed to cause the biggest problems with food combinations, (dairy, and citrus products), we shouldn't be eating in the first place, since our digestive systems were not designed to handle them.
Well, you asked, and these are my thoughts on the topic.
Wayne
I carefully read the reference you cited, and while most of what is discussed there is true, if their eating advice were to be followed, (especially the menus they provided), virtually no meat would be llkely to be consumed, and a very detailed schedule would have to be followed with regard to the consumption of milk, and acidic fruits.
There is, however, certainly very valid precedence for their position, since it is the style of eating that our paleolithic ancestors followed for many thousands of years. When they ate a meal, it almost always consisted of only a single food type. This was not by choice, but was simply the reality of their existance. They ate what was available, when it was available. As their travels brought them to other food choices, and as the seasons changed, their diets changed, but rarely were they presented with an opportunity to eat a variety of foods at one location, (that is, at one meal).
Speaking for myself, I eat in almost total opposition to their recommendations. My main meals consists of a large chunk of meat, and a generous helping of mashed potatoes, together with a vegetable or two, followed by some cookies, and maybe an apple, or a banana. The mashed potatoes would be verboten, in combination with the meat, by their rules. I believe that our bodies learn to adapt to our habits, to a large extent.
Also, they make this claim, "Milk does not digest in the stomach, but in the duodenum, hence in the presence of milk the stomach does not respond with its secretion." This statement is made in order to rationalize why some other food types cannot be digested, if eaten with milk.
I will dispute the accuracy of this statement, by pointing out that while it is true that milk is digested in the doedenum, (it can also be digested in the colon, if digestion fails to be completed in the small intestine), that has absolutely nothing to do with the mechanism by which some other type of food might be digested in the stomach. IOW, the stomach does not need to secrete anything to digest milk, but that does not mean that it will not secrete whatever gastric juices are necessary to digest any other food that is introduced colaterally with milk. The presence of milk in the stomach does not somehow magically "turn off" the ability of the stomach to digest other foods.
Indeed, the authors write as though only one type of digestive mechanism can be present in the digestive system at any given time. This is simply not true. Saliva is generated in the mouth, gastric juices are released in the stomach, enzymes are released in the duodenum, etc., and these processes can and are proceeding at various rates, at the same time, in a normal digestive system.
While it is true that significant pH imbalances in the stomach may impair certain types of digestion, that does not mean that digestion cannot proceed. The body has mechansims that allow digestion to be completed farther down the system, in order to compensate for imperfect upstream conditions. True, it would be better if everything followed a perfect plan, but the fact of the matter is, for all practical purposes, the body is very adaptable, and is designed to handle these minor discrepancies.
Having said all that, I would be the first to try proper food sequencing, if I were having significant digestive problems. As long as things are working satisfactorily, though, I tend to keep piling it all in, and I don't worry about it.
I do not, however, drink or eat any citrus products, or dairy products. Our digestive systems were not evolved with citrus products, nor with dairy products, (except for the ingestion of milk, during infancy, of course). IOW, the items that are claimed to cause the biggest problems with food combinations, (dairy, and citrus products), we shouldn't be eating in the first place, since our digestive systems were not designed to handle them.
Well, you asked, and these are my thoughts on the topic.
Wayne
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Thanks Wayne,
I had the same question about digestive enzymes, etc. It's not like your body can only release one kind at a time.
And I don't think I would do well without my protein!
Then again, we have people on the site who are vegetarians, still, don't we? They do just fine on much less protein than many of us ingest.
Well, I still want to hear other people weigh in on this . .
Thanks for your thoughts!
I had the same question about digestive enzymes, etc. It's not like your body can only release one kind at a time.
And I don't think I would do well without my protein!
Then again, we have people on the site who are vegetarians, still, don't we? They do just fine on much less protein than many of us ingest.
Well, I still want to hear other people weigh in on this . .
Thanks for your thoughts!