A Food Combining Illustration

Hi friends! Happy almost-Friday!!

I’ve received a lot of emails lately, asking me about food combining– why I do it, how it works, book recommendations, etc…

So, I figured it would make a good topic for today!

I first learned about food combining when I read The Raw Food Detox Diet, by Natalia Rose. She explained that eating in “quick exit combinations” takes a load off of our digestive system, leaving the body with extra energy to focus on other areas that need work (i.e. getting rid of toxins, cellulite, fat– all those pesky things we don’t want in our bodies anymore!) By keeping certain food groups separate at each meal– such as not mixing starches with meat– our meals digest faster, so that our digestive system isn’t working around the clock! The way I understand it, it’s when we are NOT digesting food that our bodies really have the opportunity to detox and cleanse at a deep, cellular level. Digesting dense, heavy meals also zaps our energy! You know that 3 o’clock slump most of us get during the workday? It could be due to eating a dense, mis-combined lunch!

There are tons of explanations out there on proper food combining, but I like to keep it as simple as possible. In the simplest terms, there are 4 categories of food that should NOT be mixed together in a single meal:

1. Fruit (should be eaten ALONE, on an empty stomach– preferably first thing in the morning)

2. Starches (grains, potatoes, avocados, coconut meat, winter squash, etc.)

3. Fleshes (meat, cheese, fish, yogurt, ice cream, eggs)

4. Nuts, Seeds & Dried Fruit

*Neutral Foods (which combine with everything): leafy greens, non-starchy veggies, 70% or darker chocolate, almond milk, butter, oils, lemons and limes, and coconut water

You cannot combine these categories with each other, but you may eat as much as you’d like from within the SAME category (i.e. you can eat a sandwich topped with avocado and veggies, served with a sweet potato on the side), and all of these categories may be properly combined with leafy greens and raw, non-starchy veggies. Ideally, you should wait 3-4 hours for your meal to digest before switching to a different category.

(Raw veggies make a great snack in between meals, since they combine with everything!)

I’m very much a visual person, so I made a little sketch to better illustrate food combining:

(click on the image to enlarge it)

Does that make sense?

So, if you wanted to eat a properly combined FLESH meal, you could have a grilled piece of fish, served with a raw green salad topped with goat cheese, a side of steamed broccoli, and you could even have some ice cream for dessert! The fish, cheese and ice cream all fall into the “flesh” category, so it’s a properly combined meal. You wouldn’t want to add a baked potato to that meal, though, because that would be mixing a starch with a flesh– and it could take well over 8 hours to digest that mis-combination!

There are a couple of exceptions to the general food combining rules I stated above:

• Avocados typically combine as a starch, but they also can properly combine with fresh fruit -OR- with dried fruit (but not with nuts or seeds).
• Bananas can also combine with nuts, seeds and dried fruit.

Foods that are considered “neutral” can combine with any category, and include coconut water, almond milk, butter, lemons, limes and 70% (or darker) dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is one of my favorite desserts, because I don’t have to worry about mis-combining it after a meal!

I have to admit, I was originally a skeptic when I first heard of food combining! It seemed that every health book and magazine I read said it was best to eat a combination of carbs, protein and fat at each meal to stay full longer! But, I decided to give food combining a shot anyway to see what it was all about.

At first, it was weird feeling “lighter” after my meals. I didn’t have the heavy, weighed-down feeling that I was used to after eating. I was afraid I’d feel hungry more often, but I quickly got used to the light feeling, and actually loved that I never felt bloated after meals! Best of all, after just two weeks of paying attention to proper food combining, I had lost weight without even trying! I was enjoying avocado sandwiches on sprouted wheat, grilled salmon salads, goat cheese omelets– and I didn’t feel deprived at all!

What really sold me on food combining, though, was how I felt when I mis-combined a meal again! After properly food combining for about a month, my body had been spoiled by all my easy-to-digest meals–  so it didn’t know what to do when I mixed heavy starches and proteins again! After eating a mis-combined meal, I had the worst stomach ache and was bloated well into the next day! I know some people specifically choose NOT to food combine because they don’t want to feel bad on the occasion that they don’t properly combine a meal…  but I actually like knowing (and feeling) the difference!

I feel like this is a subject that can be really overwhelming if you go into too much depth too quickly, so I hope that this has been a good starter for you “newbies” out there! If you try it, let me know what you think!

And if you’d like to learn more, these are my favorite books on the subject:

The Raw Food Detox Diet

The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health

Happy food combining!!

Reader Feedback:  Have you ever practiced proper food combining? If so, what did you think? Like I’ve said before, I really like properly combining my foods, and I can FEEL the difference when I do! However, I’m not militant about it, and there are still plenty of times when I don’t worry about it– but I do feel the consequences sometimes!

Related posts:

1. The Month of LOVE
2. Food Matters
3. Detox Thanksgiving Recipes!
4. “Real” food
5. Food Revolution