Yvonne Smith
Moderator
I found an old book, Food Combining Made Easy, written back around 1940, by Herbert Shelton, that talks about food combining and why it is important. I am still reading the book, just started actually, so I am just barely getting a grasp on the concept of food combining and why it is important.
The basic premise of this is that we use different digestive enzymes and other digestive acids for different types of foods, and they can cancel each other out if one is acidic and one is alkaline, making the whole digestive process not work properly.
Fruits should be eaten in the morning before any other foods. They have their own digestive enzymes and can be completely digested in under an hour. Carbohydrates use an enzyme in our saliva called ptyalin, which is alkaline, and food needs to be processed in this enzyme before the stomach can digest it, so it is very important to thoroughly chew carbohydrate foods.
They can take up to 3-4 hours to digest.
Proteins need an enzyme called pepsin, which ready the protein for the hydrochloric acid in the stomach to digest the protein. Pepsin and ptyalin can cancel each other out, so neither the carbs or the protein can digest properly.
Protein can take up to 10 hours to digest, with cheese being one of the longest ones.
We have all been told that we need a balanced diet of protein, fats, and carbs, and pretty much think we have to have some of each at every single meal. The problem is that when you do this, the carbs and proteins cancel digestion for both of them, and the fruit for dessert is now stuck in the stomach along with everything else, and ferments, as do starches, and the meat will putrify.
It looks like if we are going to have some of all of them each day, we should have the fruit first thing, before anything (including coffee if you have cream added), and then wait for lunch (or at least 1-2 hours before having some carb foods, like cereal, bread, or other carbs.
Then for dinner, a person could have a protein meal, since it would have overnight to digest if needed. Vegetables or salads can be eaten with either carbs or protein, but not with fruit.
The basic premise of this is that we use different digestive enzymes and other digestive acids for different types of foods, and they can cancel each other out if one is acidic and one is alkaline, making the whole digestive process not work properly.
Fruits should be eaten in the morning before any other foods. They have their own digestive enzymes and can be completely digested in under an hour. Carbohydrates use an enzyme in our saliva called ptyalin, which is alkaline, and food needs to be processed in this enzyme before the stomach can digest it, so it is very important to thoroughly chew carbohydrate foods.
They can take up to 3-4 hours to digest.
Proteins need an enzyme called pepsin, which ready the protein for the hydrochloric acid in the stomach to digest the protein. Pepsin and ptyalin can cancel each other out, so neither the carbs or the protein can digest properly.
Protein can take up to 10 hours to digest, with cheese being one of the longest ones.
We have all been told that we need a balanced diet of protein, fats, and carbs, and pretty much think we have to have some of each at every single meal. The problem is that when you do this, the carbs and proteins cancel digestion for both of them, and the fruit for dessert is now stuck in the stomach along with everything else, and ferments, as do starches, and the meat will putrify.
It looks like if we are going to have some of all of them each day, we should have the fruit first thing, before anything (including coffee if you have cream added), and then wait for lunch (or at least 1-2 hours before having some carb foods, like cereal, bread, or other carbs.
Then for dinner, a person could have a protein meal, since it would have overnight to digest if needed. Vegetables or salads can be eaten with either carbs or protein, but not with fruit.