(09-04-11) Food Combining: Fact or Fiction?

Food combining is the theory that certain foods should always be eaten
together for better digestion, others should never be eaten together for the
same reason, and fruit should always be eaten alone.

A reader wrote in recently to ask me if this was a really healthy way to eat.
She had also heard that it could be very useful for weight loss.

?Is there anything to this?? she asked me.

And the answer is?.

Not so much.

The whole food combining concept has been around since the 19th century when
it first showed up as a basic premise of the movement known as ?natural
hygiene?. The most famous diet book to make use of it was ?Fit For Life? in the
1980?s, (which continues to sell well, by the way) but the concept still shows
up periodically like a bad penny, and is way past its sell-by date.

One of the main ideas of Natural Hygiene (food combining) is that starches and
proteins should never be eaten together because they require different
digestive environments (acid vs alkaline). According to believers, eating these
foods at the same time you stresses your digestive system, causing the carbs
(starches) to ferment and the proteins to basically rot.

Unfortunately it?s utter nonsense. ?Such pronouncements were debunked more
than 70 years ago in both scientific and popular literature?, writes Stephen
Barrett, MD (who is incidentally a doctor whose views I almost never agree with
but who happened to get it right this time).

While there are indeed enzymes that are specific to protein digestion, fat
digestion and carbohydrate digestion respectively, all of these enzymes are
produced every time you eat and work just peachily together.

That said, let?s recognize that some people have done well on these diets,
perhaps because they make people more conscious of what they?re eating, which
is always a good thing. In addition, some of the combinations advocated are
less ?heavy? than typical American steak and potatoes meals so people often
feel better eating them.

Still, it?s basically voodoo nutrition. There may be some people with
sensitive stomachs and very slow digestive times that might feel less bloated
when eating fruit alone, but it?s a completely individual thing and certainly
not necessary for everyone. For most people it?s the quality- and the amount-
of the food they eat at any meal that counts, not the ?combination?.

As for weight loss? There?s absolutely no evidence at all that ?combining?
foods according to the principles of Natural Hygiene does anything for your
waistline.

But combining foods so as to minimize their impact on your blood sugar is a
whole different story.

A restaurant portion of high-glycemic food like pasta will send your blood
sugar (and your fat-storing hormone, insulin, soaring along with it). You can
blunt that effect by using a smaller portion of the pasta and mixing it with
some fat, protein and fiber (like olive oil, chicken and vegetables).

That?s a very different kind of ?food combining?, but one that makes a lot of
sense.

Source: jonnybowden.com

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