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In Reply to: food combining posted by allison on June 12, 2008 at 6:05 pm:
The following blog post by holistic nutritionist Jorg Mardian just about sums up my opinion on food combining, further fortified by my own experience of combining basically what tastes good to me, with no ill effects to speak of in 60 years of eating. There's no need to get so complicated-- eat good, healthy food, prepared properly and in a way that you enjoy, and with care, in good company, and not in a hurry. This will help your digestion more than stressing out over what you eat at what time with what! Of course, if certain combinations of foods seem to disagree with you, then eat them separately. "The theory of food combining basically states that eating the wrong combinations of foods causes a variety of problems because different foods require different enzymes for their digestion. For instance, eating protein with carbohydrates is supposed to cause the protein to not be digested, which will then ferment and putrefy, spending up to two years in the large intestine. It's all fiction. This type of suggestion lives up to the "Tell a big enough lie and people believe it" school. The body puts out a variety of digestive enzymes in combination. Digestion begins in the mouth, continues in the stomach, but really cranks up in the small intestine with different aspects of digestion occurring along the way. Pancreatic juice is secreted into the small intestine and contains enzymes that digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. We have evolved to eat meals of mixed foods. No human population has ever subsisted on eating single foods at a time. Here's what you need to know. An especially ludicrous variant of the food combining theory is that when you don't digest foods properly, you get fat. Well, exactly the opposite happens - if you don't digest foods properly, you absorb fewer calories. This erroneous assumption was the basis for a book that was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years." September 1999, Nutrition News Focus In April 1996, The University of California at Berkeley Wellness Letter published the following: Food combining: A myth that never dies. As if people didn't have enough worries, there are always books on the market purveying notions about food combining. Some say that it's vital to eat foods in the right combinations - never combining, for instance, carbohydrates and protein at the same meal. They usually also recommend that fruits always be eaten raw and alone, because otherwise they will ferment and turn toxic in the stomach. There's no evidence to support such contentions, according to Dr. Sheldon Margen, Professor Emeritus of Public Health Nutrition. Nearly all foods are themselves combinations. If you eat beans, for example, you're getting carbohydrates (sugars and starches), protein and fiber, among other things. Bread combines protein, carbohydrates, a little fat and many other things. A simple dish like macaroni and cheese, a peanut butter sandwich, or oatmeal with milk contains sugars, starches, protein and fat. Our digestive system handles food combinations very efficiently. The process begins in the mouth as we chew food and saliva acts upon it, beginning the breakdown of starches into sugars. Other enzymes come into play along the line, resulting in almost complete digestion and absorption of nutrients, no matter how they are combined. As for that supposedly fermenting fruit, anyone who has studied human physiology can tell you that fermentation does not occur in the stomach. Fruit is nutritious, raw or cooked, and is readily digested in combination with other foods, including vegetables, grains and dairy products. Fruit is not a hard-and-fast category anyway: many things we call vegetables, such as tomatoes, are really fruits. Nearly all foods are themselves combinations : The overwhelming weight of evidence is on the side of a varied, balanced diet with foods eaten in nutritious, appetizing combinations. Most vitamins and minerals are best utilized when consumed as part of a complex mixture of foods. For instance, foods high in vitamin C (such as fruits) boost the body's absorption of iron from grains. That's one reason fruit and whole grains make such a good breakfast combination. Variety aids digestion, rather than making it more difficult." "Facts And Fears About The Food Combining Myth At the beginning of the century, a Dr. William Harvey Hay hypothesised that the healthy diet was one in which carbohydrates and proteins were not eaten together. He reasoned that digestive enzymes are secreted in very specific amounts and at very specific times, and that different food types require different digestive secretions. For example, carbohydrate foods require carbohydrate-splitting enzymes, whereas protein foods require protein splitting enzymes, etc. Armed with this knowledge, many health practitioners have promoted food combing to improve overall health. However, it is my belief, coupled with research and practical experience through hundreds of clients, that food combining is essentially bunk. This diet is a perfect example of the vexing tendency of consumers to buy and believe in schemes severely disconnected from reality and plain sense. It seems to me that the more outlandish, unlikely and even punishing the diet, the more fascinated we become with it. The rules of food combining are inherently contradictory, and the whole idea is nutritional nonsense. It is possible to lose weight observing the regimen but this is because it greatly increases the intake of fruit and vegetables at the expense of more calorie dense foods. it also considerably restricts the types of food eaten, which may make it more difficult to meet nutritional needs. The food-combining theory actually preaches the opposite of what research shows about digestion. Doctors can use fiberoptic gastroscopes to look into the body and observe digestive processes as they take place in the stomach and intestines. The “neutralized digestion” food combiners caution you about does not exist. Digestion occurs when we eat, period–not during some time sensitive day shift or when we combine foods in haphazard ways. The textbook, Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies points out, “…what the advocates of food combining don’t tell you is that almost all foods, even when eaten individually, are combinations of fat, protein and carbohydrates to begin with.” In other words, very few foods are exclusively one of the 3 macronutrients. This kind of nonsense works best with people who have little idea of what constitutes food and how their bodies work. They don’t understand how a common food like bread is a combination of starch, protein, a number of minerals and vitamins including most of the B vitamins. If you eat the whole grain (the brown wheat kernel with the germ that can sprout), you’ll also get considerable fiber from the outer brown layers and some fat and vitamin E from the germ. Other ingredients in bread usually include some sugar, fat, and salt. Thus foods are combinations of nutrients and many other natural chemicals. (Source: UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, April 1996, p. 6,7) It turns out that such a combination of nutrients and other food components can often improve absorption. For example, the vitamin C in the orange juice can enhance the absorption of the iron in cereals. Variety aids digestion rather than making it more difficult. That does not mean people will not have trouble with certain foods and/or combinations therof. Each of us are different and scientific studies of food absorbtion and utilization have shown some forms of combination do make a difference. However, there may be reasons other than stated. Remember that a food combiner is not only combining food differently, but also eating different types of foods, and maybe healthier and less foods. All these factors weigh in heavily with proper digestion. I just can’t buy into an all encompassing magical formula for “better” nutrition when nothing is backed by sound science, nor empirical evidence. Remember, “every major cuisine in the world combines protein and carbohydrates on the same plate, from the traditional meat and potatoes, to Asian stir fry chicken with rice, Middle Eastern couscous with lamb and the Mediterranean use of bread with all meals. (burkesbackyard.com) Most people today have digestive troubles because of the low quality of foods ingested. Refined high sugar foods are a new invention as far as your digestive system is concerned. Very few naturally occurring foods contain the kind of concentrations of fast-releasing sugars that modern food can provide. The body is simply not adapted to deal with a combination of low nutrient and fibre, but high in sugar foods which feed potentially undesirable micro-organisms that can occur in the gut. The fact is, most human digestive systems are equipped to handle foods in any combination, if the colon, if fed with a fibrous, unrefined diet. It does an excellent job of eliminating waste in those circumstances. So the overwhelming evidence is on the side of a varied, balanced and natural diet, not a philosophy out of the mind of one man’s imagination."
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