"Do You Make These Mistakes in Eating?"

by Michael Snyder
(c) 2007 TheRawDiet.com

One of the most important eating habits to practice is that of food combining.

Food combining rules are misunderstood and rarely used. Poor combinations
cause indigestion, abdominal pains, and the numerous health challenges
related to indigestion.

Many chronic illnesses occur after years of indigestion. Read on to learn about
this art of eating.
When you combine food incorrectly, the food is not properly digested and
will rot, decay, ferment, and putrefy in the digestive tract. This defeats the
whole purpose of eating because the body cannot digest or assimilate
rotten food.

Bad food combinations are eaten at almost every meal by those eating the
standard American diet. Starchy bread, rice, or potatoes with high protein
meats or nuts, sugary desserts after dinner, and acidic red tomato sauce
on starchy pasta and pizza are a few of the most common examples.

Food combining is based on the length of time it takes to digest each
unique food, the enzymes required to digest them, and the acid or alkaline
pH required in the stomach.

The enzyme factor is important to consider. There are 75,000 to 100,000
enzymes present in the human body. The digestive enzymes create a
chemical transformation, turning the food into nutrients.

Eat food group requires a different enzyme to digest it. For example, fat
requires lipase, protein requires pepsin, and starches require ptyalin and
amylase.

- Melons

The first food to be aware of is melons. The melon sugars digest quickly. It
may take 20 minutes for them to pass through the stomach and into the
digestive tract.

If these sugars are eaten with other foods, they will be held up in the
stomach for hours. The stomach is a warm, moist environment and the
sugars quickly ferment. Fermented sugars cannot be assimilated by the
body.

- Fruits

The next food group to focus on is fruit. Fruits may be broken down into
four general categories:

- Sweet (bananas, mangos, dates, figs, raisins)
- Sub-Acid (apples, berries, pears, persimmons)
- Acid (grapefruit, pineapple, oranges, kiwi, tomato)
- Salad (bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado)

As a general rule, eat fruit alone and on an empty stomach. This rule may
be broken. Fruits may be combined with neutral foods such as celery and
leafy greens. It may be combined with pre-digested living foods such as
sprouts, soaked nuts, and soaked seeds.

You may safely combine sweet fruits with sub-acid fruits. Sub-acid fruits
combine well with acid fruits. Avoid sweet with acid fruit combinations.

The salad fruits are low in sugar and they may be eaten with vegetables,
nuts, seeds, and sea vegetables.

Do not combine the avocado with nuts and seeds. This is a hard to digest
combination and it creates too much fat for one serving. Eat your meal with
one or the other.

While not ideal, small amounts of the sub-acid or acid fruits may be eaten
with nuts, seeds, and vegetables without discomfort.

For example, a combination with pear slices in a salad with greens,
veggies, and walnuts may be eaten. Almond butter on apple slices should
be an okay combination.

Everyone has different digestive strengths so you must experiment to find
what works for you.

- Celery and Greens

Celery and leafy greens are neutral and may be eaten with any other food.
Eating celery or leafy greens with or soon after a fruit meal greatly
improves the digestive strength.

- Starch

Starchy foods are next on the list. They combine well with vegetables but
make a horrible combination with protein foods.

Starchy vegetables include carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips,
rutabagas, sprouted grains, and turnips. The cooked starches include
grains such as breads, pastas, potatoes, and rice.

Digestion of starches begins in the mouth. The enzyme ptyalin is released
to begin the chemical change.

When chewing food, the stomach creates a gastric juice filled with enzymes
specific for each food.

If you chew starches, the gastric juice will have a slightly alkaline pH. If
protein foods are chewed, the gastric juice will have an acid pH. If you chew
non-food item, such as a pen, the stomach will not create gastric juices.

If starches are eaten with proteins, the stomach will be confused. It may
create gastric juices with a slightly acid pH. The starch enzymes ptyalin and
amylase are destroyed in an acidic environment. The stomachs pH may not
be acidic enough to digest proteins.

When eaten together, neither starches nor proteins will be fully digested.
The proteins will putrefy and decay and the starch sugars will ferment.

This poor combination is stressful for the body. Viktoras Kulvinskas writes
“95% of people are deficient in amylase, starch digesting enzyme, and
should take a full spectrum enzyme with all starchy meals or leave them
alone.” (P. 125, The Lovers Diet).

In his article "A Talk Given by Viktoras Kulvinskas", he writes “All food is
poisonous if it is not digested, no matter what you are eating.”

- Acids

The acid foods include tomatoes, lemons, ketchup, red tomato sauce,
vinegar, & acid fruits. They combine well with non-starchy vegetables, fats,
and proteins.

The acid foods should not be consumed with starches. They will create an
acidic pH which will prevent the starch enzymes from working.

- Liquids

Liquids should be consumed 30 minutes before eating food. Drinking liquid
with a meal will dilute the gastric juices and the food will be held up in the
stomach too long.

- Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds combine best with vegetables. Nuts are high in fat and
should not be consumed with other fats. Seeds are high in protein and
combine well with other fats.

If you have hemp seeds with coconut oil, you double the conversion ratio of
medium-chain omega-3 to long-chain omega-3, which is very interesting.

This is significant because the long-chain omega-3 fats are difficult to find
in vegan foods.

Soaking the nuts and seeds makes them much easier to digest. The
soaking process will partially pre-digest them and bring the dormant
enzymes to life. When soaked, it is okay to combine small amounts with
fruits.

- Desserts

Desserts should be eaten alone or after a simple salad. The desserts are
usually high in sugar and consumed after one is already full. This is
overeating and the sugars will ferment.

The perfect way to beat the sugary dessert craving is to eat fruit 20
minutes before the main entrée.

The good thing about raw vegan desserts is that they make a healthy,
nutritional, complete, and satisfying meal.

You could be eating cake for breakfast, pie for lunch, and cookies with ice
cream for dinner, and you will be eating healthier than most people.

(These delicious desserts are all made with fruits, spices, and soaked nuts
and seeds)

- Juices

Fresh raw juices require little to no digestion. They should still be chewed
to help digest and assimilate the nutrients. There is an old rule, “Drink your
food and chew your liquids”.

With fresh juices, do not combine fruit juices with vegetable juices. The
vegetables contain fats which may slow up the absorption of the fruit
sugars.

- Fermented Foods

Fermented foods combine well with vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sea
vegetables. They may combine well with fruits depending on the food.

In "The Lovers Diet", Kulvinskas writes "Because of the acid component,
the fermented foods are NEVER to be combined in the same meal with
starchy foods such as bread, rice, and other grains, root vegetables, ect.

- Simple meals

The easiest to digest meals consist of one to five ingredients. Mono-eating,
which is eating one food until full, is an excellent way to eat.

The food combining rules are not as important when eating a primarily
living foods diet. The living foods have their own enzymes which assist in
the digestive process.

- Enzyme Supplements

It is not always possible to follow the food combining rules, especially
during raw gourmet potlucks or special dinners. I recommend purchasing a
high quality digestive enzyme supplement . Use the enzymes whenever you
over eat, eat cooked foods, or eat poor food combinations.


- Celery and Ginger Root

If you experience discomfort after a meal, chewing celery sticks or drinking
fresh ginger root juice or tea will improve digestion. Chewing the celery will
assist the body in creating more enzymes, and the ginger will improve
circulation and digestion.

Proper food combining will lead to improved digestion, youthful and
enthusiastic energy, improved health, and hopefully a longer life-span!

More tips for succeeding on the raw foods diet can be found in "The Health
Evolution: A Guide to the Raw Foods Diet" by Michael Snyder ->

http://www.therawdiet.com/evolve.html