Since our childhood we were thought that we should eat a bit of every thing. This is totally wrong. It's not only important what we eat and in what quantities, but rather how we combine food groups. Different foods need different gastric juices in order to break them down. When food combinations are wrong, gastric juices neutralize each other and the food stays longer in the stomach and in the intestines. Undigested, the food ferments and instead of being beneficial and well assimilated by our body, it becomes harmful.

There are some basic principles of proper food combining that will help you loose weight or stay fit, and especially be healthy. The concept of food combining provides many benefits: increased energy, better digestion, weight loss. If you eat the wrong combination of foods together some of the foods will decompose in your stomach causing bloating, indigestion, weight gain and many other problems.

But in order to know which are the bad combinations, we first need to know the food groups.

Proteins: meats, dairy products, eggs, nuts and seeds.

Starches: breads, pastas, potatoes, rice, and legumes (lentils, peas).

Vegetables: leafy greens, broccoli and cabbage, low starch vegetables (carrots, parsnips).

Fats: oils, butter, olives, avocados.

Sugars: refined sugar, honey, jams, syrups, as well as sweet fruits such as bananas or dried fruit.

Acids: vinegars, pickled goods, orange juice, grapefruits.

Melons: watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe.

Avoid combining:

Pasta and cheese. The amount of calories in pasta increases when combined with cheese. Moreover, the combination carbohydrates in pasta and proteins in cheese is extremely hard to digest.

Meat and potatoes/pasta/rice. Foods are digested one by one, the protein is digested within 2 hours, while protein generally takes around 3 hours. When combined, it retards the digestive process, the food rots in our stomach and discarded after ten hours. Solution: at a meal, eat only meat, fish, eggs, cheese or potatoes and rice, all foods associated with salads.

Meat and mustard. This combination helps you gain weight, and not only because of the fats, but to the mustard that is nothing else but a carbohydrate obtained from mustard seeds.

Meat and sweets. Sweets and fruits, when arriving in the stomach together with the proteins (meat, eggs), they block digestion and provoke stomachaches. Solution: don't have cookies at the end of the meal, but separately from other foods, as a snack.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Meatballs are a concentrated type of protein, while spaghetti are made up of starch. They don't go together, especially because the sauce can make worse the acid reflux.

Meat and eggs and milk. Meat is digested first, then the eggs, and finally the milk. This leads to indigestion, cramps, stomachaches. You can avoid these combinations having one type of proteins at a meal.

Fruits and vegetables. Fruits are cleaners and vegetables are builders. Digestion is retarded when combining fruits and vegetables.

Salt should not be mixed in the salad. Salt leaches the water from salads which comes along with nutrients, thus salad looses all benefits.

Don't combine tea, coffee, alcohol with solid foods. These drinks hinder digestion, tanin present in tea inhibits absorption of iron, calcium and zinc from foods taken with them.

Do not mix certain types of acid fruits. Avoid mixing oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapefruits and kiwi fruits with sweet fruits like bananas, raisins, papayas, figs, and other dried fruits. When combined they are not able to digest.

Food Combining Tips

Food Combining Tips

Good combinations:

protein and vegetables

fats and vegetables

starches and fats

Bad combinations:

protein and starch

fruit and starch

protein and fats

Fruit and protein

eat fruits alone as they are digested very quickly, you shouldn't eat fruits until at least two hours after meal

eat melons alone

avoid taking dairy products with citrus fruits

eggs should not be eaten with fruits, cheese and banana

milk and curd should not be consumed together

milk is not compatible with meat, fish, bread, cherries