RSS
Home
Fit for Life: When is a diet not a diet?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Fresh fruit is a cornerstone of the food combining way of eating.
Perhaps you've noticed the growing cynicism in the media regarding the efficacy of diets. The latest nugget of wisdom (and one recently paraphrased by Weight Watchers) is that they simply don't work. Diets are seen by some of us as extreme measures; we turn to them when we want something to change. But they tend to work so slowly that we give up in frustration, or, even if they yield fast results, they are so hard to maintain that we give up in frustration.
When is a Diet not a Diet?
The smarter and surer way to success, we're now being told, is not to focus on dieting, but on eating healthy food: an abundance of it, even. We're being told that healthy eating is about balance. Not all or nothing (all protein no carbs, all fruit no dairy, all carbs no fat, etc.) but plenty of what's good and not much of what's bad.
We know this already. We know to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean protein, and complex carbs, and some good fats. But we're not often told that it's when we eat those foods, and in what combination, that may be the key to successful weight loss and overall improvement in our health.
The thing is, everyone's body is different, and more to the point, our digestive systems have different proclivities. Some of us can eat dessert before dinner and experience no discomfort whatsoever; others of us have an egg sandwich and are bloated and gassy for days.
The Importance of Digestion
In my earlier article on Thanksgiving food coma, I talked about food combining and how crucial it is to efficient digestion. Efficient digestion is crucial to weight loss. By eating foods in the proper combination, we allow our bodies to extract maximum nutriment from food, and don't store excess calories as fat because they're not being metabolized properly.
Another important aim of food combining is a redressing of the body's acid/alkaline balance. The so-called "Western diet" which has a heavy emphasis on animal protein and processed foods tends to increase the blood's acidity, leading to many health problems such as heartburn, obesity, fatigue, lowered immune resistance, and increased susceptibility to tumor formation, among other things. Despite the terms, foods we think of as "acidic" (like tomatoes or citrus fruits) are actually alkaline-forming in the body, and so therefore good for us. A chart detailing different acid and alkaline foods may be found here.
Food combining has been around a long time (one popular pamphlet "Food Combining Made Easy" came out in the 1940s) but first came to national attention in the USA with Nathan Pritikin's best selling diet book Fit for Life, which explained the principles behind food combining: strive to make vegetables and fruits 80% of your diet, and never eat protein and starch in the same meal. These rules give way to other easy to follow guidelines which help optimize digestion: Combine protein with green vegetables, sour fruit with dairy, starch with fat and/or Goren vegetables, and have a hot drink with meals. The Eat to Evolve Blog offers a passionate manifesto on the subject.
My Own Experience with Food Combining
I once followed food combining to the letter for over a month. I had read a wonderful article by pediatrician and nutrition pioneer Dr. Lendon Smith called The Low Stress Diet , from is book of the same name, which emphasized food combining as a way to feel better. At the end of the first two weeks, I had lost at least ten pounds,my energy was through the roof, and I was eager and happy to maintain this way of eating. I find now that I don't follow it every single day, but over the years have tried to integrate this way of eating into my everyday life, and try to observe food combining for at least two meals a day if possible. I also follow meals with a hit drink, like herbal tea, and not a cold beverage: cold liquids can slow down or inhibit digestion (the Indian healing system of Ayurveda tells us this). Now, if I find myself feeling a bit lethargic, or want to drop a few pounds, I follow the food combining rules to a T, and in a few days and feeling lighter, fitter and far more energetic.
How to Eat
One good way to begin transitioning to food combining is to make sure you eat fresh fruit on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning: your stomach will use its nutrients most efficiently if fruit is eaten alone. You may have fruit with plain yogurt, too: nice when summer berries are in season. You can follow this with other typical and hearty breakfast foods: toast with butter, a bacon sandwich (bacon counts as fat, not protein, so can be eaten with bread), a cheese omelet. Lunch can be some pasta dressed simply with olive oil and sauteed green vegetables, and a green salad. For snacks, an apple and a piece of cheese, or an orange and some raw nuts, or celery sticks with peanut butter all suffice and make you feel satisfied. Dinner can be some lean meat (or a big baked potato with butter and sour cream), steamed broccoli or other vegetable and a salad. As you can see, this is hearty and satisfying food. But because it's in proper combination, you can and will lose weight eating this way. Don't take my word for it: try it yourself!
