The Right Combination

To understand the proper combining of foods, it is important to understand digestion. Food breakdown begins in the mouth with our saliva, which is why it is so important to chew our food, including juices, well.

Different types of digestive juices designed to digest specific foods exist in the stomach. Included with these digestive juices are your main digestive enzymes: amylase, for digesting carbohydrates; lipase, for digesting fat and protease, for digesting proteins. Some digestive juices are acidic, such as bile, and aid in breaking down acidic food like meat, dairy, nuts and legumes.  Other digestive juices are more alkaline, for breaking down fruits, vegetables and grains. 

The problem occurs when you are eating foods that require acidic digestive juices at the same time you are eating foods that require alkaline-based digestive juices.  In these circumstances, the digestive juices often fight each other — not allowing for proper digestion of either type of food.  This causes stomach upset, gas, bloating, weight gain, and toxicity in your system.  Obviously it is important to know which foods can be easily digested together.

Basic food combining guidelines

Fruits, fruit juices, and fruit milks

• Should be eaten alone on an empty stomach.
•  Eat fruit alone, about a half-hour before other types of foods, or two+ hours after.
•  Melons should be eaten alone.
•  Apples, tomatoes, and avocados are the only neutral fruits that can be eaten with grains, protein, vegetables and most food groups.
•  Almonds are both in the protein and fruit categories.  As a milk, we mix them with soaked and/or sprouted grain.  Because almonds are also fruits, we grind them up and use them in raw fruit pie-crusts

Vegetables

•  Can be mixed with proteins or starches, but never with fruits

Cooked proteins (meat, fish, dairy, nuts and seeds)

•  Can be mixed with cooked vegetables but never with fruits or cooked starches (bread,  rice, potatoes, crackers, chips, etc.
• The biggest concern is animal protein.  Try to avoid mixing animal products (meat and
        dairy) with any cooked starches.
• Raw or fermented proteins (nuts and seeds) can be mixed with raw vegetables, sprouted    starches, and dehydrated starches (dehydrated crackers and breads).
• Even though nuts, seeds, and legumes (raw or cooked), are a protein, they are okay to mix with starches.

Cooked Starches (bread, rice, pasta, crackers, chips, flour, cereal)

•  Can be mixed with cooked vegetables, but never with fruit or animal protein.
• Raw, sprouted, or sprouted and dehydrated starches (dehydrated crackers and bread) can be mixed with raw vegetables and plant based proteins.

Superfoods

• Green and red superfood drinks (combination of green grass juices, sea vegetables, and algaes or antioxidant-rich berries) are best when consumed on an empty stomach.
•  Drink first thing in the morning and wait at least 15-30 minutes before consuming solid food. 

Most liquids

• Drinks (juice, water, tea, etc.) should ideally be consumed 15-30 minutes before a meal and 30-60 minutes after a meal.    
• Drinking water 15 minutes before a meal is fine and will help you to feel less hungry at your meal, but try not to drink with food.
•  Vegetable juices can be mixed with raw vegetables and sprouted/dehydrated, grains.

You don’t have to be extreme with your food combining.  I am just laying out the ideal guidelines.  Some people’s stomachs are more sensitive to food combinations while others are not.  Experiment with my recommended combinations and see what gives you the best energy.