Food Combining for Natural Weight Loss

Proper food combining is one of many effective ways to accelerate natural weight loss by assisting your digestive system.

Covered in this Section

• What is Food Combining?
• Carbohydrates vs. Starches
• How We Digest Proteins
• How We Digest Starches
  • In the Mouth
  • In the Stomach
  • In the Small Intestine
  • Glucose Metabolism By The Liver
• What Determines Speed of Starch Digestion
• What Determines Speed of Protein Digestion
• Experiment
• Questions?

What is Food Combining?

It is the subject of how foods are combined when you eat them and the effect it has on your digestive system. As I mentioned in the previous page your digestive system is intimately connected to your natural weight loss.

All foods, when digested alone are digested through a specific sequence of steps. The liquids and enzymes used to digest specific types of foods are different for each food group.

As I keep repeating throughout this site, the faster you can convert food to pure nutrients that go straight in the cells for use, the better for your weight loss.

The one of the problems that food combining addresses is that when certain groups of foods are combined, the digestion slows down. In fact, it slows down so much that some of the food remains undigested for all the hours it is in your body.

Not only does it not provide nutrition to your cells, when food remains undigested and slows down through your digestive tract, it ferments and putrefies.

The different food groups we are going to look at are:

• Proteins
• Starches
• Carbohydrates (Water-Rich Carbohydrate Sources)
• Vegetables
• Fruits

Carbohydrates vs. Starches

Often times, starches and carbohydrates are considered the same, however there is a distinct difference. And in all digestion and weight loss, the difference is very important. Carbohydrates are good for you. Help help you lose weight. But an imbalance of starches and poorly combined starches are troublesome and stop you from natural weight loss.

• A starch is a carbohydrate that has low or no water content; i.e. breads and potatoes.
• All starches are carbohydrates but not all carbohydrates are starches.
• Foods, like fruit, are considered a carbohydrate because of their high sugar content but they are not a starch because of their high water content.
• The higher the water content in food the easier it is to digest and the more it assists in natural weight loss.

So in the world of food combining, starches and carbohydrates are going to be considered different.

How We Digest Proteins

All physiologists agree that proteins are digested largely in the stomach , by the gastric juice, which is acid in reaction. One of the most important constituents of the gastric juice is hydrochloric acid. Another important ingredient of gastric juice is pepsin, which splits protein only in an acid medium. In other words the stomach must be acid in order to digest protein.

Gastric acid, pepsin and other digestive enzymes to break down proteins. The enzymes in the stomach also have an optimum, meaning that they work at a specific pH and temperature better than any others. The acid itself does not break down food molecules, rather it provides an optimum pH for the reaction of the enzyme pepsin and kills many microorganisms that are ingested with the food.

How We Digest Starches

Starches, on the other hand, are not digested in the stomach, but are digested largely in the small intestine, principally by the pancreas secretions, which are alkaline. One of the most important constituents of this process is amylase, which splits the starch only in an alkaline medium. On their way through the stomach to the small intestine, the carbohydrates not only inhibit the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach but also combine with some of the free hydrochloric acid there.

In simple terms, our digestion system - from the mouth to the small intestine - is designed to break down disaccharides and polysaccharides into monosaccharides. This metabolism of starches is achieved through the secretion of a number of digestive enzymes into the gastrointestinal tract (especially in the duodenum) where they attack starches and gradually convert them into simple sugars like glucose so they can be absorbed into the blood. Digestive enzymes are like biological scissors - they chop long starch molecules into simpler ones.

In the Mouth

The process of digesting starches begins in the mouth. Our saliva contains an enzyme called amylase that starts breaking down the more complex carbs into simpler types.

In the Stomach

Enzyme activity continues in the stomach, but slows down significantly as digestive acids are released into the stomach by the glands. In the stomach there are no enzymes acting on starches, but the digestion may continue under the influence of swallowed saliva for a time.

In the Small Intestine

Another version of amylase is secreted by the pancreas into the duodenum (first section of small intestine). This breaks down starches into simple sugars - maltose, lactose and sucrose. As the starches pass further into the intestine, the enzymes maltase, lactase and sucrase chop maltose, lactose and sucrose into smaller bits, more easily absorbed, which are eventually converted to glucose and absorbed through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream.

Glucose Metabolism By The Liver

After starches are duly broken down into glucose, in the duodenum and jejunum of the small intestine, the glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream and taken to the liver, where it is stored or distributed to cells throughout the body for energy. In this way, the liver regulates blood glucose levels to provide sufficient energy for the body.

For example, excess glucose (a cause of hyperglycemia) is converted in the liver to glycogen (glycogenolysis) in response to the hormone insulin, and stored. Likewise, if blood sugar levels fall, (eg. between meals), the glycogen is re-converted to glucose (glycogenolysis) in response to messages conveyed by the hormone glucagon, to prevent hypoglycemia. If glycogen levels are exhausted, glucagon can trigger the formation of glucose from some amino acids (protein) or glycerol (fats) - a process called gluconeogenesis.

What Determines Speed of Starch Digestion

Generally speaking, the speed of digestion is determined by the chemical nature of the starch itself, and thus how "resistant" it is to the activity of the enzymes. A simple sugar is much less resistant than a starch, and is digested or metabolized much faster. Things that slow down digestion include: the presence of acid (from gastric juices or the food itself), and the presence of soluble fiber.

The digestion of starches is so different from that of protein that, when they are mixed in the stomach, they interfere with the digestion of each other. Protein digestion starts in the stomach and acid enzymes are secreted when protein is eaten. Proteins require an acid medium for digestion so, when eaten, hydrochloric acid is secreted in order to activate pepsinogen; this immediately stops the digestion of starches.

Almost all foods contain some protein but, when we speak of protein foods in our study of food combining, we are referring to concentrated proteins like nuts and seeds, cheese, flesh foods, etc.

The normal digestion, absorption and metabolism of protein requires thorough mastication of food, in order to break it down for propulsion through the digestive tract, and for action by the digestive enzymes. As previously indicated, hydrochloric acid and pepsin (and other acid gastric juices) are secreted for the initial phases of protein digestion in the stomach, and other enzymes, such as trypsin, continue the digestion in the small intestine in a slightly alkaline medium. Protein-digesting enzymes are also secreted by the pancreas.

What Determines Speed of Protein Digestion

Before the body can use proteins, they must be reduced to their constituent amino acids (the building blocks of protein). The body must break down the complex proteins in foods and synthesize its own protein out of the amino acids. Food combining rules are of major importance in the consumption of protein, since the complexity of this food element would seem to suggest that it be eaten only under ideal conditions.

Free hydrochloric acid to the extent of only 0.003 percent is sufficient to suspend the starch-splitting action of ptyalin. Only a slight further increase in acidity not only stops the action, but destroys the enzyme. All physiologists agree that even a mild acid destroys ptyalin. It has never been shown that saliva is capable of digesting starch without the presence of ptyalin.

The function of the gastric protein-splitting enzymes, such as pepsin, are prevented by an alkali. The physiologist Stiles says, "The acid which is highly favorable to gastric digestion is quite prohibitive to salivary digestion. The power to digest proteins is manifested only with an acid reaction and is permanently lost when the mixture is made distinctly alkaline. The conditions which permit peptic digestion to take place are, therefore, precisely those which exclude the action of saliva."

The presence of undigested starch in the stomach interferes with the digestion of protein. Physiologists have shown that undigested starch absorbs pepsin, which is necessary for the digestion of protein.

Dr. Richard C. Cabot of Harvard wrote: "When we eat carbohydrates, the stomach secretes an appropriate juice, a gastric juice of different composition from that which it secretes if it finds proteins coming down."

Arther Cason, M.D., D.P.H., F.R.S.A. (London), writing in the April, 1945 issue of Physical Culture, mentions two groups of experiments made by him and his aides which showed that eating protein and starches at the same meal retards and even prevents digestion. He made control tests in which digestive rates were recorded, and a final analysis of the feces was made.

He says, "Such tests always reveal that the digestion of proteins when mixed with starches is retarded in the stomach; the degree varying in different individuals, and also in the particular protein or starch ingested. An examination of the fecal matter reveals both undigested starch granules and protein shreds and fibers, whereas, when ingested separately, each goes to a conclusion."

Effective Food Combining Rules

Food combining should not become the one and only thing as some make it out to be. Food combining is a tool. I use it as much as possible. But for some, food combining is just too much hassle. That is why this site is about your lifestyle as well. Don't get into food combining in a stressful way. When you have the ability to do it, do it!

Like when you want to have more energy, food combine using these rules for the meals before that time.

• Proteins - Combine only with Water Rich, Low Sugar Carbohydrates (Most vegetables)
• Starches - Combine only with Water Rich, Low Sugar Carbohydrates (Most vegetables)
• Vegetables - Combine with everything except Fruit (there are exceptions)
• Fruits - Do not combine with any other food. Do not eat any other food for 30 minutes after eating fruit. Do not eat fruit 3 - 4 hours after starches and proteins respectively.*

* This does not apply to everyone. Experiment. If you eat fruit with your meal and do not experience discomfort or tiredness, then don't incorporate fruits in combining your food. Or, you can use low sugar fruts or smaller amounts of fruit.

So food combining really, in its essence can be avoiding starches and proteins to be combined with anything other than green water rich foods. And there's fruit that you don't want to combine with anything.

As a side note, a lot of meals body builders eat follow the above food combining rules.

Experiment

Go for two weeks of proper food combining and you will have your own subjective reality of what I am talking about here. No scientific writing can measure up to your own personal and direct experience.

I remember the first time I did this. I got the idea from "Fit For Life" by Linda and Harvey Diamond. It made so much sense to me so I tried it. I half-jokingly tell people it ruined me because every since that 2 week trial, I was never able to feel the same way again when eating food not following the food combining rules. It was like having a sensor that was off for as long as I could remember, and then turning it on. Improperly combined food did not feel good anymore after that. I felt the lightness and the resurgence of a new kind of energy. My abdomen was not bloated anymore. Since then I have made adjustments to it to make it work for me and I don't follow their program as they lay it out but I follow the principle and it makes a huge difference for me.