I have evidence why food combing is real. Not a myth like some misguided people state.
How about over 200 people I have had experience with that say they have more energy, feel less bloated, and sleep better when they began combining foods correctly.
Wayne is probably best known for promoting the importance of food combining. If the food you eat is not digesting properly, not only can painful gas, heart burn, acid reflux and other stomach problems arise, but your body will also be deprived of critical nutrients.
The short definition of digestion is: you put food or liquid into your mouth, swallow it, and then your body breaks these molecules down into a size it can absorb. What your body doesn't use is excreted as waste. These are the four processes listed above—digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination. But food is actually broken down in a number of different areas, including in your mouth, stomach, and the first and middle sections of your small intestine, called the duodenum and jejunum respectively. Furthermore, you have two kinds of digestion:
- Mechanical (chewing and churning) digestion
- Chemical digestion
Food combination takes into account the area and complexity of digestion of each food, to ensure it goes through your entire digestive system with ease. Dr. Pickering explains:
"There's only one food that chemically breaks down in the stomach and that's protein. Proteins require pepsin, a very highly acidic [enzyme] in conjunction with hydrochloric acid. But the hydrochloric acid doesn't have the ability to break the food down. It just sets the medium for the concentration of the amount of pepsin that's poured into the stomach to digest whatever food that's in there. The intelligence of this human body is phenomenal."
There are three primary categories of food: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins, again, begin their digestion chemically in your stomach. Carbohydrates are divided into two categories: fruits and starches. While fruits pass through your digestive system with relative ease, starches require three levels of breakdown; the very first stage is in your mouth. That's why it's crucial to carefully
chew starchy foods.
According to the rules of food combination, you do
not want to mix proteins and starches in the same meal. This means, no bun with your hamburger, no meatballs if you have pasta, no potatoes with your meat... Why is that? Dr. Pickering explains:
"Starches require an alkaline digestive medium to digest. If you put your fist in your stomach while it's digesting steaks and all that, chances are, you wouldn't have a hand anymore. The acid is intense... When you mix them both together – an acid-type of food and an alkaline – basic chemistry shows that they don't digest. They neutralize. Then what happens? If the food is not digesting... it's going through your body [undigested], throwing it into all kinds of turmoil."