FOOD COMBINING
– for optimum digestion
◊ Let your body be your guide. No two people are exactly the same. Each person is in a different stage of balance and has a different constitution. Your body might be able to handle more extreme combinations than someone else. However, the basic fundamental rules of food combining can be useful to all.
◊ Helping your digestive system to work efficiently is one of the most important things to help increase your metabolic rate.
Your stomach needs enzymes ‘the spark of life’. Enzymes are protein catalysts that produce energy to fuel our cells and bodily systems. Many of the enzymes in fresh living food can be absorbed and used by our cells to replenish our own stock of these catalysts. As in the saying “you are what you eat”. However it would be more true to say “you are what you absorb”. It is no good pouring healthy foods and supplements down your throat if your digestion is not working efficiently.
◊ If foods are eaten together which require different time periods for gastric digestion, then we create a situation in which a food requiring the shorter time is held up in the stomach awaiting the more lengthy digestive time required by the other food. When this occurs, as when fruit or other sugars are eaten with protein, for example, the sugars ferment and nutrition is impaired.
◊ In simple terms, carbohydrates break down into simple sugars and proteins break down into amino acids. Digestion prepares them for the nutritive needs of the body, whereas bacterial decomposition and fermentation makes them unfit for its needs.
Symptoms of poor digestion include:
- Indigestion, heartburn
- Flatulence and bloating
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Acid reflux
- Diarrhoea and vomiting
- Cramps and constipation
- Body odours, pimples and dandruff
- Colds and flu
- Fatigue and chronic pain
Effective food combining can assist in:
- preventing the above symptoms
- helping your body to burn fat more efficiently: weight loss and an increase in energy levels all flow on from improving your metabolic rate.
- ensuring maximum absorption of enzymes, proteins and nutrients
Your stomach acid is another vital ingredient to aid digestion.
Paragraphs from ‘Take Control of your Health and escape the sickness industry”, Elaine Hollingsworth.
- The professional journal, Orthopaedic Surgeon, said this: - “Antacids, drugs which so many people take frequently, are so dangerous that they would have been removed from the market if the drug cartels were not so strong. It has been known for decades that they deplete the bones of between 130 and 300mg of calcium each time they are consumed. They contain aluminium, and also contribute to Alzheimer’s Disease.”
- Nature didn’t put acid in our stomachs so the drug companies could earn billions suppressing it. Nature put it there for a compelling reason: it is absolutely necessary for health. When your stomach has normal acid levels it is able to kill invading micro-organisms and break down dangerous food additives.
◊A simple remedy is to take 1 dessertspoon apple cider vinegar in warm water half an hour before a meal thus preparing the environment. By using vinegar, eating foods full of enzymes and proper food combining most digestive upsets should start to abate. Be patient with yourself - take one step at a time and gradually your stomach will start to digest efficiently as it was meant to. There should be no need to take any antacid of any kind.
