Good Food Combinations

Are you aware that your diet is drastically affected by what you eat and what you eat together? A healthy food when combined or taken together with other healthy food can cause serious health issues like heartburn, bloating, indigestion, gas, general malaise, cramps, etc. In the same way a proper combination of food can help in easy digestion and absorb the most nutritious contents out of what you eat.

Not all individuals need to worry about proper food combination. Individuals who are sick or on the road to recovery, people who want to detox their body, individuals or sports people who are in need of immediate energy boost, and people who have signs of indigestion, etc are the one who would need the food combination. The basic concept of food combining is consuming proper quantities and combination of foods while having meals. This would help in having easy and proper digestion of the food and absorption of the nutrients present in the food.

One even needs to remember that digestion does not mean simply putting food in the mouth and swallowing it. It involves in processing and assimilating, so that it can be converted into a living tissue. A proper combination of food would help in removing all kinds of symptoms which are often classified as indigestion.

There are three main categories of macronutrients – protein (fish, meat, nuts, diary), carbohydrate (potatoes, breads, beans, pasta, fruits), fat (oils, coconut, nuts, avocados). However, non-starchy vegetables such as green leafy ones won’t fall under this category. Since they have got few calories and are consumed just for vitamin and mineral contents. For easy digestion, you need to consume food that has the most calories from one macronutrient source like fat, protein, carbs, etc.

Now combine any of these three things with a nutritious green salad, and you are just good to go. But if you do combine two or more of these things together, then you are looking out for trouble. For example, baked potato and salad is good, while baked potato and steak is bad. Meat with potato is not good for your diet and the same can be said about mead with grains. Now the basic reason why these things have to be divided in separate categories is because of the chemistry of the body. Since you have one stomach it can be difficult for one to digest effectively when you try to create a contrasting environment in it.

Proteins get digested in acid environment while carbohydrates digest in alkaline environment. So if you have knowledge in chemistry, then you would be aware that if one mixes base and acid together it would result in the formation of water and salt. And you cannot digest food in just water and salt. So what happens is that as food passes through the body, it gets digested and never broken down and never assimilated. Now what happens is that the food becomes a breeding ground of bacteria giving them an ole time. And the resulting product would be gas, etc.

It is good to know about the various good food combinations. The more you know, the better it would be for you to have a healthy and effective diet.

Author

Saravavan Nadarajan (Vanan)

Vanan, fitness expert and leader at EzFit Singapore, specializes in holistic training—home-based, boot camps, and corporate fitness—with over a decade of industry experience.

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