My first introduction to Proper Food Combining, made famous by Herbert Shelton came in 1975. It made even more sense to me as I learned more about body dynamics, anatomy and physiology, the synergy in digestion and how the quality of food effects overall health. Reading Shelton’s book, Fasting Can Save Your Life at the same time in 1975 did make my understanding of the concept of food combining easier.
There are two magnificent concepts I learned thirty-four years ago I want to share with you at the onset of this blog: 1. resting for a full eight days, fasting with pure alkaline water and a pure green drink, talking as little as possible, meditating, and with no computer access can begin the process for healing and change the body from acid to alkaline conditions; and 2. body death begins with poor digestion; and after a good cleanse, eating with proper food combining in mind can change death-progressing conditions around.
Meditating on and embracing both of those truths can save your life.
How Digestion Happens
Food combining properly respects the digestion process of the human body. In a nutshell, starches and sugars begin to be broken down in the mouth with salivary amylase, pytalin. Starches are broken down to maltose by pancreatic amylase in the small intestine, the duodenum; and then, the process from maltose to glucose is completed by brush border enzymes (micro-villi) in the small intestine. By- products of maltose, glucose, galactose or fructose get absorbed by the blood stream through the small intestine. Bloodstream Glucose moves to the liver where it begins a dispensing process regulated by the liver. Another amazing job accomplished by your indispensable liver. If you chew a piece of bread slowly and long you will taste the exquisite breakdown to sweetness in your mouth.
Protein digestion begins when the body’s olfactory sense sends a message to the stomach. Pepsinogen secreted by the chief cells is converted to pepsin as hydrochloric acid (HCL) secreted by the parietal cells activates it. The breakdown of proteins in the stomach must happen or proper assimilation will not take place. Protein digestion is completed as pancreatic enzymes: trypsin, chymotrypsin and carboxypeptidase shoot into the duodenum; and further as brush border enzymes assimilate with aminopeptidase, carboxypeptidase and dipeptidase.
Fats are digested in the small intestine by the detergent action of bile from the liver. That is another one of the many jobs of your amazing liver. The digestion of fats is also assisted by pancreatic enzymes which mix with bile in something called the hepatopancreatic duct designed to shoot into the small intestine through it’s ampulla in the duodenum.
Sugars begin their breakdown in the mouth with salivary amylase and are completed in the small intestine by brush border enzyme sucrase. Sugars eaten with a carbohydrate stop the digestion of the starch by inhibiting the secretion of pytalin, necessary in the breakdown of starches.
Why Proper Food Combining Alleviates Body Stress
For sake of time let’s focus on how long it takes to digest certain healthy foods. Fruit juices move through most quickly, usually twenty - thirty minutes; Fruit is next at thirty - forty minutes; Vegetables only take forty-five minutes to an hour depending on their starch attributes. Always eat fruits alone. Soups are a great choice along with juicing when on a clean out and building process. Soups and juices move through the body in less than an hour, as long as it isn’t a bean soup.  Starches, carbohydrates go through three processes and take from one - two hours depending on complexity and the combination of foods they are ingested with. Processing fats can take several hours as does the process of protein, although fats take longer and take priority.
Having stated these very few and very brief digestive processes let’s get serious. If digestion either makes or breaks how you operate in life, and if digestive juices dwindle and get used up with use and abuse over time you may well imagine how continued eating of food combinations like a Big Mac, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or even a yummy healthy vegetarian sandwich with tofu can be a recipe for disaster.
When you eat a hamburger, healthy or not, your body tackles the fat first, then the protein.  That sounds so simple but it can take hours depending on your ability to produce HCL, hydrochloric acid, and how overloaded your liver and pancreas are. If you still wonder where I’m going with all of this, hold on, because the best is yet to be discovered. The carbohydrates that have been pushed through with the other foods have not been processed properly with the salivary amylase and are beginning to ferment in your stomach. That happens because fat and protein digestion take precedence. Ouch, so within this entire scenario which can take many hours, the “food” in your stomach becomes a compost heap. The same will be true of any combination of even organic foods which include a fat, a carbohydrate, and a protein regardless of the great vegetables you throw in there.
If you are in a sensitive condition…  Let me state that differently. When I feel ill or am in an allergic state I always look carefully at how I combine my foods. It makes all of the difference between healing quickly, staying in shape, and keeping the body in an alkaline state.
Is food combining difficult? Not at all. Have a piece of bread - with vegetables - not with a protein – and never with fruit. Eat rice or pasta - with vegetables. Eat protein - with vegetables - not with bread - never with fruit. Eat fruit and fruit juices - all by themselves. Make sure you get good fats in your diet - you require balanced EFAs (essential fatty acids) to live. Eat small meals every 2-3 hours and keep your combinations respectable. Give yourself a sugar treat - simply alone - and not in bread combinations. Drink a cup of coffee - not with food. Have a glass of wine - not too much - not with an indulgently heavy meal - it will ferment.
Feel what works for you and play with getting healthy with the food combining game.