Good and Bad Food Combinations
BALANCE YOUR DIET AND RECLAIM YOUR HEALTH
by Robert O. Young, Ph.D. and Shelley Redford Young
To ensure thorough and proper digestion, food combining
is an important consideration. And there’s a lot out there
designed to help you understand and implement various food-combining
systems. While the idea is key, however, the vast majority of
available programs are usually confusing, are often inaccurate,
and tend to offer conflicting advice. And they are all too unnecessarily
complicated. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have
to be that way. The thing to remember is that the human digestive
system is not designed for complex meals. Different foods make
different, specific demands on the digestive system. That we are
capable of digesting many different kinds of foods doesn’t
mean we can do so all at once. For example, protein digestion
requires a highly acid environment and takes place in the stomach.
In stark contrast, starch requires a mildly alkaline environment
for digestion, which takes place in the mouth and small intestine.
The same is true for vegetables. (Fats also require a mild alkaline
environment and are digested in the small intestine.) It doesn’t
take much to imagine that foods of these two types do not do well
when eaten at the same time. One will interfere with digestion
of the other, causing incomplete digestion of both. Whatever is
not efficiently digested by you will be “digested”
by harmful microforms. It’s another vicious circle: Compromised
digestion paves the way for negative microforms, and negative
microforms further disrupt digestion. Poor food combining is also
a major cause of formation of sticky mucus.
Take a minute to stop and think of all the American
“classics” that combine protein and starch—meat
and potatoes, fish and chips, chicken and rice, a burger and fries,
ham sandwich (any kind of sandwich), to name just a few—and
you’ll begin to realize just how badly we’ve abused
our digestive systems. Most of us don’t even know what it
would be like to have proper digestion!
Because of my family history of sky-high cholesterol levels, and
the terrible heart consequences, I’d always been careful
about what I ate. As a home economist, homemaker, and mother of
eight children, I was also careful about what I served my family.
As my health deteriorated, with all kinds of symptoms bothering
me, I experimented with different “healthy” ways of
eating, constantly fine-tuning my approach.
I grew up eating well. My mother followed the
FDA recommendations of the time, serving vegetables, whole grains,
lean meats, and fresh fruits daily. Through my own early years
as a mother, I moved to less meat, chose fresh vegetables—and
usually served them steamed—switched to brown rice, and
started to use natural supplements. I ground whole wheat myself
and made fresh bread weekly. I eliminated sodas, simple sugar,
processed foods, and milk. My health improved some, but not completely.
My health really began spiraling down after
the birth of my eighth child, which required an emergency C-section
and two blood transfusions far from home. As more negative symptoms
appeared, and I felt my energy and vitality slowly ebbing, I worked
harder to unlock what good nutrition could offer me. Food combining
was one of the first things I explored, but my early results were
I’ve tried different strategies over the
years. I began by using the four basic food groups. A typical
dinner was baked chicken, pan-fried potatoes, frozen broccoli,
a canned peach with cottage cheese, and oatmeal cake. I experienced
a full feeling afterward and felt as if I would like to lie down
for a nice nap. And I continued to have hypoglycemia, high cholesterol,
and sinus infections, among many other things. Next, I added more
whole grains and fresh vegetables and cut back on meat, as suggested
in the current FDA “food pyramid.” A typical dinner
was brown rice and chicken casserole, fresh steamed broccoli,
a slice of homemade whole wheat bread with butter, and homemade
applesauce. My blood sugar stabilized, but I continued to have
cravings as well as a wide variety of other health issues.
Next, I tried eating nothing but fruits and
fruit juices from dawn until noon. The rest of the day I would
be careful to have only one “concentrated” food (protein
or fat) at a meal—and no more fruit. I ate meat, but never
with a starch. The large amounts of fruit kept me craving sweets,
and I experienced low periods every afternoon. I never felt energetic
after eating meat. And I didn’t find the food satisfying.
So I went back to my previous diet—and gained more weight
and added a host of health concerns.
And so it went until I learned about the Youngs’
program, and the proper way to combine foods. The day I started
eating alkaline and drinking a gallon of water with pH drops and
concentrated green powder every day, my life changed. I immediately
noticed a rise in my energy levels. The most important changes
I made, besides getting plenty of good water, were to eat something
raw at each meal, focus mainly on green vegetables, and use the
more alkaline grains.
At first I wanted that feeling of having something
stick to my ribs, but found that the high-water/low-sugar foods
gave a sustained energy that I was not used to. Now dinner is
typically a vegetable, soba noodle, and tofu stir fry, or occasionally,
a small portion of grilled salmon, Jasmine rice with almonds,
fresh steamed asparagus, and some raw pepper strips. For lunch
I almost always have a fresh salad built from spinach, dark green
lettuces, avocado, cucumber, celery, carrots, radishes, pumpkin
seeds, sprouts, a little baked tofu, and a dressing of lemon juice,
olive oil, and spices. (For years I had cut out all fat/oil of
any kind due to my cholesterol challenge. Nothing helped until
I added liberal amounts of the good essential oils to my diet
daily.) To that I add a vegetable and hummus wrap in a sprouted
wheat tortilla, or a brown rice cake with almond butter. That
follows a breakfast of steamed millet with avocado, tomatoes,
and flax oil, or lightly steamed broccoli and buckwheat cereal.
That usually keeps me going strong until well into the afternoon.
I never feel low in the afternoon anymore.
Sometimes I snack on a handful of soaked almonds.
Often I make a gently warmed vegetable soup with an organic vegetable
broth, which I enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. These foods
give me all the energy my body needs. The foods I crave now are
healthy, alkaline foods that are high in water content and low
I now understand that though we all have our genetic tendencies,
we are not bound by them. The gene might be the bullet, but the
trigger is our lifestyle. This lifestyle has proven successful
for me and my family for over two years now, keeping us healthy,
energetic, and satisfied. We find the food delicious and sustaining.
I have enjoyed developing recipes that are as healthy and beautiful
as they are tasty. I prepare alkaline meals for my family of five
every day, and on Sundays, when the rest of our family and friends
come to eat, I serve alkaline food for twenty or more. They’ve
enjoyed it so much that my married children have adopted some
of these principles for their own young families, and they’ve
all enjoyed health benefits. I feel my quest for a truly healthy
way of eating has finally paid off.
Combining sugar and starch, or sugar and protein, leads to the
same kinds of problems. And just what is in the lunchboxes of
the majority of kids today (I’d be willing to bet)? Peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches! That manages to hit all the bases
at once, guaranteeing digestion disaster.
Fortunately, the solution is simple: Mix no more
than four foods, from no more than two types of food, at any given
meal. For example, have steamed broccoli, and a mesclun and tomato
salad with marinated tofu or soba noodles, but not both (three
vegetables, and one protein, or three vegetables and one complex
carb). Choosing fewer foods provides the simplest load on the
digestive system. With that in mind, and following the general
principles of this program, if you use only one protein per meal,
and only one complex carbohydrate per meal, you are most of the
Once you’re fully on an alkalizing diet, it
gets simpler still. When you’re eating mainly foods that
are high in water and low in sugar, you no longer need to worry
about proper combining. You can’t help but combine them
properly, since you are, for the most part, limiting or eliminating
the problematic foods. The foods that have makeups most similar
to that of our bodies (high water content, 70 percent or more;
naturally occurring oils, 20 to 30 percent; low protein, 5 to
7 percent; and even lower sugar, 0.5 to 3 percent) all combine
with each other with no problem.
When you are strong and symptom-free, you can indulge
in more complex meals with no real harm. Still, at the beginning
of the program, or if you are seriously ill, or if you just want
to ensure you’re on an ideal regimen, paying strict attention
to the rules that follow will serve you well.
All you’re trying to do is keep starch and animal protein
separate, and keep sugars, including fruit, away from just about
everything. That’s why, once you have fully made the transition
to this program, avoiding animal proteins, sugars, and most fruits,
combining is not an issue. In the meantime, here are the official
1. Low-sugar/high-water vegetables (or fruits) combine
with everything. Eat them with protein, starch, or cold-pressed
oils—and with other vegetables!
2. Eat starches with vegetables or low-sugar fruits.
Don’t eat starches (including starchy vegetables) with animal
protein, acids, fruit, or oil. (For the purposes of food combining,
“acid” is not necessarily the same as foods that make
the body more acidic. The two most important examples of this
exception are lemons and tomatoes, which are themselves acidic
but which actually make the body more basic.) So, when you do
choose a grain (including bread or pasta) or winter squash or
potato, eat it alongside vegetables, and not with fish, for example.
3. Eat animal protein with vegetables or low-sugar
fruits. Don’t eat animal protein with starch, acids, or
oils. Vegetable proteins combine with all low-sugar, high-water-content
vegetables and fruits, as well as with good oils. Here’s
the flip side of the point above: When you’re having fish,
serve it with vegetables but not a grain. Get over paella (fish
with rice); try fish on a bed of steamed greens, or atop a crunchy
4. Eat high-sugar fruit on its own—if you
eat it at all. (Don’t eat fruit with protein, starch, vegetables,
or oil. In fact, don’t use fruit at all—with the exception
of lemon, lime, raw tomato, avocado, red, yellow, green, and orange
peppers, and nonsweet grapefruit—unless you are quite well,
and then only in moderation and in season.)
5. Eat (healthy) oils with vegetables and low-sugar
fruits (tomato, avocado, red, yellow, orange, and green bell peppers,
lemon, and lime). They also combine with starches (which must
be kept to 20 percent or less of your diet). Do not eat healthy
oils with animal fats or proteins. Seeds, nuts, and avocado —all
excellent sources of healthy fats—can be combined with plant
or animal protein, starches, or even high-sugar fruits. Don’t
douse your fish with oil or butter—use lemon juice, salsa,
or herbs instead—and you’ll be all set.
Now, for the “whys” of those wherefores:
1. Most vegetables, and the few fruits we’ve
mentioned, are your healthiest choices anyway, and the fact that
they combine with any other healthy choice just makes them even
more ideal as the focus of your diet.
2. Starch and animal proteins are a bad combination,
as explained earlier. Acids block the action of ptyalin, a component
of saliva that is necessary for proper starch digestion. Starches,
such as potatoes, bread, or pasta (and even whole grains), break
down into simple sugars in the body, so adding highsugar fruits
just layers sugar on top of sugar—and acid on top of acid.
The combination creates enough poisons that it can actually shut
down the immune system for five hours—or even longer. Oil
slows digestion of starch—though this won’t be a problem
if the starch is no more than 20 percent of your otherwise alkalizing
meal. Oil can neutralize acids, so you don’t want to have
to avoid the healthy ones.
3. When animal protein is digested in the stomach,
it creates acid.When combined with starches, the sugars in the
starches make even more acid, leading to indigestion, heartburn,
and gas—on top of all the other negative effects of a body
that’s too acidic. The same thing happens when you add more
acid (including the acids created from the digestion of high-sugar
fruit). Oils slow the digestion of animal protein, causing constipation
and eventually acid reflux, heartburn, and gas.
4. Fruit—at least, the vast majority of fruit—is
high in sugar, and acid-forming, so it is problematic even on
its own. Combined with protein it is a recipe for excess acid
(as well as indigestion and gas). Starch and fruit is just double
the sugar. In addition they have vastly different digestion times
(fruit is digested extremely rapidly), opening the door to fermentation
right in your digestive tract. Mixing fruit with oil can lead
to constipation and poor absorption of nutrients. Finally, while
fruits are cleansers, vegetables are builders. You unduly stress
your body by asking it to do opposites simultaneously.
5. Oil slows the digestion of animal proteins and
starch (though the latter will only be a problem if your starches
are exceeding that 20 percent of your diet).
NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS: AVOCADO AND TOMATO
Avocado is actually a fruit, but because it is low in
sugar and relatively high in protein, it can be combined with
vegetables, even the starchy ones, as well as with grains. So,
I enjoy an avocado sandwich on yeast-free spelt bread, or avocado
and tomato slices with lemon juice on jasmine rice.
Tomato too is a fruit. And although it
is acidic, it has an alkaline effect in the body because of its
low sugar content. So, like the avocado, it can be combined as
if it were a vegetable. problem if the starch is no more than
20 percent of your otherwise alkalizing meal. Oil can neutralize
acids, so you don’t want to have to avoid the healthy ones.
A FEW NOTES
Lemons and limes, or lemon and lime juice, are commonly thought
of as acidic, but they actually have an alkaline effect in the
body. So they do not fall under the warnings against combining
with acids, and can be used together with starches, proteins,
SEPARATING FOOD AND DRINK
One other combination that can be bad in terms of digestion is
food and beverages, even water. Don’t wash down food with
a drink. Cold drinks are particularly troublesome, as cold shuts
down digestive activity as easily as it preserves food. Water
(or other liquid) dilutes digestive chemicals, so it should be
drunk at least half an hour before, or one hour after, a meal
that includes animal protein. If you are eating a strictly vegetarian
meal, feel free to drink along with it. We recommend eating juicier
food items first, such as vegetables and salads, to pave the way
for heavier items later in the meal. You may also find that a
few sips of warm water after a meal aid digestion.
Excerpted from The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet,
Reclaim Your Health by Robert O. Young, Ph.D. and Shelley
Redford Young. Copyright © 2002 Robert O. Young, Ph.D. Excerpted
by arrangement with Warner Books, Inc., New York, NY. All rights
reserved. $14.95. Available in local bookstores or click