The principles of food combining espoused by natural hygiene in books such as the Diamond's Fit for Life, and Herbert Shelton’s Food Combining Made Easy work extremely well for the average individual who is new to this diet information. They worked for me when I first applied them. These principles essentially demonstrate that cooked proteins (fish, tofu, etc.) and cooked carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, etc.) should not be eaten together, and that all cooked foods should be eaten with a salad. They also demonstrate the vital point that only one type of concentrated cooked) food should be eaten at a meal. Also they suggest fruits should be eaten alone on an empty stomach.
The challenge with the old food combining principles is that they are outdated and much has been learned since they were formulated decades ago. My new guidelines are not strict (but helpful) - eating should be fun. Below, I have listed my suggestions for superior food combining.
1. If cooked or dehydrated foods are eaten, try to eat only one type per meal and eat them with green vegetables.
2. For beginners, fruit digests best on an empty stomach. One may try eating sweet fruits with green vegetables and/or fats/oils; this is fine as long as no gas/flatulence is created. Sweet fruits may be eaten with light green-leafy vegetables such as lettuce or mint leaves.
3. The following fruits combine well with fat-dominant foods: bananas, apples, dried fruits and alkaline fruits (citrus, figs, papaya, berries). Fat-dominant foods include: avocados, olives or olive oils, nuts, seeds or seed oils, coconuts, durian and raw dairy. Combining sweet fruits and fats will allow the sugar from the sweet fruit to be time-release, providing more long-term energy.
4. If sweet fruits are eaten with cooked or steamed non-starchy vegetables (asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli), the fruit should be eaten first. Combining sweet fruits and non-starchy cooked vegetables may allow the sugar from the sweet fruit to be time-released, again providing more long-term energy; this does not work for everybody. Sweet fruits should otherwise not be mixed with cooked or dehydrated foods due to the potential for fermentation and gas.
5. Initially, if you are very sensitive, stay with one type of sweet fruit at a time. One may eat multiple types of sweet fruit together as the digestive strength increases over weeks, months and years of eating raw plant foods.
6. Green-leafy vegetables of different varieties may be eaten together.
7. Green-leafed vegetables should always be eaten with any cooked starches (bread, pasta, rice, cakes), except for crispy or crunchy starches (corn chips, potato chips, toast, popcorn), which should be eaten with fats (avocados, lives or their oil, young coconut, seed oils, etc.). Crispy or crunchy starch is very coarse and harsh on the soft tissues of the body. Fats soften the abrasive quality of these foods.
8. Foods dehydrated below 120F are great for transition diets and as raw treats becase the enzymes are intact and they provide a bridge from cooked foods. Typical dehydrated foods should be eaten with plant fats. When transitioning onto raw foods, I found benefit in squeezing lemon or lime juice on cooked foods and dehydrated foods. This adds flavor, enzymes and alkalinity without contributing to fermentation of the food in digestion.
9. Cooked foods and dehydrated foods should not be mixed together and may cause a clash, fermentation and overall poor digestion. Again, only one concentrated food should be eaten per meal.
Etc…. (il y a 18 points)