There has been a lot of research done on the significance of food combining when we eat. Many believe that our stomach is designed to only digest food correctly one food type at a time or eating foods together that are compatible with each other. This is because each food type requires a different enzyme to digest them. Eating the correct food combinations will help your body digest food optimally so that you are getting all the nutrients that are in the food.
What is it?
Food combining is eating foods together that require the same enzymes for digestion. From a scientific standpoint, we know that in order for meats to be broken down, an acidic environment in the stomach is needed. If you drink milk with your meal, which is alkaline, that neutralizes the stomach environment and can hinder proper digestion of the meat.
Think about all of the people that experience indigestion. It is now so common that it is seen as a normal fact of life. We spend in excess of 2 billion dollars a year on antacids (substances which counter stomach acidity). Wouldn’t it be better if instead of having to choke down an antacid all you needed to do was eat foods the right way? Eating the correct food combinations can help end indigestion and improve health and vitality because you will be getting the proper nutrients out of your food.
A Brief History of Food Combining
The idea of food combining for optimal nutrition was introduced in 1911 by William Howard Hay. Food combining was based on the current ideas of that time as far as the requirement of alkalinity to digest food the proper way in the stomach whilst taking into consideration the pH of the food you are eating.
This then lead to a need for a classification system of foods, and this was created by Herbert M Shelton. His classification system looked at food and grouped it together by the nutrients that each food produced. This broke foods up into three groups, those that are considered “neutral”, those that are carbohydrates and those that are proteins. Herbert M. Shelton went as far as to recommend that you eat proteins and carbohydrates at different meals.


