Food Combining

[ritafita]

Okay, I'm baffled by this issue. Some people swear by it, others don't even know the basics. What's a girl to believe?

I've heard that you shouldn't combine avocado and oil but yet I see it in SO many recipes that it's hard to understand how it can be bad if so many people do it.

Do you guys have any suggestions on food combining? Do you worry about it all? I just don't know if I should be focusing on that but now it's hard not to think about it every time I see a miscombined recipe.

[J.o.y.c.e]

Okay, I'm baffled by this issue. Some people swear by it, others don't even know the basics. What's a girl to believe?

I've heard that you shouldn't combine avocado and oil but yet I see it in SO many recipes that it's hard to understand how it can be bad if so many people do it.

Do you guys have any suggestions on food combining? Do you worry about it all? I just don't know if I should be focusing on that but now it's hard not to think about it every time I see a miscombined recipe.

Here's my take: No two bodies are exactly alike so what works for one person may not work for another. That's my belief. I don't worry about food combining but many will swear by it. I think in terms of raw food, it's trial and error for each of us individually. Plus your body and taste buds will change the longer you are doing raw foods. And for those who do more simple raw diets, I'm sure their bodies are going to be more sensitive if they were to have a big raw gourmet meal at at raw restaurant or such. Me personally: I am only 2 years into raw so I still like to make the big yummy gourmet crazy foods and desserts on the weekends. Then I go simple during the week with mostly green smoothies and salads.....this of course may slowly change as I evolve on this raw path...

Oh and I love kale salads with olive oil and a half of avocado! Never a problem! But that's just me...

I have read advice where brand new rawbies shouldn't worry so much about food combining initially. Can't remember where I read that..maybe it was Alissa Cohen's book?

Not sure if this is helpful but that's my take on it. :)

[ritafita]

Joyce,

Thank you, your post was very helpful. I've only been raw for a little under a month now so I'm still very new to everything and I've been told before not to worry about it...but worrying is in my nature. If you ever see a calm Rita, there should be panic. It's just that regardless of what I've been eating, I've been feeling bloated and I can't figure out why. I never eat fruit right after a big meal (unless it's heavier, like a banana) and I try to keep my fats seperated. It may just be that I have NO clue what a starch and what a protein is in the raw food world =P

[Velvet]

Tonya Kay has something funny and insightful to say about that (read her post here (http://www.tonyakay.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=978&p=4586&hilit=Twiggy#p4586)):
Q: What's your opinion of food combining?
A: in my opinion, food combining is extremely affective at eliminating bloating and gaining optimal nutrition. It is the fine tuning of a diet that one may or may not ever choose to embark upon.

If you are eating organic, raw vegan, then you are likely getting superior nutrition and the only reason in my opinion to worry about food combining is if you have that twiggy photo shoot tomorrow and it is essential that you look like a coat hanger for the clothing designer. I could be incorrect, but I believe none of us have that career restraint to worry about. Instead, be playful with food combining, only if you wish to fine tune your diet. If you have had, as you offered, eating issues in the past, maybe the nitpicking of food combining is really too many details to get hung up on with not enough health return.

Here is a nice food combining chart for a raw foodist to utilize playfully, if they so choose (see her post).

Myself, I find that not eating nuts and fruits in the same meal keeps uncomfortable gas away. I eat melons alone and give them a good hour and a half before my next food type. I tend to eat fruit at the end of a veggie/fruit mixed meal. But these are not rules. They are just things that I have discovered over years of natural eating that all come quite without conscious effort to me now.

Food combining works and when properly utilized will free up energy reserves possibly used in an improperly combined digestion process. But I keep it simple. Eat at least 70% organic, raw vegan and I think you have bigger things than apples vs. nut butter to worry about.

[ritafita]

Tonya Kay has something funny and insightful to say about that (read her post here (http://www.tonyakay.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=978&p=4586&hilit=Twiggy#p4586)):

If you are eating organic, raw vegan, then you are likely getting superior nutrition and the only reason in my opinion to worry about food combining is if you have that twiggy photo shoot tomorrow and it is essential that you look like a coat hanger for the clothing designer. I could be incorrect, but I believe none of us have that career restraint to worry about. Instead, be playful with food combining, only if you wish to fine tune your diet. If you have had, as you offered, eating issues in the past, maybe the nitpicking of food combining is really too many details to get hung up on with not enough health return.


Velvet-

That is by far the most comforting thing I have heard about food combining from anyone...not to mention the funniest! Thank you.

I have some OCD issues :o therefore when I pick a detail, I hang on it until something is resolved...at least in my neurotic brain. I will definitely try to worry less about it and just stick to the basics...I have learned the hard way why melon should always be eaten alone. That was painful.

But you eat fruit after your meals? Like as a dessert? That doesn't mess with your stomach?

[Velvet]

I think she means that she eats fruits at the end of a meal that itself contains veggies and fruits, but no nuts and little oil. Like a fruit and greens salad for example. ;)

I personally don't eat any fruits after my meals, I have green smoothies and juices alone in the morning or alone in between meals.

[Hippimom]

Thanks for asking this RitaFita, I have always had confusion issues with this. I try to stick to the food combining rules of Natalia Rose from the Raw Food Detox Diet, just because she lays it out so easily. However, I have heard that if you are all raw things like eating fruit after a salad shouldn't hurt. I do agree it is to each his own...So much info, so little time...:)

[ritafita]

I try to not worry too much about it but I have never been able to eat a salad without dressing. And dressings usually contain things like oil or nuts and I'm still not sure whether eating fruit after a salad with dressing is okay...I guess I should just experiment with it one of these days ;)

[SchoolOfRAWk]

Food combining is a science. Even people eating the SAD diet note marked improvement when simply food combining their Mcdonalds and Olive Garden meals appropriately. That said, it's very difficult to do all the time, and depends on where somebody is at, healthwise, as to how much of an issue it is. I feel better from steamed veggies or a cooked sweet potato than I do from really poorly combined gourmet raw foods, i.e. fruit and nut combined desserts, etc. My very first raw meal experience was at a restaurant, trying everything, and I never felt so ill in all my life from all the crazy combinations my friend and I had, honest to God! So people with leaky gut, acid issues or IBS, crohns, and stuff like that may want to pay more attention to it than people with just maybe "normally" compromised digestion. Just listen to your body, it'll tell you with gas and cramps and bloating if it's happy or not with what you ate. Overall, very few raw foodists follow it. The natural hygienists, most being very extreme and many of them pretty malnourished, are it's strongest disciples. Not to knock Natural Hygiene because it has a lot of great points and features that anybody can learn from. With food combining you'll likely just learn that the simpler you eat, the more natural you'll feel. But while eating all raw vegan organic, don't sweat the small stuff ;-)