Knowing how to properly combine food can prevent gas, bloating, in addition to stomach pains. Our bodies aren’t trash cans; mixing different food groups within a short period of time can cause indigestion and even heart burn. Have you ever finished a burger from a fast food joint and felt uncomfortably full for hours on end? That isn’t only because fast food is downright unhealthy, but also because of poor food combining.

When we ingest foods, our system goes through three other steps:

1. Digestion

2. Absorption

3. Elimination

I won’t go into the details of the macromolecules and the biology behind it, but look it up if you’re interested!

There are different categories of food, with some that take longer to digest than others.Because each part of our digestive system has different enzymes to break down food, it is important to refrain from ingesting too many different food categories in one sitting. For example, proteins are broken down with an enzyme called pepsin, which is located in our stomach. If we mix proteins with with other categories like starches, it will make it much more difficult for our bodies to perform digestion, therefore slowing down the process and causing you to feel sluggish and bloated.

Today, I would like to ramble particularly about fruit combining!

Both Leung and I love fruit, as we consider them as nature’s candy. Although fruit is healthy, it should never be consumed after a meal, as they are super easy and quick to digest. Imagine this. If we eat a heavy meal, and eat our fruit last as “dessert”, then the fruit has to sit on top of the pile of foods that we just ingested, waiting to be digested. As a result, the fruit will start to ferment in our system, causing gas and other unpleasant effects.

So, always remember to eat fruit or raw vegetables before indulging in other carbohydrates (grains), proteins (meats and legumes), or fats (nuts, seeds)!

Even different types of fruit belong to different categories and mixes better with one compared to another. To make our lives easier, I created a colourful chart for you to refer to, explaining the basics of proper fruit combining. Feel free to print it out and stick it on your refrigerator for future reference!