When thinking of combining foods, it is helpful to think of Aristotle's phrase, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." Although he was talking about physics, we can look at the concept of synergy with food as well. Food combining means eating foods that are nutritionally appropriate with each other. The idea is to focus on the dominant nutrient of foods for better digestion, increased energy levels and lower levels of toxicity in the body.
Better Digestion
Food combining is essential for proper digestion and the use of nutrients that enter our bodies. As in chemistry, when acids and bases come in contact with each other, they neutralize. Similar things happen in your digestive tract and slow down digestion. When you combine foods that require opposite digestion states, you also compromise the absorption of nutrients.
Increased Energy Levels
Food combining emphasizes the different acidity levels that your body needs to digest different food groups. For example, when protein is consumed, the body uses acid to digest it. But when starch is consumed, the body enters an alkaline state. If you eat foods that use similar digestion processes together, you avoid unnecessary work for your body.
The more processes your body must go through to digest a meal, the more energy the digestive system requires, leaving less energy for other processes in your body. Thus oxygen and blood attend to your digestive tract and provide less to your brain, which makes you feel less energized. Combining foods that keep your body in one acidity state at a time will increase your energy levels.
Lower Toxicity Levels
A key component of food combining is not to combine fruit with any other food. This is because fruit digests quickly alone, but must wait until everything else is digested when combined with another food group. For example, when you eat protein and fruit together, the protein gets digested first and the fruit takes a backseat to wait its turn. While waiting for the proper digestion state, that fruit can start fermenting and even rotting. The processes of fermentation and rotting release toxins into our digestive system which can cause uncomfortable tummy troubles.
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