The Best Foods To Combine For Digestion

Digestion is different for each person and what one person digests well is challenging for another despite guidelines on foods for improved digestion. Digestion is critical and impacts many aspects of daily life. Healthy digestion improves quality of life, prevents disease and improves overall health. A strong understanding of basic digestion is a good place to start at understanding the truths vs. fallacies regarding the idea of combining foods for digestion.

Basic Digestion

Digestion of food begins in the mouth when food is eaten and salivary amylase, a digestive enzyme secreted in your mouth, begins the process of breaking down food. After leaving the mouth, food travels down the esophagus into the stomach along the digestive tract and mixes with a combination of stomach acid and pancreatic juices which include enzymes. There are specific enzymes for carbohydrates, proteins and fat that breakdown the food for digestion. These enzymes can be secreted all at once if a food contains fat, protein and carbohydrate. After enzymes break down your food, it then moves on to the small intestine blood stream for absorption.

Food Combining Fallacies

Fallacies regarding food combining for digestion involve the idea that fat and protein must be eaten separately as well as fruit and proteins or the food will rot in your stomach. Another fallacy is not to combine acidic food with starchy foods as this will disrupt digestion. Dana Angelo White, M.S., R.D., from the Food Network Healthy Eats blog explains this is isn't the truth and that all foods can be eaten in combination or alone since your body contains enzymes specific to each nutrient.

Food Combining Truth

There is some truth to food combining as certain nutrients help to absorb other nutrients. Examples include vitamin C assisting with the absorption of iron such as in the case of drinking orange juice with spinach or orange juice with chicken or fortified cereal. Jilll Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E., explains another combination is salad and salad dressings. This combination of food eaten together helps you to absorb the antioxidants found in the vegetables in the salad. Another example is eating vegetables with cheese as the fat in the cheese assists with digestion of fat-soluble vitamin A found in many vegetables. The protein in the cheese also increases feelings of fullness when eating vegetables.

Fiber, Fluid and a Variety of Foods

Eating adequate amounts of fiber each day is a great way to promote digestion. An adequate amount is 20 to 35 g of fiber each day, according to the Harvard School of Public Health and should come from a variety of sources including whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Adequate fluid assists with moving stool along the digestive tract, thus preventing constipation. The Institute of Medicine recommends 13 cups of water each day for men and 9 cups for women.