Food combining is a diet strategy first detailed by Dr. William Howard Hay in 1911. The idea behind the diet is that eating the wrong kinds of foods at the same time creates a condition of acidity in the body. Dr. Hay believed that this chemical imbalance, a departure from a natural alkaline condition, affects the ability to metabolize foods. Food combining guidelines are designed to lead to efficient food processing and vibrant good health.
Step 1
Do not eat starches and sugars at the same meal with proteins and acid fruits. Leave at least four hours between meals with starches and meals with proteins. Follow this rule to stimulate your metabolism to burn fat faster. Columbia University's health service points out that this may be difficult at times because foods like pasta are both starch and protein. But Columbia affirms that the food-combining diet has no major detrimental effect on nutrition and that it could be a healthy choice for a dieter who is careful to balance foods.
Step 2
Eat only whole grains and unprocessed starches. Eliminate all refined and processed foods from your diet. This is widely accepted advice for healthy eating in general. Ingesting more whole grains, unrefined and unprocessed foods gives you more vitamins, minerals and fiber for your calories. The body receives better nutrition and works harder to process the fuel, burning more calories. Fiber also helps to move waste faster through the digestive system.
Step 3
Allow yourself only small quantities of proteins, starches and fats. The most important nutrients to consume daily are fruits and vegetables, followed by whole grains. You should work for a balance that is light on fat but contains some healthy unsaturated fats. And limit protein to lean, low-fat or plant-based sources.
Step 4
Drink very little milk and eat few dairy products, because milk does not combine well with other foods. That is Dr. Hay's century-old advice, but it has widespread contemporary echoes. Substitute nut, rice or soy milks for cow's milk if you want to cut back on dairy. Eat cheeses and ice creams made with nondairy products. Stick to low-fat milks when you do consume dairy.
Step 5
Make the main part of the diet fruits, vegetables and salads mixed with pulses like lentils and beans. Add only unprocessed foods. The food combining lists from Hay's diet show vegetables, salads, herbs, nuts, seeds, cream, butter and oil as neutral foods that can safely be combined with foods either from a protein list or a starch list --- but never both at the same time. Eat tomato and herb sauce on your spaghetti, but don't have meatballs with it.
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