With 60 percent of the U.S. population classified as overweight or obese, many Americans are looking for a quick weight loss solution. Food grouping, also known as trophology or the Hay diet, suggests that consuming specific foods alone or only in conjunction with other specific foods will make a significant difference in your digestion, absorption, health and ultimately your waistline.
Trophology and Dr. Hay
Trophology is defined as the study of "correct" food-combining and is a methodology of eating introduced by Dr. William Hay, a New York physician, in the 1920s. Hay was diagnosed with nephritis and found himself at a loss for a cure. As a last resort, Hay changed his eating habits, switching to an intake of exclusively natural foods.
The Hay Diet
Hay's diet changes improved his health and saved his life, which led him to study the effect of food combining to reduce acidic conditions in the body and therby prevent disease. Hay's methodology is very similar to that of a basic healthy diet: promoting high intake of fresh fruits and vegtables, limiting intake of fats, starches, and proteins; and avoiding processed refined foods at all costs. His plan varies in that he recommends that dieters not eat carbohydrates with proteins or acid fruits during one meal period, about 4 to 4 1/2 hours between consumption times.
Food Combining Diet vs The Balanced Diet
In 2000, the "International Journal of Obesity" conducted a study to put Hay's diet plan to the ultimate test: a weight loss challenge. Researchers wanted to see if food-combining would yield faster and more effective weight loss results than the traditional low-fat balanced diet plan. As it turns out, food-combining is no more effective or faster for weight loss than the traditional low-fat, balanced diet. Additionally, the Hay diet did not result in any greater improvement in blood cholesterol, blood pressure and triglyceride levels.
Additional Facts
Studies like this show no significant difference in the health of people who choose to follow the Hay diet over a traditional low-fat, balanced diet. In the 1920s and '30s when Hay conducted most of his work, preventative medicine was not pursued, therefore Hay's ideas were viewed as radical and not readily accepted and put into practice. It seems he was a forward thinker, who put a more in-depth twist on today's low-fat, balanced diet concepts.
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