Food combining: Fact or myth?

[Uhu]

I recently read Dr Gillian Mckeith's (GM) book and food combining is part of her strategy for healthly eating. Food combining has been promoted before with other eating regimes such as the Hay diet. In a way, I was disappointed to see that GM promotes this strategy also because personally, I am not convinced that it is a credible argument. Basically, she and other supporters of this theory claim that eating carbohydrates and protein in the same meal is too much for the body to handle. Carbohydrates are digested with alkaline base enzymes and proteins with acid base ones. As you know, acids and alkalis neutralise each other and so according to GM, this makes digestion inefficient (page 79 of her book).

I have given this a great deal of thought and personally, I am not convinced. From what I can remember from biology at school, protein digestion occurs initally in the acid medium of the stomach to form polypeptides which are further broken down in the intestine to amino acids. The enzymes in the intestines operate in alkaline conditions. The acids from the stomach have already been neutralised by bile from the gall bladder in the liver as the food moved from the stomach to the intestine. Carbohydrates are digested primarily in the intestine with alkaline based enzymes. Consequently, if the enzymes in the intestines are all operating in an alkaline environment, how can they neutralise each other?

Therefore, is there any justification to the claims that eating protein and carbohydrates together makes digestion inefficient when the human body, which has evolved over thousands of years in order to achieve optimum performance, is designed to digest these two food groups simultaneously. My answer is no, there is no justification and the only reason ones loses weight on food combining diets, is because you are restricting your food intake. If people feel sluggish after eating protein and carbohydrates at the same meal, then they have probably eaten more food than they needed.

I would be interested in your views on this matter.

[prettycandles]

The most successful diet I have ever been on was food combining. I lost 2 stone over one summer (about 3-4 months, perhaps), put back about 3/4 of a stone over the following year, and lost another 1 stone over the following summer (2-3 months or so). That's the best dieting I have ever done, with the best long-term results as well.

I don't know how it works - I've read some of the books, but it doesn't make sense to me either. I'm sure that not eating chocolate, crisps, cakes, etc makes a big difference! And that I must have been eating fewer calories overall during those two summers that I was food combining. But the truth is that I did feel wonderfully energised within a few weeks of starting (not euphoric, just younger! ) and that my skin, hair and nails all improved enormously. I stuffed myself as full as I liked - and believe-you-me, after a huge jacket potato and beans or pasta and sauce or steak and salad, you still feel sluggish - and ate loads of olive oil. Nobody at work could believe that I was dieting, with the quantity and type of foods that I was eating, yet they saw the results!

I haven't a clue how it works - but it does!

[prettycandles]

Actually, I seem to recall that one of the rpinciples behind food combining is that different foods are digested at different rates, so if you eat a speedily-digested food, eg fruit, after a slowly-digested food, eg meat, then the speedily digested fruit gets slowed down and ferments.

[Uhu]

Is it a case that food which is easily digested tends to contain a high amount of water, e.g fruit? This is probably why dieters are always told to drink more water in order to aid complete digestion and to ensure that the liver functions at his optimum capacity. It also explains why dieters on the Atkins diet tend to suffer from constipation - no fruit or other food with a high water content in the diet!

I've no doubt that on a food combining diet that you will lose weight but I suspect it is more down to calorie restriction.

[aloha]

All experts on nutrition and drs who know about digestion say the stuff about not being able to digest protein and carbohydrates together is a huge myth. But of course, if you cut out chocolate, cheese on toast, cakes, biscuits etc you do tend to lose weight. Also, having to think about your meals and plan them like that tends to lead to calorie restriction.

[prufrock]

Michel Montignacs has a different theory on food combining. Foods with a high Glycaemic index (eg potatoes, white pasta) put sugar into the body. The body produces insulin to help absorb the sugar, and left over insulin apparently turns fat in foods into body fat. If you don't eat high GI carbs when eating fat, the body does not produce excess insulin, and the fat in foods passes through you rather than being laid down.
I'm not sure of the scientific basis for his claims, but it does work for my dh, and he really doesn't eat (or drink) less when he is on the diet. OF course, the fact that he cuts out foods with a high GI might be the cause.

[prettycandles]

I wonder whether it is simply a matter of 'considered eating'. Obviously you're cutting down on high-fat high-sugar snacks like chocolate and crisps, but principly you're thinking about what you eat rather than just grabbing something on the go. Making fundamentally healthy selections, then eating as much of them as you want.

Also, by restricting certain combinations I found myself eating less of certain foods, eg less wheat and less dairy, and subsequently realised that I was somewhat intolerant of them. So by reducing the amount of wheat or dairy, or by changing their form (eg yogurt rather than plain milk) I found myself feeling better all round, and digesting other foods more efficiently.