In case you didn’t know, the digestion of food requires more energy than any other function in your body. For that reason, it is no wonder why you feel exhausted after a huge lunch.
Therefore, the best way to free up some additional energy is to make your digestion as fast and efficient as possible. One of the best tricks to streamline the digestive process is food combining.
Depending on which expert you ask, food combining can be very complicated. However, we prefer to keep it simple. All you have to do is pick just one dense food during every meal, whatever you are craving most at the moment, and then fill the rest of your plate with cooked and raw non-starchy vegetables. It is that simple. By doing this you won’t feel sluggish and you will avoid feeling bloated, which can put a damper on the rest of your day.
You don’t have to give up any food group which you love. All you have to do is not want to eat them all at the same time. Here is what you should do:
First pick one category at each meal:
Fresh fruit: avocados, nectarines, peaches, papaya, mango, berries, grapes, melons, kiwi, pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, pears, bananas, or apples.
Starches: beans and lentils, cooked corn, pasta and cereals, millet, spelt, quinoa and amaranth, oats, buckwheat, wheat, barley and rye, white potatoes, young thai coconut meat, avocados, sweet potatoes and yams, kabocha squash, acorn squash, or butternut squash.
Animal protein: eggs, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, milk, fish, poultry, pork, or read meat.
Nuts, seeds, and dried fruit: bananas, dried coconut, mature coconut, chia and flax seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, or almonds.
Second: fill the rest of your plate with raw or cooked non-starchy vegetables, such as garlic, ginger, asparagus, sugar snap peas, green beans, jalapenos, bell peppers, scallions, sprouts artichokes, fennel, raw fresh corn, yellow summer squash, zucchini, cucumber, celery, onions, beets, carrots, spaghetti squash, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, kale spinach, bok choy, cabbage, or leafy lettuces.
In addition, you can also enjoy the following neutral items, such as 70% dark chocolate, heavy cream, non-dairy nut or seed milk, coconut water, limes, lemons, cold-pressed oils, or butter. In the third and final step, wait for 3 to 4 hours before switching categories. However, if you become hungry between meals, snack on non-starchy vegetables as desired. There are, of course, some exceptions, such as bananas, beans and lentils, avocados, peanuts and soy nuts, and fresh fruit, but you can still eat them if you want.
As you can see above, the foods have been divided into four main categories. For a properly combined meal, just choose one category and only eat foods out of that category for that particular meal. Foods which are listed within the same category combine very well with each other. In addition, you can add anything from the neutral column in order to fill out your plate. As we said earlier, wait for 3 to 4 hours between each meal before you switch categories.