| The following information is about a way of eating that may give you significant relief from a variety of complaints, including digestive problems, allergies, bloating, heartburn, etc. The rules and suggested food combinations are guidelines, and each person must adapt the diet to according to their experience. For instance, some people can tolerate more of a "bad combo" than others; some people can take in more carbohydrates without gaining weight. This diet will help your body better utilize the food you ingest. For significant weight loss, however, you must decrease the amount of sugar and carbohydrates that you consume. If you are vegetarian, consider soy, tofu and other plant-based protein to be the same as animal-based protein for the purposes of combining. All proteins require acid-based digestion chemicals. Dr. Goodheart's experiences outlined in the article below support an animal-based diet; however, many vegetarians find that a plant-based diet suits their body better. Each person must determine what works best for them. This is a long article worth reading, but for quick reference: Combo rule #1 Combo rule #2 Combo rule #3 How bad combos create allergies General dietary rules Suggested meal plans Combinations to avoid Combinations that may be eaten freely High and low starch fruits and veggies Acid/Alkaline food chart |
||
| "Food Combinations" |
||
This material is a compendium of the work published by Howard Hay, M.D., Daniel C. Monro, M.D., L.M. Rogers, M.D. and Dr. George Goodheart's observations from more than fifty years in practice. |
||
When we eat and what we eat has a lot to do with how much good we get from our food. The proper combination of foods is a big subject and an important one. Much has been said on it and there has been some controversy. A close study of all the known facts and informed opinions leads inexorably, in my opinion, to one conclusion. I shall set them forth here and let them speak for themselves. I know that in doing so I shall encounter resistance from two quarters. First from those to whom the idea is a new one, those to whom eating bread and potatoes with meats seems so eminently natural that they are loath to accept the thought that such a combination is a bad one. Many of our oldest habits are unsound and should be changed, not lightly or for a whim, but when solid convincing reason is brought forth for so doing. As a foundation for my observations, my theory of dietetics is based upon the hypothesis that inadequate absorption of food causes degeneration of tissue, and that for perfect metabolism we must not combine high starches and high proteins and fats in the same meal. It is, of course, absolutely impossible not to combine proteins and carbohydrates in the same meal. Practically all foods have some protein, some carbohydrate or some fat. However, a meal can be predominantly protein or predominantly carbohydrate. No one will ever dispute that statement. Briefly stated, my contention is that a combination of high protein and high starches effectively inhibits the complete absorption of all the nutritive factors of foods and places an unnecessary burden upon the entire digestive apparatus. My own first special interest in food combinations several years ago followed a simple observation of my own digestion. I noticed that on some picnics I would suffer considerable discomfort two or three hours after eating the sandwiches which were always our lunch. The discomfort was of the unpleasant type laymen call ³sour stomach². On other picnics I would feel fine all day. Checking soon showed that on the one hand the sandwiches which gave me trouble were those make with meat, eggs, or cheese. When the sandwiches were made of tomato, lettuce, jam or preserves, I got no unpleasant ³sour stomach² effect. I felt fine. Yet I knew that meat and eggs and cheese agreed with me --- I ate them frequently with no bad effects whatever. The answer was obvious; they gave me trouble only when I ate them in sandwiches. Then a man who conducts picnics came to me for advice on how he could plan picnic lunches and avoid the indigestion so many of his people complained of. I said, ³Donıt give them meat, cheese or eggs in their sandwiches.² He followed my suggestion and was delighted with the result. He reported that his people came home in a happier frame of mind, that remarks about indigestion had ceased, and that people were going on more picnics. Bread is a high carbohydrate. Eating high carbohydrates with proteins interferes with proper digestion. But that isnıt all. As I have stated earlier, many of our illnesses and infirmities are due to deficiencies of certain essential food factors --- vitamins and minerals. These deficiencies produce degeneration of certain tissues, and this degeneration results in loss of resistance to disease. Then infections invade us and produce disease. These deficiencies are dangerous and must be avoided. It is not enough to have the essential elements in the food we eat -- they must actually be utilized by our bodies, they must be available to our tissues. It is a fact that we may eat large quantities of these food elements and get no benefit at all from them! If at the same time we eat other foods which interfere with the proper chemical digestion of the vitamin and mineral bearing foods, then we fail to absorb the essential elements into our circulation. If we eat some cheese, rich in calcium, and at the time it reaches our small intestine, an alkaline digestive process is going on there, then very little (if any) of that calcium will be available to us. The calcium will make a chemical combination with the alkali and become non-absorbable, it will pass through our body unused! No mater how much cheese we eat, we may still suffer from calcium deficiency -- if the calcium is not absorbed. But if this food reaches our small intestine when and acid condition is present, then much of the calcium will be utilized. Obviously then, we must be certain that when we eat cheese, our small intestine will be acid and not alkaline. But how? The answer is clear and incontrovertible: by not eating any high carbohydrates at the same time. When we eat carbohydrates - starches and sugars - our small intestine becomes alkaline, and a condition is created by which essential factors in other foods cannot be used. But that isnıt all. These same carbohydrates may interfere with the digestion of certain proteins in the stomach itself, and partially digested protein food actually becomes toxic material. Research has found that proteins may be split up by imperfect digestion into large protein molecules that may be absorbed into circulation and prove toxic (poisonous) to the body. Instead of being split up into smaller molecules (the amino acids that are end-products of normal digestion) proteins eaten with carbohydrates may actually become agents of evil to our tissues, such as, the allergy producing and poisonous amines. Let us look at the physiology of digestion. There are two distinctly different types of digestion: an acid digestion for proteins (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and cheese) and an alkaline digestion for carbohydrates (sugars and starches). All physiologists agree that proteins are digested largely in the stomach , by the gastric juice, which is acid in reaction. One of the most important constituents of the gastric juice is free hydrochloric acid. Another important ingredient of gastric juice is pepsin, the ferment that splits the protein; pepsin acts only in an acid medium. In other words, the stomach contents are always acid, and the stomach must be acid in order to do its job of digesting protein foods. Carbohydrate foods, on the other hand, are not digested in the stomach, but are digested largely in the small intestine, principally by the pancreas secretion, which are alkaline. One of the most important constituents of this process is amylopsin, which splits the starch, and the amylopsin acts only in an alkaline medium. On their way through the stomach to the small intestine, the carbohydrates inhibit the secretion of the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, but at the same time combine with some of the free hydrochloric acid which is already there. They pick it up and take it with them. Fats follow a still different course. Pure fats leave the stomach as fats, and entering the small intestine, cause the gall bladder to empty a quantity of bile into the intestine. This bile saponifies (converts into soap) the fat. This is the first step in digesting fat. But this process liberates fatty acids. These fatty acids, of course, work to neutralize whatever secretions are present in the small intestine. Obviously, therefore, if these fatty acids are produced in the intestines while some carbohydrates are being digested there, itıs just too bad. The alkaline secretions that are part of that digestive process will be neutralized, and the action of the amylopsin will be stopped. The digestion of the carbohydrates will be interfered with, and they will be left free to ferment and produce gas (causing that all too familiar bloated feeling after eating).Hence the following rule, which is not only logical and physiologically sound, but has been proved highly valuable by clinical observation: RULE 1: Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream, bacon fat) with high starches (potatoes, bread, cereal, sweets) at any one meal. If you're having high carbohydrates at a meal, don't eat any fats. And if you're having fats, don't eat any carbohydrates. Simple, isnıt it? If you're having bacon for breakfast, don't eat cereal or bread. If you're having potatoes for lunch and a sweet desert, don't put butter on your potatoes or cream in your coffee. In the past many physicians have practiced this rule unconsciously, by advising patients to cut out all fats and high starches, or greatly restrict them. Obviously, this produced good results, because patients who ate neither could not combine pure fats and high starches. But, with a restriction of fats there was always the serious danger of running into a deficiency of the fat soluble vitamins and certain fatty acids (such as vitamin F) which are necessary to preserve life. Now that the light of science has illumined the field, neither fats nor starches will have to be eliminated or restricted in most cases. The patient will simply be told to eat them at different times. Interesting evidence that he high starches and pure fats are incompatible came as a sidelight from the observations of Dr. Joslin in his famous diabetic clinic in Boston. He established the fact that if you cut down the high fats in diabetic diets, you can add more carbohydrates without getting any increase of sugar in the urine; without increasing insulin, if it is an insulin dependent patient. What does this indicate? Remember, that diabetes is a disease in which the carbohydrate food is not split up into its end products; the sugars get into the blood stream and accumulate there, and that is why intake of carbohydrates has always been cut down to the minimum. But when fats are decreased, then the carbohydrates "digest" better, or split up more readily. Perhaps the presence of pure fats in the intestine while starches were being digested there was a considerable factor in the production of diabetes in the first place! Possibly, in that way, as fatty acids were liberated, the pancreas depleted itself in a continued effort to produce secretions to neutralize these acids and became unable to manufacture its own insulin. Primitive man did not eat fats with carbohydrates. Eating his food as he found it, he ate lots of fat with his meat when he killed an animal; but in millions of years he never found lumps of pure fat attached to any vegetable (carbohydrate) foods. Eat fats with meats, or with any other proteins - fish, poultry, eggs or cheese. In fact, you must be sure to eat fats with meat, they not only can be combined, they must be combined. One of the most important studies ever made on an exclusive high protein and fat diet, was conducted through the cooperation of the explorers Vilhjalmur Steffanson and Karsten Andersen. The purpose of the test was to demonstrate that man could live on a purely animal diet in our climate for an indefinite time, and in this case it was extended over a period of one full year. The complete report of this experiment has been published and I can only report the general findings here. I mention it only to emphasize the importance of proteins and fats in the diet. The conclusions reached by this test were: (a) That is is possible for man to live for long periods on meat alone. (b) That no ill effects whatever were recorded. (c) that the diet, in order to be adequate had to contain large quantities of fat, some liver, and that lean meat alone was not tolerated. (d) That the tissues of one animal contain everything which is essential for another animal, in this case, man. Important clinical observations in this test support my thesis that there is greater absorption of foodstuffs when eaten in the proper combinations. There was much greater absorption, no gas and a distinct simplification of putrefactive organisms in the intestine. There was no constipation. A further important observation was that both men showed no increase in blood pressure throughout the year, and one of them actually showed a decrease of 20 mm in his systolic blood pressure. This experience and its conclusion, that fats and proteins are an excellent combination, checks with our knowledge of the physiology of digestion. Since protein is digested largely in the stomach by acids, and since the pepsin which helps digest it works only in an acid medium -- then when it gets into the small intestine, if fats are being digested there at the same time and they have liberated enough fatty acids to make the intestine acid, then the action of the pepsin would be prolonged and the digestion of the protein would be carried further. It all works out beautifully - fats, proteins, acids, they all go together and help each other. Remember that, associate them in your mind: fats, proteins, acids. But remember that it's a different story with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (starches and sugars) are digested by alkalies. Naturally, if any acid is combined with carbohydrates it will tend to neutralize the alkaline digestive juices they need. The more acid present, the more alkaline secretion will be required to neutralize the acid before it can begin to digest the carbohydrates. That is simple, too, isnıt it - and obvious? From this we get RULE 2: Don't combine acids and carbohydrates. Don't take buttermilk, orange juice, lemon juice, grapefruit juice or vinegar at any meal which also includes high starches and sugars. Here again there is an interesting corollary that will be good news to many people. Often patients have told me "they cannot take orange juice, which they love, because it causes an acid stomach." On questioning them, I've invariably found that they had taken it at breakfast with cereals, toast or other carbohydrates. Invariably, when I told them to take it alone or with protein foods only, the did so with great satisfaction and no bad effects. If you have had trouble with orange juice, try it with bacon and eggs only. It should be remembered, of course, that most healthy people can combine orange juice and starches without feeling any distress or evidence of impaired digestion. But the impairment goes on just the same! Every time a healthy person combines acids and starches he is making trouble for his digestion, he is getting less value from his foods, and he is hurting himself. The body has remarkable ability to adjust itself to the most terrible treatment. You have heard many people exclaim, "I have the digestion of a horse," or, "I could eat nails and it wouldnıt hurt me." Fifteen years later some of these people are health wrecks. My third rule is, perhaps, the most important rule of all. It is this: RULE 3: Do not combine high proteins (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, pasta, sweets) at the same meal. This prohibition is based not only on extensive clinical findings but on sound physiology. It has been vigorously disputed in the past but I have not yet seen any logical reason or proof against this rule. I am certain that it will not be disputed in the future. Let us review the evidence. It may seem a little tedious but I soberly assure you that you should understand this subject for your future full health. We know that proteins require acid for their digestion in the stomach. We know that carbohydrates require alkalies for their digestion in the small intestine. Some years ago, in a study that came out of the Mayo Clinic, two things were made clear: 1. Sugars inhibit the secretion of the hydrochloric acid in the stomach. 2. Sugars combine with the free hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Both of these actions, by lessening the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, interfere with the digestion of proteins, which must have that acid. Conversely, if proteins are being digested in the stomach and there is more acid there for the sugar to combine with (pick up and take along to the small intestine), then it will require just so much more alkaline secretion from the pancreas to neutralize the extra acid before it goes to work digesting the sugar. And the same is true of starches which are potential sugars. Not only do the sugars interfere with the digestion of the proteins, but the proteins make more difficult the digestion of sugars! Let us see what happens in the stomach when protein is eaten, when starch is eaten, and when proteins and starches are eaten together: and in what condition the food passes from the stomach into the intestine. A study by three Philadelphia investigators appeared in the June 1936 issue of the American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition in which a graph showed the degree of acidity of samples of the stomach contents withdrawn at varying times from five subjects; first after protein meals, then after starch, then after combined protein and starch. One and three quarters hours after the ingestion of the meals the record showed that the stomach contents of the protein meal were most acid, the starch meal least acid, and the mixed meal half way between. 100 c.c. of the protein meal stomach contents required 60 c.c. of the deci-normal alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid, and the graph was going up sharply. 100 c.c. of the starch meal contents required only 20 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid and the graph was falling rapidly. 100 c.c. of the mixed meal stomach contents required 40 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the acid, and the graph was coming down very slowly. This means that when the starch meal entered the small intestine comparatively little alkali would be required to neutralize the acid it had "picked up" in the stomach, but when the mixed meal reached the small intestine just twice as much alkaline pancreatic secretion would be needed to neutralize its acid before starch digestion could begin. It is also clear that when the mixed meal was eaten, the proteins in it were being digested under difficult conditions. Instead of the normal acidity required, as shown by the all-protein meal, the acidity was far lower. The presence of the starches had cut the acidity to one-third less! Just such conditions are most likely to produce imperfectly split up proteins - the large toxic protein molecule. When high proteins and high carbohydrates are mixed, this investigation proves, there is not enough acid to digest the protein part readily, and too much acid to digest the starch readily. Now the bad effects of this abuse are not always immediately apparent. The digestion of youth especially has abundant juices to spare; but if by habits of poor food combinations we impose this extra burden, we deplete that abundance, dip into our reserve power of accommodation, and by the time the age of thirty is reached there is a more or less impaired digestion. This may not make itself known by distressing symptoms, but the digestion is nevertheless chemically impaired. This contributes to an increasing deficiency of food elements, and that, in turn, leads to more tissue degeneration. Minor disturbances are directly created, serious diseases are make more probable, and one more obstacle is raised to our being able to live a full, long life of glowing health. Those with perfect health at present, please take note of this. High proteins and high starch food should not be mixed. Now it is true that nearly all foods contain some starch elements and some protein elements. This fact misled me when I first studied mixtures fifteen years ago, and it has misled other investigators since. Superficially, it would seem to indicate that the mixture is natural and therefore presumably healthful, but let us look at the details. Meat, leading protein food, does contain carbohydrate - but what kind? It contains a small amount of glycogen, or glucose - "muscle sugar". This is a carbohydrate that has been originally eaten by the animal from which the meat came, converted by the digestion of that animal and stored in its muscles as muscle sugar. Little digestion, if any, on our part is required to make this sugar ready to get absorbed - it is ready to be absorbed as soon as it is liberated from the protein part of the meat. Similarly, the amount of protein that is in starchy vegetables is small indeed in proportion, and because of its negligible quantity presents none of the difficulties in digestion that result from combining large quantities of high protein with high starches. With this point disposed of, I believe that my colleagues will agree that the physiological case against eating carbohydrates with proteins is complete and incontrovertible. While man, as he evolved, developed two types of digestion for the types of food he ate, other animals confined themselves to one type of food and correspondingly one type of digestion. What do they show us? Herbivorous animals, such as the cow or sheep, eating only vegetable fold, have specialized on alkaline digestion. They are equipped to eat large quantities of food in proportion to their size, compared with humans. They all first alkalize their food by much chewing (their saliva being alkali), and they all rechew their food for a long time (chewing the cud). They all have a large sack or pouch where man has his tiny appendix. Carnivorous animals, such as lions or wild dogs, have specialized in acid digestion. They bolt their food down in large pieces and chew it as little as possible, if at all. Actually the less they chew it, the better it is for them! An experimental study was carried out at the Mayo Clinic in which dogs were fed different articles of diet, and the contents of the small intestine were examined for the results of digestion. One comparison was made between meat fed in large chunks and meat ground up. The big pieces were digested far better than the ground meat. It is highly significant that meat-eating animals have no appendix or a very small one. Man, with his small appendix, seems plainly in the class of the meat-eating animals, rather than the herbivorous animals with their large pouches. Our inability to handle starches and sugars advantageously seems to stem from fundamental physical sources. With the atrophy of our appendix, we lost our ability to get enough protein from vegetable sources to produce the best possible physical man. We cannot chew our cud. Sound physiology dictates that when we, like carnivorous animals, eat meat, we should, like them, chew it as little as possible; but when we, like herbivorous animals, eat vegetable food, we should, like them, chew well and thoroughly. Careful clinical observation corroborates this. Tests show overwhelmingly that the fact proves the theory. Americans are notoriously calcium-deficient. Not because we donıt eat foods rich in calcium, but largely because we donıt eat them in combination or form in which the calcium can be assimilated. Animals never eat high proteins and high carbohydrates at the same meal. They have excellent teeth. Proteins made toxic - histamine and histaminase. I have mentioned earlier in practice the danger of improperly digested proteins which, instead of splitting up into their proper end-products, split up into intermediate or large protein molecules that are actually toxic. Some of these molecules are the substance called histamine; a toxic protein known to pathologists and pharmacologists. (Histamine is used by physicians as an irritant or capillary dilating element in unction's and in external treatments for sprains, arthritis, etc.) The histamine we manufacture within ourselves is a direct cause of many common troubles, especially allergic reactions such as hay fever, asthma, eczema, coryza, migraine headaches and general malaise (emphasis added). A careful and extended series of observations which I recently made gave unmistakable indications that mixed diets (combinations of fats with starches or high proteins with high carbohydrates), produce more histamine in the system than the combinations I have recommended. Histaminase is a substance developed from the intestines of certain food animals. It has the property of splitting up histamine and thus destroying its toxic effects. This put into our hands an excellent means of testing for the presence of histamine, and for finding with a considerable degree of accuracy to what extent bad food combinations produce toxic results. I have made careful observations on many allergic patients with this substance. When these patients eat a mixed meal, they require more units of histaminase to control their symptoms than when they eat proteins only or carbohydrates only! The mixed diet produced more histamine! Many allergic patients, in fact, lost their symptoms entirely by simply avoiding bad food combinations; they actually lost their hay fever or headaches by eating the kind of meals I recommended. But as soon as they slipped and ate an unwise meal, back came the symptoms. Clinical observations - careful studies of what happens to people like you and me, sick people, well people, and people almost well, superbly happy people and people who are just on the verge of physical collapse - have given me a complete and confident certainty of the great benefits to be derived and retained by avoiding the bad food combinations described in the foregoing. Theoretical physiology, laboratory tests and other research confirm it, but to me, my clinical experience over a period of fifty years is the most important evidence of all. I believe your own experience will be equally convincing to you. Experiences in curing diseases, experiences in building up weak people, experiences in restoring full vitality to men and women, experiences in bringing immediate benefits and long-range benefits to all types of cases, have made me sure that no other conclusion is possible. We have long known that extracts from the adrenal gland will control allergic reactions. Undoubtedly the adrenal gland takes care of the normal amount of histamine produced in the body; but when years of improper food habits have given us certain deficiencies and degenerations, the combination of excess histamine and food deficiencies depletes our adrenal glands; the control is lost, allergic reactions appear more readily and we are well on our way to serious bodily degeneration. The evidence on the matter of histamine production alone is sufficient to justify all my recommendations on the food combinations! Not all proteins are of equal value in nutrition. The different proteins vary widely in chemical composition and in their ability to satisfy the bodyıs requirement of nitrogen; they vary in the degree to which they supply the amino acids essential for tissue building and tissue repair. There are some ten amino acids which have been isolated from proteins and have been shown to be essential to human nutrition because they cannot be created within the body by converting other, non-essential amino acids into the essential amino acids. The value of any protein is measured by its ability to supple some or all of these essential amino acids. A complete protein would be one which would supply all of them, but unfortunately few proteins ever approach this ideal. However, a properly varied diet containing proteins from not only the muscle tissue of animals but also the connective tissues from their organs, plus eggs, will usually supply all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantity. Dietary Rules For Great Health: The general rule is: Be sure you eat enough of the vital food elements; and be sure you eat them in the right combinations. 1. Eat all kinds of meats, fish, poultry, eggs, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits (and carbohydrates only if you must) as the safest way to avoid deficiencies. 2. Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream or bacon) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, pasta, cakes or sweets) in any one meal. 3. Do not combine acids (citrus juices, vinegar, buttermilk) with high starches at any one meal. 4. Do not combine high proteins (meats, fish, eggs, cheese) with high starches at any one meal. 5. Eat fats freely with proteins and acid solutions. 6. Be sure you get enough of each essential nutritional element as follows: a.Meat and eggs: One serving of each, or two servings of one per day, with butter or other fat. Fish or poultry may be substituted for meat or eggs. b.Milk, buttermilk, or cheese: Two glasses of milk or buttermilk, or two and one-half ounces of cheese a day (or one glass of milk or buttermilk plus and ounce or more of cheese). Raw dairy products are a more healthy alternative than pasteurized. c.Raw, low-starch fruits and raw green and yellow vegetables: Two servings a day or one large salad bowl a day. d. Supplement the above daily, with 1 or 2 tablespoons of plain cod liver oil, or its equivalent in other fish liver oils, or their concentrates in capsules. But if you use capsules, then be sure to take plenty butter fats and cream; your liver must have fats, if it is going to make bile for you. If you are a carbohydrate eater, than you should supplement the diet with yeast or other equivalent form of the Vitamin B Complex. Other natural fats and oils may also be necessary, this is contrary, somewhat to the advice normally promoted to the public. the facts remain natural fats and oils are absolutely necessary in ample quantities for natural, healthy metabolism. I realize I am recommending radical changes in your present eating habits. This will not be easy and thereıs always a hardship in shaking off old habits and forming new ones. You are certainly entitled to ask the question, ³If I undertake this change of habit for one month, what effect can I expect²? A straight question deserves an honest answer. How quickly you feel noticeable improvement depends largely on how good your health is to begin with, and how bad your eating habits have been in the past. 1. If you are now in fine health, have been eating plenty of protein, have no digestive troubles, no marked deficiencies, you may experience no detectable effects of this diet in one monthıs time. But later you will. If you will come around in ten yearsı time I can tell if you have been following perfect eating habits by just looking at you. 2. If you now suffer from occasional flatulence, indigestion, ³acidity² and gas, a month on this regimen with no cheating will work wonders. Your ailments will probably disappear. 3. If you now feel ³all right² but sluggish and under par, if you have been eating unwisely -- too much carbohydrates and not enough of the other food factors - you will experience a new feeling of well-being and full health which perhaps you did not believe possible. We must be certain to eat enough high proteins; we need have no fear of eating too much, except those who have no control over their appetites. While man may continue to exist on a relatively low protein intake, there is ample evidence that a more liberal intake favors the development of better physique and improvement of general health. Any excess of proteins, above the bodyıs requirement for growth and repair of tissue, is efficiently utilized as a source of bodily heat and energy. I give here, in general terms, the types of recommended dietaries. They follow the rules I have been so earnestly urging, but do make some concessions to recent habits and permit some low-starch fruits and vegetables with high protein meals. While such minor infractions are not serious, it is recommended that even these be avoided after you have acquired the habit of proper food combining. For good medical reasons, as well as psychological ones, it is important to make meals planned within these rules as varied, as appetizing and as much in conformance to preferences and previous habits as possible. SUGGESTED DIETARIES THE PREDOMINANTLY PROTEIN TYPE OF BREAKFAST Raw egg [use farm eggs - no hormones or antibiotics] or eggs beaten up in 5 or 6 ounces of orange juice makes a very efficient breakfast; or if you prefer a more formal breakfast, then: Coffee or tea with cream but no sugar Citrus juice Eggs with butter, eggs with bacon, bacon or ham, or an omelet (Fish or meats may be substituted for eggs) *No toast, no bread or crackers, no cereals, no sweets. THE PREDOMINANTLY CARBOHYDRATE TYPE OF BREAKFAST: Any whole fruit - but not citrus juice. There is a perfectly logical reason for this: Oranges or grapefruit may be taken with the carbohydrate meal, but not their juices. This is because, when the whole fruit is eaten, chewing tends to in salivate and partially neutralizes the acid; but when the juice is drunk, too much of the free acid reaches the stomach as such. Many people have found that fruit acids and starch produce the so-called "acid or sour stomach". Cereal, preferably whole grain, with milk - not cream Toast or bread or crackers, preferably whole grain, with jam, marmalade or honey - no butter Sweet milk or tea or coffee, with sugar but no cream No fats, no acid solutions, no high proteins THE PREDOMINANTLY PROTEIN TYPE LUNCHEON OR DINNER: Any thin soup or broth Meat, fish or eggs (poultry comes under the heading of meats) Liver, kidneys, sweetbreads, brains, tripe Leafy vegetables (as cabbage, spinach, brussels sprouts, asparagus, dandelion or beet greens: see list of 5% and 10% vegetables) Leafy salads, raw (as escarole, water cress, chicory, romaine, dandelion, green pepper, lettuce, cabbage endive, celery, carrots and tomatoes) Oil and vinegar for dressing (French, Mayonnaise, Russian, etc.) Dessert limited to the three following: Cheese Gelatin with cream Citrus fruit or other low starch fruit Buttermilk, being acid, may be taken with meal (but not sweet milk) Tea or Coffee with cream but no sugar (if desired had better be taken before eating) No high starches, no sweets THE PREDOMINANTLY CARBOHYDRATE TYPE OF LUNCHEON OR DINNER: Any of the following foods may be eaten at the same meal: Thick or thin soup (meat soup, thin soup, may be taken with protein or carbohydrate type meals, since the broth of meat is principally the mineral extractives of the meat) Any vegetables (including high starch vegetables such as potatoes) Baked beans Macaroni or spaghetti (a cheese sauce or tomato may be used for flavoring if you insist) Any vegetable or fruit salad (when eaten plain and well chewed, it develops a wonderful flavor - adding salt and pepper is all right and a little Russian dressing won't kill you) Any sweet or starchy dessert (here is your chance to eat pie and strawberry short cake: But no whipped cream) Milk (sweet) or coffee or tea with sugar but no cream (no fats, no acid solutions, no high protein) A low-fat ice cream and ices are permissible A cocktail, highball, wine or beer is quite permissible if you want it AVOID THESE COMBINATIONS (You'll be surprised how easily this is done) Bread with butter (use jam or preserves instead - put the butter on proteins) Potatoes with butter (good potatoes need no butter - use salt and pepper) Rolls or toast with bacon (substitute any 5% vegetable, fried tomatoes or mushrooms) Cereals with cream (use a little milk and sugar or honey) Meat with potatoes and bread (the old reliable standby and one of the worst of all combinations) Rolls and frankfurters (except when you go to Coney Island) Hard sauce (you are better off without it, diet or no diet) Rich ice cream (if made with much sugar and pure cream - call it a vice.) Whipped cream - or any cream - on starchy desserts (use jam or preserves - they taste better anyway) Pork with baked beans (Pork may be cooked with baked beans, for flavoring only) Vinegar and oil dressings with starchy meals (very good, however, with protein meals) THESE COMBINATIONS MAY BE EATEN FREELY: With meat, fish or eggs: Butter Cream Bacon Buttermilk Vinegar and oil Citrus fruit juices Jam sandwiches (also jelly, preserves or honey sandwiches) Tomato and lettuce sandwiches Cereals with milk and sugar Breads with milk Sherbets or ices with carbohydrate meals Gelatin desserts with either protein or carbohydrate meals are very good as they place little burden on the digestive system and contain amino acids. The amino acids are protein but they are already split up and ready for absorption. Cheese instead of desserts is an excellent habit with protein meals. HIGH AND LOW STARCHES Low starch fruits and vegetables are those in the 5% to l0% lists. The high starches are those in the 15% and 20% lists. Bread is a high starch food with protein meals in the dietary. |
||
| Low Starches - Eat with protein and/or fat | |
| 5% Vegetables | 10% Vegetables |
| Asparagus, Bean sprouts | Beets |
| Brussels sprouts, Cabbage | Rutabagas |
| Cauliflower, Celery | Carrots |
| Cucumbers, Eggplant | Squash |
| Endive, Greens | Onions |
| Kohl-rabi, Leeks | Oyster plant |
| Lettuce, Mushrooms | Turnips |
| Okra, Olives | |
| Peppers, Pumpkin | |
| Radishes, Rhubarb | |
| Sauerkraut, Spinach | |
| String beans, Summer squash | |
| Swiss chard, Tomatoes | |
| Water cress | |
| 5% Fruits | 10% Fruits |
| Lemon Juice | Blackberries, Cranberries |
| Watermelon | Lime Juice, Orange juice |
| Honeydew melon | Currants, Peaches |
| Muskmelon | Grapefruit |
| Rhubarb | Strawberries |
| High Starches - Avoid when eating protein and/or fat | |
| 15% Vegetables | 20% Vegetables |
| Lima beans (young) | Beans(Kidney,Navy) |
| Parsnips | Corn |
| Peas | Macaroni |
| Potatoes | |
| Rice | |
| 15% Fruits | 20% Fruits |
| Apples, Grapes | Bananas |
| Apricots, Pears | Grape Juice |
| Blueberries, Plums | Cherries, sweet |
| Cherries (sour) | Loganberries |
| Mulberries, Raspberries | |
| Pineapple juice, Pineapples | |
| Foods from columns 1 & 2 combine well; 1 & 3 are OK ; 2 & 3 should NOT be combined Foods in BOLD are:
Foods NOT in bold are:
|
||||
| Column No. 1 Non-starch food (vegetables) |
Column No. 2 Proteins and Fruits |
Column No. 3 Starchy Foods |
||
|
Alfalfa Artichokes Asparagus Beans (string) Beans (wax) Beets (whole) Beet Leaves Broccoli Cabbage (white) Cabbage (red) Carrots Carrot Tops Cauliflower Celery Knobs Chicory Coconut Corn (raw) Cucumbers Dandelions Eggplant Endives Garlic Greens (leafy) Horse-radish Kale Kelp |
Kohlrabi Leek Lettuce Mushrooms Okra Olives (ripe) Onions Oysterplant Parsley Parsnips Peas (fresh) Peppers (sweet) Radishes Rutabagas Savory Seeds (sprouted) Sea Lettuce Sorrel Soybean (products) Spinach Sprouts Summer Squash Swiss Chard Turnips Watercress Weeds |
Beef
Buttermilk Chicken Clams Cottage Cheese Crab Dairy Products (all) Duck Eggs Fish Goose Honey (raw, pure) Jell-O Lamb Lobster Mutton Nuts Oyster Pork Rabbit Seeds (cooked) Sugar (raw) Turkey Turtle Veal |
Apples Apricots Avocados Berries (all) Cantaloupes Cranberries Currants Dates Figs Grapes Grapefruit Lemons Limes Oranges Peaches Pears Persimmons Pineapple Plums Prunes Raisins Rhubarb Tomatoes |
Bananas Barley Beans (lima) Beans (white) Breads (all) Cakes (all) Cereals Chestnuts Chick peas Cookies (all) Corn (processed) Corn Meal Corn Starch Crackers Grapenuts Gluten Flour Lentils Macaroni (any) Millet Rye Oatmeal Pasta (any) Peanuts Peanut Butter Peas (Dried) Potatoes (Sweet) Potatoes (White) Pumpkin Rice (Brown) Rice (Polished) Roman Meal Rye Flour Sauerkraut Squash Tapioca Wheat Flour (all) |