The other day, a friend of mine asked me for my opinion on “food combining”. I usually have an opinion on everything dealing with nutrition, but in this particular case I had never even heard of this practice so I had her explain it to me. Her question was basically whether I thought it was okay to eat fruit at the end of a meal, or in combination with other foods altogether. My initial reaction was to think that this was the stupidest question I had ever heard, but in the spirit of “there are no stupid questions,” I decided to look into this and see where her inquiry came from. Here is what I found:
The idea behind food combining comes from the philosophy of “Natural Hygiene,” a branch of naturopathy that preaches the benefits of raw food and is dead set against any food processing, and most medical treatments for that matter. Food combining is the theory that when different types of foods are eaten together, they have detrimental health effects, such as decreased enzyme capacity and even obesity. One particularly popular idea with Natural Hygienists is that when fruit is eaten after a meal, absorption is blocked, and it is left to rot and ferment in the body and cause all sorts of problems like bloating, sickness, lypogenesis etc.
Now if this still sounds crazy, that’s ‘cause it is. I dug for the research and studies from founder Sylvester Graham, “Dr.” Herbert Shelton and Harvey Diamond, the biggest names in Natural Hygienics, showing that this actually happens in the body. Well, it turns out that there are none. A search of the medical literature returns not a single hit. The theories behind food combining and most of the rest of Natural Hygiene are based on speculation and beliefs passed down from the founders from back in the 1800s. Followers of this health philosophy blindly disregard modern research and try to convince whoever will listen that they have the solution to America’s health problems.
Now to answer my friend’s question, all nutrients from food are ingested in your small intestines, including sugars, meaning that the idea that fruit eaten after a meal will rot in your stomach is incorrect. The idea that fermentation from rotting fruits can cause obesity is even more absurd, since fruit contains pectin. The word pectin comes from the Greek word "pektikos", meaning congealed, curdled, or FERMENTED. If fermentation causes obesity, shouldn’t you completely avoid eating it? Natural hygienists believe that fruit is cleansing (except when eaten with other foods), but they missed this basic detail? This isn’t the only bogus tenet of the practice; the fact is Natural Hygiene and its theories are crap. They are not based on any science, there is no actual explanation for the mechanisms behind the processes they claim occur in the body and adhering to the beliefs of this philosophy can result in extreme malnutrition from fasting and bad eating habits.
Belief systems and practices like this give the rest of science a bad name, particularly the natural and holistic sciences. It’s garbage like this that make people skeptical of holistic medicine and many time-proven practices like acupuncture, herbal remediation and reflexology. It’s good to be skeptical of something you don’t understand, but it is absolutely essential to check the research and literature behind anything dealing with science or health before drinking the Kool-Aid.
Peter Bauman – Peter is a chef first and personal trainer second. With a background in the biological sciences and degree in psychology, Peter knows how to make food that tastes great and keeps you lean and healthy.