include: cottage cheese, sour cream, nuts and wholemeal flour products. Foods that are weakly alkaline include dry fruits, raw milk, and mushrooms. Highly alkaline foods include vegetables, fresh fruit, potatoes, and lettuce. Thus, both products consisting predominantly of protein and products rich in carbohydrates act acid-forming. In addition, animal products are acid-forming, while vegetable products (fruits, vegetables and green salad), on the contrary, are alkali-forming. The fact that the pH value (hydrogen intensity) in the urine of vegetarians is more alkaline than that of mixed eaters who consume meat and fish provides a solid foundation for this theory. The alkaline-forming effect of vegetarian food is due to its high content of minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium.

How does our body deal with acids created by itself? In the process of digestion of foods rich in carbohydrates, a lot of carbonic acid accumulates. It is transported through the body fluids to the lungs and exhaled as carbon dioxide. Yet excess acid remains in the body. As a result of protein digestion, mainly urea and uric acid are formed. They remain in the body until excreted through the kidneys and shift the acid-base balance towards acid. If, after that, acid is again added to the tissue already ready for the release of the remaining acid through food, the body will peroxide even more. Urea contains the chemical element nitrogen, which is excreted in small portions through the kidneys in the form of ammonia, which has an alkaline reaction; as a result of the activity of the body, too many acids can be released. Another group of acids to be excreted arises during the digestion of foods containing sulfur and phosphorus, such as meat.

Phosphate is also found as an additional substance in Cola drinks, meat and sausage products. This means that these products act in the body acid-forming. When consuming mainly acid-forming foods, the body can come to overacidification. According to Dr. Hay, this is the main cause of numerous diseases.

The above is just one of the mechanisms that show how nutrition can affect acid-base balance. But there are other connections between the nature of nutrition and overacidification of the body. In the first place is the consumption of foods unnatural for the body. Industrially processed foods rich in carbohydrates (for example, premium flour, white sugar, etc.) break down into carbon dioxide in the body. For the digestion of such acid-forming products, alkali-forming minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron) and B vitamins are needed. They would have to maintain an acid-base balance. But, since they undergo a metabolic process and are themselves neutralized, they can no longer perform their task of maintaining an alkaline balance.

The probable cause of acidification should include the wrong selection of food products. As a result, the digestive organs are overloaded and digestion is delayed and, as a result, acids are formed. Thus, in order to avoid many diseases, it is necessary adhere to the principle of separate nutrition, which means that certain foods should not be taken at the same time, that is, at the same meal.

Indiscriminate mixing of products would mean chronic overload of the digestive system and would call into question the optimal implementation of each product, which is in the wrong relationship with others. For example, a very valuable product is a chicken egg. Rye and wheat are also good concentrated foods. But if you take them at the same time - scrambled eggs and wholemeal bread - you get an unhealthy mixture, because each of these products affects the digestive process in its own way. In addition, the effect of the usefulness of each individual nutrient product is reduced. In the case of the simultaneous consumption of eggs and bread, the body needs a much greater expenditure of energy in order to cope with the simultaneous digestion of different foods. If the egg and bread are eaten at different times, the digestion process will be more rational.

The division of nutritious foods into groups with a predominance of proteins or carbohydrates is only an approximation to the principle of separate nutrition. Enzymes necessary for digestion are of real importance here. There are products that are completely absorbed in an acidic environment, that is, their splitting occurs when the mixture of food gruel and digestive juice is acidic. And there are those that break down in an alkaline environment. Alkali and acid are so opposite and far apart that they cannot coexist simultaneously in the stomach. If they are together, then their mutual neutralization occurs. That is why, to return to our egg and bread example, the body itself is not in a position to digest either egg or bread in the best possible way. Of course, it comes to complete neutralization very rarely, since sour digestion most often predominates in the stomach. But in our example, it will be already weakened. The egg will still be split, but not completely. The grain will be completely redundant. It, not being split, will ferment, which will result in flatulence.

The whole secret of separate nutrition is to know which food elements can be taken at the same time, i.e. e. in one meal, and which cannot be combined. Not recommended mix alkali-excess products with acid-excess.

2. PROTEIN CONSUMPTION AND DIGESTION
A protein food is one that contains a high percentage of protein. The richest in protein

– Nuts, including sunflower seeds, pumpkins, melons, watermelons, etc.

– All-cereals

– Mature beans

- Soya beans

– Lenten meat products, including fish, eggs

- Cheese

– Olives

– Avocado

- Milk

Unfortunately, the common practice of food consumption is that we are offered to eat disparate foods, for example, bread with meat, porridge with sugar, fruit pie, etc. Thus, we eat proteins first, and then carbohydrates, and all this food enters the stomach in the most disorderly way. Eating these two types of food is not recommended for the reason that the first stage of starch digestion requires an alkaline environment, and the first stage of protein digestion requires an acidic one. Protein digestion begins in the stomach. The enzyme pepsin and hydrochloric acid are responsible for this. For normal digestion, the environment of the stomach must be sharply acidic. If, for example, foods rich in protein (meat and fish are included) are consumed together with foods rich in carbohydrates (such as potatoes), then digestion cannot proceed optimally, since the enzymes amylase and pepsin counteract each other, since they a different medium is needed: amylase is slightly alkaline, pepsin is sharply acidic. Consequently, the work of digestion is excessively difficult for the body, besides, undigested starch absorbs the enzyme - pepsin, and without it, the digestion of proteins is difficult.

It is unwise to consume more than one type of protein, as this leads to a glut of proteins, and the tendency to increase protein intake can be considered harmful. Two proteins, different in their composition, require the release of gastric juice in different time lines. The secretion of gastric juice not only begins at different times, but also depends on their, proteins, quantitative composition. Academician I. Pavlov even singled out specific secretions, naming them according to the types of food: “milk” juice, “bread” juice, etc. The nature of the food eaten affects not only juice secretion, but also the composition of acidity. So, when eating meat, the acidity is highest, and when eating bread, it is the lowest. At this time it happens juice regulation. The most potent juice is released in the first hour of digestion of meat, in the digestion of bread - in the third hour, and in the digestion of milk - in the last hour. In this case, the digestion time depends on the amount of food. You need to remember a simple truth: the simpler the dish, the faster it is digested. The variability in the production of gastric secretions gives reason to say that, for example, such types of food as bread and meat should not be consumed at the same time. Even I. Pavlov pointed out that different amounts of gastric juice are spent on bread and milk, despite the equal amount of proteins in them. The same thing happens to the enzyme when meat and milk are consumed at the same time. Pepsin for the assimilation of meat nitrogen is required more than for milk. These different types of food in terms of protein composition receive the enzyme in quantities that correspond to its digestibility. Meat requires more gastric juice than milk. Due to the slow action of acids, sugars and fats on the digestion of foods containing these elements, they should not be eaten with proteins. Fat, which is full of butter, cream, vegetable oil, margarine, etc., slows down the digestion of protein, so the use of the latter with fat is not advisable.

The greatest amount of fat is found in fatty meats, in fried eggs and meat, in milk, nuts, etc. These products require more digestion than lean roast, soft-boiled or bagged eggs. Fat is neutralized by a large number of green vegetables, especially raw cabbage. With cheese, nuts, it is better to eat green vegetables, rather than sour fruits, although this may seem tasteless to someone. Sugar also interferes with protein digestion. He himself is not digested either in the stomach or in the mouth, but lingers in the stomach and wanders. Therefore, you can not eat proteins with foods containing sugar. For example, cream with sugar after a meal delays digestion for several hours. Acids also create problems in the digestion of protein foods. The exceptions are cheese, nuts and avocados; acid does not have a noticeable effect on the digestion of these products. Non-starchy foods and juicy vegetables are