The more you learn about separate meals, the more conflict you will come across with your cookbooks. Not a single cookbook mentions the principle of separate meals. But you can keep these books in order to rewrite them for yourself later: choose some recipes and try to change them, adapting them to the requirements of a separate diet.
There is a lot of room for experimentation with foods, especially if the principles of separate eating are in your mind. To help you find your way through this maze of information and numbers that seems to be the science of food separation, here are some practical tips for you. You've seen these ideas before in this book, but now they're brought together in one section.
Remember that digestion is a complex process. Separate nutrition facilitates this process, making it as efficient and painless as possible.
Refusal of separate meals means suffering from digestive problems. You may feel that the food is not favorable for you already in the process of eating. If the product seems heavy on the stomach from the very beginning, then the digestion process is very unlikely to be easy.
Heartburn, stomach and intestinal pain, flatulence, shortness of breath, obesity, and sometimes food allergies can all be caused by the wrong combination of foods at mealtimes.
Separate nutrition can be used always and in all cases. It is not at all necessary to become a vegetarian in order to try to get the most out of food.
Separate nutrition is directly related to digestion: the better the process of assimilation of food, the more efficient the absorption and metabolism in the body. Good health starts with good digestion.
The breakdown of nutrients inevitably entails the appearance of decay products. Separate nutrition reduces the amount of decay products to a minimum and significantly increases the percentage of their output. You eat less food and get more benefits. In addition, you spend much less energy to digest a small amount of food. The less decay products, the less the risk of splitting toxic substances. Toxins are more easily removed from the body, and their accumulation becomes impossible.
In the process Digestion involves a number of organs: the mouth, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, and large intestine. The breakdown of starch begins already in the mouth thanks to ptyalin, an enzyme in saliva. This requires a slightly acidic environment. This is why acidic (low pH) foods should not be mixed with foods rich in starch.
The liquid you drink before, during or after a meal does not dilute the gastric juice. It quickly passes down the inner curved walls of the stomach. Acidic drinks such as cola, coffee, and carbonated spring water make saliva more acidic, which ultimately inhibits the breakdown of starch in the mouth. Drinking liquid after the stomach is full can lead to unpleasant sensations. The fluid in this case cannot quickly pass through the stomach in its usual way and remains in the form of a bubble at the end of the esophagus or in the upper part of the stomach.
The protein first undergoes cleavage in the stomach under the influence of the enzyme pepsin (in its eight or more different types), which operates only in an acidic environment.
The presence of fat in the duodenum slows down the mixing movement of the stomach walls. As a result, this allows the stomach acids to act on the protein for a longer period. This example demonstrates the natural relationship between fats and proteins. If the amount of fat is excessive, the stomach may operate too slowly.
Acid works in a similar way, so you should not eat too much acid with high-protein foods that are also rich in fat. A small amount of acid is always preferred, as acid has a beneficial effect on fat digestion. Fat and acid are a good combination.
On the other hand, low-fat protein foods require a higher acid content, since a small amount of fat does not have an effect. The acid slows down the movement of the stomach (the acid traps the acid), and the high-protein food stays in the stomach for a longer period of time, which means it is better digested.
We can mix all fruits with each other, as they all contain acid and sugar. But one cannot judge how much or little acid is present in a fruit, only by its taste. The taste of each fruit is more degree result of the ratio of acid and sugar a. don't let the taste fool you.
Fruits should be consumed before meals. Better yet, eat fruit as a special, separate dish. People with digestive disorders should only eat one type of fruit at a time.
Maintaining the acid-base balance of the body is critical with a separate diet. If the balance is disturbed, digestion will encounter difficulties even with favorable food combinations. As a result, you should always eat a small amount of high-calorie foods instead of a large amount of low-calorie foods. This is a simple but very important rule.
When compiling the menu, you should make sure that the dishes that follow one after the other really go well with each other. The menu should have one dominant nutrient, and the acid-base balance should also be taken into account.
The intervals between meals are not of particular importance, as the stomach fills and empties level by level. What we eat first will be the first to leave the stomach. What we eat last will last the longest in the stomach. The purpose of contractions of the gastric walls is to contact the contents of the stomach, so that the gastric juices can perform their functions, as well as to push food down to the duodenum. The stomach is not an apparatus for mixing all the contents in it. Remember that the first portion of the next meal is combined with the last portion of the previous meal, if the stomach has not had time to clear. Since the process of digestion is of a level nature, it is not necessary to wait for the stomach to empty completely for the next meal.
All food in the stomach is "washed" with acid and passes into the alkaline environment in the first section of the duodenum. The small and large intestines form relatively alkaline chambers in which both fermentation and digestion take place.
Vegetables (except sauerkraut) containing lactic acid (such as sweet and sour gherkins marinated in vinegar) and tomatoes (if they can be considered vegetables at all) can be combined with any kind of food. Vegetables have a strong alkaline effect and are good for acid-base balance. It is for this reason that we should eat plenty of vegetables with high-protein foods and foods rich in starch.
Cooking does not matter for separate meals. There is no difference between cooked and raw food. In terms of digestion, raw foods simply can't compare to cooked foods, but that's another topic.
To start eating separately, you need to refer to the Chart of Various Food Combinations and follow the rules outlined in this book.
Any changes in the diet are recommended to be made gradually. Start by reducing your intake of food compounds such as protein-starch and sugar-starch. This will already be a great achievement. Once you feel comfortable, move on to the next steps. Use your time and avoid nervousness.
But refrain from fanaticism. This is the worst thing that can happen to you. The attitude to separate nutrition, the selection of products and the process of their use should be spontaneous. Diet rules should not turn into a rigid system that you will blindly obey. You must be willing to do them with joy. During visits, do not refuse treats that consist of an unfavorable combination of products: this may offend your friends or business partners. It is best to share with your interlocutors in a non-intrusive way about how you eat at home and what benefits this food brings you. Invite friends over to your home and let them discover the benefits of separate meals.
After several months of following the rules of separate nutrition, you will become more sensitive to food combinations that are not entirely favorable: you will begin to experience problems if you try to return to your previous way of eating. In addition, you will begin to think more about your life, realizing that many body disorders in the old days were the result of the wrong combination of products.
Some believe that a separate diet is a way to get rid of excess weight, but you can’t follow it for a long time. They are wrong. With separate meals, your weight will return to normal: overweight people will lose weight, and thin people will be able to gain the weight they need. Therefore, for people who initially use separate nutrition as a diet, it is important and even necessary to continue to follow the principles of separate nutrition.
When is the best time to consume high protein food? This question is often asked to me. The absorption of protein requires a significant expenditure of energy. This is why a high protein breakfast is commonly recommended in English speaking countries. Since the stomach had time to rest during the night, morning is considered the best time to eat high-protein foods. On the other hand, not everyone wakes up early, and many simply do not have enough time for a hearty breakfast. Therefore, recommending a hearty, high-protein breakfast is not very wise. For many years, I had no less success with a light breakfast of fruit. And it turned out that this is the best way to start the working day. And, in truth, there is simply no special time