Food Combining - Key to Digestion

What is Food Combining and why is it important?

Food combining refers to the combination of foods which improves digestion and reduces the risk of the production of toxins in digestive system due to improper digestion.

According to Ayurveda, each food has distinct combination of taste(sweet, sour, salt, bitter, astringent)  and energy(heat or cool). It's important to eat the right combination of foods in each meal for optimum digestion. As per science, protein needs acidic environment to digest, starches require slightly alkaline environment to digest and fats/oils require slightly alkaline environment to digest.

I follow Food Combining to some extent. I get good results in terms of digestion. It's really simple to follow. We predominantly consume the following food groups:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Dairy Products (Curd, Milk and Cheese)
• Meat (Egg, meat,fish)
• Grains
• Legumes

Let's see the combinations: 

1. Do not combine Meat and Grains at the same meal. It's good to eat met with vegetables.
2. Eat Fruits separately.
3. Eat dairy products separately.
4. Vegetables and fats are neutral foods that can be combined with Meat or Starches, but not with fruits or dairy products.


Sample meal plans:

Breakfast:
Vegetable Smoothie with nuts
Or
Eggs + Steamed Vegetables

Lunch:
Meat + Steamed Vegetables
Or
Brown Rice +Vegetables
Or
Lentil Soup( Legumes +Vegetables)

Dinner:
Ragi/Millet Pancake+Steamed Vegetables +Coconut Cilantro Chutney

Daily Routines - Ayurvedic Way

Everyone can follow these simple routine daily recommended by Ayurveda for healthy and happy living. They are very simple and yet very effective and give positive impact on your well-being.


Brushing:
         Brush your teeth, scrape your tongue and gargle for cleaning your throat.

Drinking:
         Drink a glass of water.

Combing:
          Comb your hair with wooden comb/brush.
   
Morning Work-out:
          Do some form of physical exercise. It could be yoga or walking/jogging.Make sure you get sweat in your forehead, armpits and your spine. Suryanamaskar is preferable as it's a  low impact cardio workout.

Bathing:
          Massage your body with oil(For example, Sesame Oil) and leave it for 20 minutes and then take bath. Use mild soap to wash your body. If you don't have time to apply oil everyday, you can do this twice a week.

Breakfast:

          From night till morning, our body is in cleansing and detoxifying cycle. So, it's better to eat cleansing food such as raw foods for breakfast.

Lunch:

           From late morning till night, our body is in building and nourishing cycle.Lunch should be the largest meal of the day.

Dinner:

           Dinner between 7 PM and 8 PM. Dinner should be light. Don't eat, meat, dairy, eggs for dinner.

Sleep:

           Go to bed at 10 PM.

           Brush, floss and scrape the tongue before go to bed.

           Brush your hair with wooden comb or boar brush.

           Massage your foot.

Important Tip about Snacking:
Do not eat snacks in between meals. The core concept of Ayurveda is that we shouldn't eat food before our previous meal is digested. Normally food takes 2.5 -3 hours to get fully emptied from stomach to small intestine. So eat snacks before or after 3 hours of main meal.

Something about Raw foods:
Generally Ayurveda prefers cooking foods with appropriate spices. Raw foods are highly cleansing foods(that means they remove toxins from your body). Eat raw foods moderately.