Britain has a weighty problem.
Almost two thirds of the adult population and nearly a third of the nation’s kids are overweight. In addition, a recent Government report claims obesity will cost the NHS a hefty £6.4bn a year by 2015. Something has to change – and fast.
Drastic Measures: Two-thirds of British adults are overweight – and a third of Britain’s kids
Yet what seems even more depressing if you’re overweight and love your food is the apparent joyless alternative of a life on diet products, where “low-calorie” and “fat-free” feel like by-words for “tastes like grouting” and “wouldn’t satisfy a millipede”.
But thankfully, all is not lost. I might have a tasty, filling, cheap and easy answer – food combining.
At the start of my final year at secondary school, I was given a medical. “Five feet four inches tall, ten stone in weight”, it read. I was also prone to chronic indigestion and low blood sugar levels, resulting in discomfort and mood swings that were as much a pain to me as those around me.
My grandmother suggested I tried food combining. Despite a few detours over the years as I mixed and matched to suit my own stomach, I have never looked back.
The results are instant. Goodbye indigestion and wobbly, ratty moments. I can and do eat like a horse, have low body fat and energy to burn, and – better still – I haven’t had a cold or ‘flu since 1998. Just to complete the picture, I’m now 5’ 6.5” tall, eight stone five, and with a BMI of 19. And I don’t live in the gym.
Super Foods: Eat as much fruit as you like – just keep it separate
So, what’s involved? Basically, you eat a lot of the food you would usually eat in a normal day, but put the meals together slightly differently.
The reason for this is simple. Food combining is based on the common sense chemistry that different foods require different conditions in the body and different amounts of time to digest.
For instance, a slice of buttered toast, a chicken drumstick and a mandarin orange not only all look, smell and taste completely different, they are also digested differently.
So, by not mixing foods that “fight” each other and create a lot of acid, you can avoid all the usual digestive problems such as dyspepsia and ulcers, as well as boost your metabolic and immune systems.
This all means you often avoid illness, have more energy – and naturally keep your weight down without worrying about portion sizes. You eat normal amounts, three times a day, and snack if you’re peckish. You don’t cut many things out; you just put them together differently.
Plus, with the diet’s emphasis on having a “neutral” meal every day, your eating habits naturally become healthier.
Some people have also attributed this alkalising effect to helping reduce the cravings for cigarettes and sweet treats.
And so, after all those big incentives, here are the five basic principles:
1. Eat one protein-based, one starch-based and one neutral meal per day
2. Drink two-three litres of water every day but not while eating
3. Keep fruit separate and allow 30 minutes for it to digest before eating anything else
Naughty, But Nice: Make your daily sweet favourite a welcome weekly treat
4. Avoid processed foods as much as possible. These include white bread, prepackaged cakes and biscuits, ready meals, deep-fried junk food, fizzy drinks, and diet foods that contain lots of additives and artificial sweeteners. Try to keep to the natural, fresh and home-cooked to avoid hidden fat, salt, sugar and additives. If you’re a meat eater, try to reduce or cut out red meat such as beef and pork, and eat more white meat like chicken and fish, and free-range or organic meat, if you can afford it.
However, don’t make yourself miserable. If you love a particular food like a pastry, make it a (weekly) treat and fresh from the bakery or oven, not a daily meal and from a box, and combine it along with the rest of your intake. The key is moderation of the bad stuff, not misery!
5. Limit caffeine intake to a maximum of four cups a day. If you can’t do without your tea or coffee, maybe also try soya or rice milk and add in some herbal teas. I also sweeten all my hot drinks with a teaspoon of honey instead of sugar.
Those are the basic “rules”, and here are the typical foods contained in the three main groups:
i. Protein: meat, cheese, fish, eggs, nuts, milk, natural yoghurt
ii. Starch: bread, potatoes/sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, breadcrumbs/croutons
iii. Neutrals (go with either proteins or starches or can be eaten on their own as a neutral meal): salad, vegetables except potato, olive oil
iv. Fruit: most soft and citrus fruits (though for me, bananas mix well with toast or natural yoghurt)
Here are a few examples of different meals and snacks that work for me:
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread…But try wholemeal or gluten-free instead of white
1. Protein-based:
- Meat, chicken, fish, cheese, tofu or eggs plus vegetables or salad
- Examples: cauliflower cheese; chicken Caesar salad without croutons; cheese and onion omelette; roast chicken with either peas, green beans, cauliflower/cabbage/swede/leeks/broccoli, roast parsnips/beetroot, honey-glazed carrots
- No potatoes, pasta, rice or bread
- Allow four hours to digest before eating a starch or fruit
2. Starch-based:
- Potatoes, pasta, rice, bread
- Examples: vegetable-based pasta dishes; baked potatoes with baked beans and salad; fat chips and salad in pitta bread; cheese-free pizza; vegetable curry with rice and roasted sweet potato chunks; banana toasties; wholemeal toast with butter (and honey); vegetable-based soups with bread; porridge made with water plus honey (and a banana)
- No meat, eggs or cheese
- Allow three hours to digest before eating a protein or fruit
Chop, Chop: If you don’t have time to prepare vegetables then keep a few bags of frozen veggies in the freezer
3. Neutral meals:
- Green salad, fruit salad, vegetable-based soup, vegetable-based stews, natural yoghurt with honey (yoghurt is a different kind of protein so I eat it as a neutral)
- No proteins or starches
- Allow 30 minutes to an hour to digest
4. Snacks:
- Fruit, dried fruit, cherry and baby plum tomatoes, crudités and hummus or tzatziki, nuts, halva, carob, bananas
Basically, the traditional English combination of meat and potatoes with two lots of vegetables is a goner, as is fish and chips, cheese and meat pizzas and pies, chicken balti, sandwiches with cheese, tuna or egg, and apple pie and custard.
However, don’t despair! You can eat almost all these ingredients, just across one day not across one plate. Instead try vegetable curries, sandwiches filled with vegetables and hummus and salad, no-cheese pizzas, roast dinners with meat and green vegetables plus parsnips, carrots, and beetroot roasties.
Don’t Blank the Sauvignon: Enjoy your favourite tipple – the key is moderation, not inebriation!
You can still enjoy alcohol in moderation and deserts that mix well with the main meals. I use lots of natural yoghurt and add in any appropriate combination of bananas/a bit of fruit/honey/pine nuts, either as a dessert or breakfast. And, if it’s treat day, then at least ensure it roughly combines with your main meal (such as a stodgy pudding with a starch meal and ice cream with a protein meal).
By having to find alternatives for the usual portion of meat or potatoes for each meal, you naturally eat more salads and vegetables – even frozen veggies if you don’t have much time. This means you will easily hit your “five a day”, which will bring its own long-term health benefits.
Finally, by following this system, you might discover that some things you thought you were allergic to were only badly combined. On the flip side, by combining your food, you might be able to isolate allergies, such as to gluten, milk or tomatoes, and then enjoy the benefits of avoiding it.
So, there you go – a healthy diet where you can eat as much as you like without depriving your stomach, wallet, time and taste buds. Give it a go and find out which combinations suit you best. It’s time to combine!
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