Fwd: Food combining--3 articles by Dr. Shelton

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Principles of Combining Foods Properly By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton Reprinted from Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review There are sound physiological reasons for eating foods in compatible combinations. In other words, some foods, if mixed in the digestive system, will cause distress! The principles of food combining are dictated by digestive chemistry. Different foods are digested differently. Starchy foods require an alkaline digestive medium which is supplied initially in the mouth by the enzyme ptyalin. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion- hydrochloric acid. As any student of chemistry will assure you, acids and bases (alkalis) neutralize each other. If you eat a starch with a protein, digestion is impaired or completely arrested! The undigested food mass can cause various kinds of digestive disorders. Undigested food becomes soil for bacteria which ferment and decompose

it. Its by products are poisonous, one of which, alcohol, is a narcotic that destroys or inhibits nerve function. It plays havoc with nerves of the digestive tract, suspending their vital action such that constipation may well be a result! As set forth in Dr. Herbert Shelton's FOOD COMBINING MADE EASY these are the salient rules for proper food combining. The Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining: 1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion. 2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion. 3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal. 4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial

decomposition and produces some potent poisons. 5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion. 6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals. 7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach. 8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food. 9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids. The Necessity of Proper Food CombiningBy Dr. Herbert M. SheltonReprinted from Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review The human stomach is a site of constant chemical activity. Digestion is largely a matter of chemical changes in the food eaten. These changes are

instigated and carried out by enzymes secreted in the mouth, stomach and elsewhere. For their activities, these enzymes require suitable media. All of this makes it important that we exercise some care not to take into the stomach at the same time foods requiring different and incompatible media. The assertion recently widely publicized that the stomach cannot tell one food from another and digests one mixture of foods as well as it does another is not good chemistry; it is even worse physiology. Either the one who made it is grossly ignorant of the "facts of life," or has a poor regard for truth. Whether ignorant or dishonest, such an individual should not pose as an authority in the field of human nutrition and presume to advise millions about proper eating. Different Food s Require Different Digestive TasksIt is a fundamental fact in chemistry that alkalies and acids are opposites; that they neutralize each other. It is

a fact in physiology that all starchy foods digest in an alkaline medium and the starch-splitting enzyme of the mouth (ptyalin or salivary amylase) is destroyed by acid, even a mild acid. Therefore, if acids are taken with starches, starch digestion is suspended. If breads or cereals or potatoes are eaten with berries or with citrus fruits, or with other acid-bearing foods, the digestion of these starches is delayed. Eating Protein and Starches Together Begets IndigestionIt is a fact of physiology that proteins require an acid medium for their digestion in the stomach. When proteins are eaten, acid is secreted to enable the enzyme, pepsin, to begin the work of protein digestion. Now, it is not possible for two processes, that of starch digestion requiring an alkaline medium for its digestion, and that of protein digestion requiring an acid medium for its accomplishment, to both go on in the same stomach at the same

time, with any great efficiency. The rising acidity of the stomach will neutralize the saliva, destroy the salivary amylase, and bring starch digestion to a halt. If no protein is taken with the starch, no acid is poured into the stomach and starch digestion proceeds on schedule. A Fundamental RuleThe application of this fact of the physiology of digestion is plain: Eat starch foods at separate meals from acid foods and foods requiring acid in their digestion. This simply means, do not eat such foods as cereals, bread, potatoes, (sweet and Irish), parsnips, squash, beans, or other starchy foods with flesh, eggs, cheese, nuts, or other protein foods, and do not eat these starchy foods with berries, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, or other acid foods. There is enough oxalic acid in spinach to delay or suspend starch digestion. Acid Indigestion Arises From Wrong CombinationsAll of this means that those grand

old combinations, the mainstays of every boarding house lady in the land, of citrus fruits and cereals for breakfast and meat and potatoes at dinner, will have to go. So, also, will have to go those other popular favorites, sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, and similar combinations. Pastries with proteins, pastries with acid fruits, and similar popular combinations, are in large measure, responsible for so much of what the patent medicine barkers call "acid indigestion.Retarded digestion favors fermentation and putrefaction of the foods eaten. Certainly there can be no sane reason why one cannot eat his foods in such combinations as place the least tax upon the digestive glands. Nobody has ever charged, so far as I know, that one cannot get all the food required or that the food will be lacking in essential nutrients if the food is combined according to a few simple rules that have their basis in the physiology of

digestion. Who is behind the strenuous effort to persuade the people that food combining is needless and hurtful? Medical Profession Spreads Lies About Physiology of DigestionIt might be thought that the manufacturers of Alkaseltzer are behind the effort or that the maker of some other antacid is trying to preserve his market, but I doubt this. I think that the medical profession is behind the effort and that they discredit all effort to find a physiological mode of eating because of their ingrained hatred of Hygiene. They have been fighting Hygiene and slowly retreating before its relentless advance for a hundred and thirty-five years. At this late date they are not going to "eat crow" and admit that they have been wrong. Natural Combinations WholesomeIt is sometimes objected that nature herself combines protein and starch and it is argued that if she combines these food factors, the combination must be good.

When those who offer this objection come up with sandwich trees, hamburger bushes and hot dog vines, we'll concede that they have a valid objection. But until they are able to provide us with such combinations, we shall be compelled to think that they are merely throwing spit balls at phantoms. This objection has been answered many times and the answer has been ignored as often as it has been given. It may not be amiss to briefly reply to it again at this time. The digestive tract can vary its digestive secretions, both as to the acidity of alkalinity and as to timing, to meet the digestive requirements of different foods. It can do this with the greatest ease if the food- cereal or legume or potato, for example-is eaten alone, but this adaptation of juice to food is not possible if, instead of a food a complex meal is eaten. Complex meals are not seen in nature and they are not digested with much efficiency by man. Simple

meals digest better. It will also be found by all who will give the matter a fair trial that properly combined meals digest much better than the conventional heterogeneous comminglers of foods that are commonly eaten. When a subject is so easily put to the test, there seems to be no reason why anyone should be in doubt about it. One does not have to accept the dogmatic assertions of the ex-spurts, who know all about the subject and know it all wrong. Wrong Food Combining Responsible For Much SufferingMan's digestive system struggles with the haphazard combinations with which it is supplied, and does the best it can: That in the strong and vigorous, it succeeds in doing a reasonably good job for a time is a matter of common observation, but the tax placed upon it is enervating, hence disease-producing. In the weak, in the sick, in those with impaired digestion, there is urgent need that correct combinations be eaten if

satisfactory digestion is to be achieved. The healthy man may make occasional compromises, the sick man should never do so.Efficient DigestionBy Dr. Herbert M. SheltonReprinted from Dr. Shelton's Hygienic ReviewA view frequently expressed by medical authors and apparently held by the whole profession, is that if two foods may be digested separately, they may be digested together. They extend this principle to cover the whole menu: if each article of food in a bill-of-fare is separately digestible, then they are digestible if eaten. in a twenty-one course dinner, with the diner partaking of everything from soup to nuts. Conventional diet causes digestive problemsIn a limited way, this view is true, else would conventional eaters die from lack of food. Instead of dying, they thrive after a fashion, many of them even growing fat on the conventional diet with its haphazard mixtures. That digestion is

not very efficient, is shown, however, by gas, sour eructations, discomforts, foul stools and the presence of large quantities of undigested food in the stools. At least half of the food eaten by most people is passed out undigested.It is commonly held that foods may be taken into the digestive tract in the most indiscriminate and haphazard manner, in any possible combination, and in whatever amount the eater may desire will be well and efficiently digested. This view is not based upon physiology, but upon the determination of the profession that the customary practices of the people shall not be disturbed. Every student of physiology is well aware that the digestive enzymes have certain well-defined limitations and that different digestive juices are secreted for use in digesting different kinds of food substances. These limitations should be respected in our eating habits. Proper food combining does not cause

digestive problemsThe inhibiting effect upon protein digestion of acids, sweets and fats makes it important to avoid combining these three types of foods. Good digestion depends upon a number of factors, but simplicity of meals with combinations of foods that do not overstep the known enzymic limitations is one of the most important of these factors. Vinegar retards digestionExperiments have shown that as small a portion of vinegar as one in 5,000 sppreciab1y diminishes the digestion of starch by its inhibiting or destructive effect upon the salivary amylase. One part in 1,000 renders starch digestion very slow and twice this quantity arrests it altogether. From these facts it becomes evident that vinegar, pickles (saturated with vinegar), salads on which vinegar has been sprinkled and salad dressings containing vinegar, are unwholesome substances to take into the human digestive tract, especially when taken with

starchy foods such as cereals, bread, legumes, potatoes and the like. Vinegar is not an evil merely because its highly toxic acetic acid content destroys ptyalin (salivary amylase), but it also contains alcohol, which precipitates the pepsin of the gastric juice and retards or prevents gastric digestion of proteins. What wonder then that pickles and vinegar have been found useful in reducing weight. They cripple the first two stages of digestion. My readers should know that apple cider vinegar, which is so much lauded today as a "wonder drug" in folk medicine contains both acetic acid and alcohol and is unfit for use, not alone because it impairs digestion, but also because it contains these two virulent poisons. Acids destroy digestive enzymesAll acids destroy salivary amylase, the starch-splitting enzyme in the saliva, and thus arrest starch digestion in the mouth and stomach. Even those acids that are valuable as

food, such as the acids of pineapples, grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, tomatoes, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, etc., destroy the amylase of the saliva and arrest the digestion of starch. For this reason, such foods should not be eaten at the same meal with starches-potatoes, bread, cereals, legumes (beans and peas), Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, cauliflower, parsnips and similar foods. Acids inhibit the secretion of gastric juice, hence they suspend or retard protein digestion in the stomach. These fruits should not be eaten with protein foods-such as eggs, flesh, cheese, nuts, etc. They make a better combination with nuts and cheese than with flesh and eggs for the reason that the cream in cheese and the oil in nuts also inhibit gastric secretion, and the taking of acid foods with these foods does not inhibit the secretion of gastric juice more than does the fat. Nuts and cheese still combine

better with green vegetables. Alcohol and cooking ingredients interfere with digestionI have mentioned above that by precipitating the pepsin of the gastric juice, the enzyme that initiates protein digestion, alcohol impairs protein digestion. There are many other substances that destroy pepsin. Extensive tests have shown that the residues left in bread by baking powders retard the digestion of protein. Although most of these tests were made with cream of tartar powders, no powder seems to be exempt from this effect. Baking soda also destroys pepsin and retards gastric digestion. Many drugs both acids and alkalis, have been used with which to reduce weight because they retard digestion. Anything that either inhibits the secretion of the digestive juices or that alters their chemistry, or that destroys their enzymes, will retard or suspend the process of digestion. It is important, therefore, that we take nothing

with our foods that either alters the acid-alkaline reactions of the digestive fluids, inhibits their secretion or destroys their enzymes. It is also important that we refrain from taking foods at the same meal that either directly or indirectly interfere with the digestion of each other. Tea, coffee and condiments cause indigestionTea and coffee, not alone because of the toxic substances which they contain, but also because of the sugar that is commonly taken with them, inhibit the digestion of foods in-the stomach. They are common causes of indigestion. Condiments of all kinds also, because of the irritation of the stomach which they occasion, inhibit stomach digestion. As they are indigestible and occasion irritation throughout the whole length of the digestive tract, it is likely that they also inhibit intestinal digestion. Salt inhibits stomach digestion, also. There are a number of products widely so1d in health

food stores, that consist of powdered vegetables, some of them containing highly salty sea weeds, others with salt added. They are used with which to make broths and they are sprinkled on salads and other foods as seasonings and supplements. They inhibit stomach digestion, sometimes for hours. Onion family causes digestive problemsThere is no reason to doubt that all the members of the onion family-onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives, etc. -as well as radishes and all other foods containing appreciable amounts of mustard oil, because they occasion irritation of the stomach and intestines as they occasion irritation of the mouth and throat, inhibit digestion. Horseradish and mustard are especially strong in occasioning irritation, but ordinary white and red radishes occasion considerable irritation. There seems to be no good reason why we should eat such items.It seems that it is the part of wisdom to refrain

from eating practices that retard, inhibit and impair digestion, rather than to eat in the indiscriminate and haphazard manner that is common and then resort to drugs to palliate the resulting discomfort. To avoid discomfort by avoiding its cause is certainly preferable to deliberately inviting trouble and then seeking to palliate it with drugs that are worse in their damaging effects than the foods, food additives and combinations that are responsible for the initial trouble. Nature does not mix foodsThe eating of complex mixtures of foods is not seen in nature. Animals not only stay strictly with the foods to which they are constitutionally adapted (those to which their digestive secretions and processes are specially adapted) but they refrain from mixing these indiscriminately. Man mixes foods from all sources. He will combine in one meal the diet of the tiger (carnivore), that of the pig (omnivore), that of

the sheep (herbivore), that of the bird (gramnivore) and that of the primate (frugivore), and expect such a combination of foods to be as speedily and as efficiently digested in his stomach as the tiger's diet is digested in the tiger's stomach and the sheep's diet is digested in the stomach of the sheep. On the face of it, it would seem that however great is the adaptive capacity of the human digestive tube, it would not be capable of adjusting its digestive secretions to so many different types of diet at one and the same time.Why should we expect the human digestive tract to be able to efficiently digest such meals? It is often asserted that "normal (human) digestive tracts have been coping with such combinations for centuries without a whim per," but such a statement is based, not on fact, but on ignorance of the history of mankind's eating practices as well as upon an ignoring of the facts of contemporary human

suffering. Present-day eating practices are not centuries old. The meals of man, until very recent times, have been very simple and have consisted of but two or three articles of food. With several notable exceptions, even the meals of the wealthy classes have been very simple when compared to the eating practices of today. Mono meals idealThat the human digestive tract copes with such combinations today without a whimper is simply not true. Indeed, the whimpering assumes the proportion of a loud national groan. Viewing the eating practices of the lower animals, we observe the utmost simplicity. "Every animal keeps to one dish-herbs are the food of this species-fish of that- and flesh of a third," wrote an early Hygienist, who advised: "Be content with one dish at a meal, in the choice of that consult your palate." Certainly the human digestive tract, like that of the lower animals, can make a far more complete

and efficient adjustment of its secretions to the character of the food eaten if but one food is eaten at the meal. It may turn out in the long run that all of our efforts to work out compatible food mixtures is an effort to stray away from the simple path of nature without suffering.

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