The Foods We Combine........

Good health cannot be realized in an acidic body. Contributing factors include, eating acid forming foods and combining foods that require different digestive environments. Most folks eat until they are about to burst but, bloating, burping, constipation, fatigue, upset stomach gas, and heartburn are all results of poor food combining. When eating living foods, combining principles are much more relaxed because difficult to digest foods such as beans, nuts, and seeds are soaked and sprouted to increase alkalinity and digestibility. In effect they are pre-digested, meaning that through the sprouting process, the nutrition is broken down into usable units such as amino acids, simple sugars, and fatty acids. Consequently, when eating live foods, you have more flexibility and can combine foods that would not be recommended if cooked. Proper food combining will help you maintain an alkaline digestive tract which, will enable ones to digest food well, absorb its nutrients, and eliminate waste efficiently, avoid illness and disease that thrives in an acidic environment. Here are a few guidelines that will assist ones in achieving wellness through a balanced combination of foods:

-Do Liquids Alone: Drink liquids (water, lemonade, grass juices(wheat or barley), fruit, vegetable, coffee, and tea) before your meal and wait 15 minutes before eating. Or drink liquids after foods are digested. Drinking with our meals, dilutes the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, making digestion less efficient. Liquids carry food out of the stomach before they are broken down, so any absorption of nutrients or raw enzymes, is lost.

-Dense Protein (Meat, Fish, Eggs, Dairy): Do your best not to combine any of these with dense starches (bread, cereal, corn, crackers, grains, potatoes, pasta, yams). Proteins are digested in an acid medium in the stomach. Starch and carbohydrates are digested in an alkaline medium in the mouth. Try eating non- starchy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini with dense protein. So, instead of eating meat with potatoes, combine meat with veggies and potatoes with veggies.

-Fruits: Do your best not to combine acid fruits (lemons, limes, pineapples, kiwi,) with sweet fruits (bananas, dates, figs, prunes, raisins) Acid fruits require a more alkaline digestive environment than sweet.

-Melons: They contain more water than other fruits and require less time in the stomach. Do watermelon alone, it consists of mostly water and its required time in the stomach is less than that of other melons.

-Sub-Acid Fruits (apples, berries, apricots, cherries, mangoes, papayas, peaches, pears, plums) Can all be combined with sweet fruits or acid fruits (oranges, pineapple, pomegranates, sour grapes, grapefruit, lemons)

Alkaline Forming Foods: All fresh fruits and juices with the exception of blueberries, cranberries, plums, and prunes are alkaline. All fresh vegetables are alkaline forming as well.

-Grains: Amaranth, millet, and quinoa.

-Beans: Fresh green beans, green peas, (acid forming beans such as, aduki, black, chickpeas, kidney, lentil, mung, pinto, navy, and white become alkaline when sprouted.)

-Nuts and Seeds: Aside from almonds and fresh coconut, nuts are slightly acid forming, soaking nuts make them alkaline. All sprouted seeds are alkaline.

*Excessive cooking, freezing, canning, pickling, and preserving w/ sugar and chemicals, greatly reduce alkalinity. Meats (refined and cooked), salts, sugars, starches, alcohol, coffee, and soft drinks are all acidic.

*I know that most of you may read this and wonder, well what can I eat then? This is all about balance and awareness and giving your body enough time to process all your foods well and good. Overload just leads to discomfort and disease. We try our best to promote prevention at all costs. If you know better, then you do better. Try to think more about how foods will gel in your stomach rather than what you are traditionally accustomed to eating...Just a bit of change..Bless..Be Good to Your WHOLE Body...Be well....