There’s no doubt that you’ve enjoyed the benefits of combing the right foods together if not for the nutritional aspect, then for a pleasurable one.

The secrets of combining foods is not something new, the concept has been around for thousands of years but the reasons why and which ones work best is still being studied today.

Food is a popular topic and with good reason. It’s a necessity of life. Many studies have been performed on food and this has led to many discoveries being made with many more underway.

For instance, combining foods to lose weight quickly is extremely popular. By combing the right foods you will improve your digestion, cholesterol levels, your metabolism and this helps lead to weight loss.

Nutrition is a science that relates to everything that goes on in the body. Your body requires food and water to survive and all the basic functions cannot be performed properly without this adequate nutrition and hydration.

Food is classified as any substance that is composed of carbohydrates, water, fats and proteins. These food sources may be from plants, animals or other sources such as fungus. At one time food was found through gathering and hunting methods. In modern times farming, ranching, fishing, hunting and other methods have become common ways of finding food.

Nine Basic Rules to Follow When Combining Foods:

1. Eat starch foods and acidic foods at separate times otherwise the acids can neutralize the alkaline medium which is required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion.
2. Eat food containing carbohydrates and proteins at different meals with most people being best suited for protein earlier in the day and the carbohydrates toward the end of the day. Protein foods need an acidic medium for good digestion.
3. Eat only one type of protein food at a meal setting.
4. Proteins and acidic type foods need to be eaten at different meals because acidic foods can inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for optimal protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies, or rots if you can relate, in bacterial decomposition that produces some potent poisons that you should want to avoid.
5. Fatty foods and proteins should also be eaten at different mealtimes. Some foods, particularly nuts, are loaded with good fats but require hours for digestion.
6. Fruits contain natural sugars and your heavier proteins should be eaten at separate meals.
7. Eat melons only with other melons or alone. They do not combine well with any other type of foods.
8. Eat sugary food and fruits at different meals than your starchy foods. Fruits require no digestion in your stomach and can be held up when you eat them with other foods that does require digestion in the stomach.
9. Desserts should be eaten alone and separate from any other types of food. When eaten on top of meals they weigh heavy on the stomach but require no digestion there so fermentation occurs. The bacteria there, other foods and sugars turn into alcohols, vinegars and other acids.

Combining and eating the right types of foods together can help improve your digestion and overall health. Additionally, combining the right foods together can also help a person decrease stomach and digestive problems as well as discomfort after eating their meals.

Some experts believe that eating the same types of foods together allows your stomach to work better, more efficiently and with less stress.

One of the fastest and easiest improvements you can make right now is simply to chew your food up more completely before swallowing because that’s where the whole process starts.

One last thing about combining the right foods and how they affect your weight…

As you get older a common concern is weight gain. It is known that as we get older we have a tendency to gain weight. This is because our body needs fewer calories than it used to and if you don’t cut down your weight is going to increase and rule you.

If you’re like most of us, there’s no doubt that you have tried all kinds of diet plans and exercised more or at least thought about it. What might come to a surprise is that just by combining foods differently you could set yourself up to lose weight rather easily.

Following what we’ve been telling you here using the food combining principles above you might want to start changing up your food combinations right away.

As an example, fruits don’t digest as well when they are mixed with starchy foods so choose something like yogurt instead because they both digest easily together.

If you’re going to do it, bananas are about one of the only foods that digest well with other foods such as cereal and oatmeal. Generally speaking, you are best served by eating fruits as a snack and on an empty stomach.

Here are a few tips on combining foods for losing weight:

Eat starches and proteins separate from each other.

Eat fruit separate times.

Leave yourself 15 to 30 minutes between eating your main course and eating your dessert.

Chew your food thoroughly.

And of course one of the best ways to help you lose weight is to increase your daily water intake to one ounce for every two pounds of body weight at a minimum. Water helps you to flush out the toxins in your body and nutrients from your food can not be absorbed without it.

For the next topic in this guide we’ll discuss “The Importance of Detoxifying Your Body” but don’t lose sight of how important combining the right foods are and why it’s so important to drink enough water each day. By doing so, it will also help you feel less bloated and assist you dropping the body fat.

When you initially eat food the food is not in a usable form for your body. Your body needs to process this food so that it can extract all the life giving nutrients from all that you have just eaten.

Your food must be converted into small enough molecules so that it can be carried throughout your body in your blood stream bringing nutrients to all of your body’s cells. For this to happen your body needs to digest the food that you eat.

Makes sense right?

Digestion is the process of mixing food with digestive juices as the food moves down your digestive tract. It starts in your mouth with your saliva as you chew your food and begin the process of breaking down larger pieces of food with smaller ones.

So, digestion starts the moment you begin to chew your food and ends in your lower small intestines mostly exhausted and ready for elimination.

The Process of Digestion

Your digestive tract contains a wall inside of it that actually moves. It’s a large hollow like muscle that allows this movement to happen. This moving process helps pass your food along where the nutrients can be absorbed into your body through the walls of your digestive tract. Different foods are also digested in different areas of your digestive system.

This movement is called Peristalsis, as if you really wanted to know, but you can relate to this movement by envisioning a wave moving towards the beach with their back and forth movements.

Okay, after you’ve swallowed your food it’s pushed into the esophagus first. The stomach meets the esophagus at its base with a ring like muscle known as the lower esophageal sphincter.

The sphincters job is to keep the esophagus and the stomach closed off from each other. When this sphincter muscle is approached with food it relaxes to let the food pass into the stomach and closes back up again.

That’s how it works in a healthy digestive tract.

Now your stomach has three important tasks to perform with this new arrival of food. The upper part of your stomach relaxes and stores the food and liquid you just ate.  Task number two is to mix all the food and liquid together which is performed by the stomach using muscle action where it then moves on to task number three where this mixture is emptied into your lower intestine.

All foods do not move into your lower intestine at the same time. Some foods like proteins take longer to be mixed up and broken down by the stomach. Carbohydrates will be processed quickly and fats normally take the longest amount of time to digest.

Next, foods in your intestines are mixed with juices from your pancreas and liver then this mixture gets absorbed by your intestines and nutrients are carried through your bloodstream and your entire body.

Why is this Digestive Process so Important to Know?

This digestion process is very important because your body needs food to be turned into small enough particles before it can be used to feed your body. This is the only way to get these tiny particles small enough so that they can then be used effectively by your cells.

Your cells do an amazing job for you. Cells help to make your skin, bones, muscles and organs. Everything from the hair on your head to your toenails you can view cells as tiny building blocks for your body.

Nutrients from your food help to feed and repair cells and to build new ones. Once your body is nourished by your newly born and fed cells you’ll appreciate more energy and feel stronger, healthier and revitalized.

Problems of Improper Digestion

Problems begin to spring up when your body doesn’t handle the digestive process in the right way and nutrients are not properly or completely absorbed. It’s called mal-absorption. If poor digestion occurs you might experience one or more of the following signs:

This can be weight loss or weight gain, constipation or diarrhea, gas pain or heartburn, bloating or nausea.

That covers a lot of are doesn’t it?

When these symptoms occur on a regular basis it will be a sign that something else maybe wrong. So if you suddenly start experiencing any of these symptoms it may be and issue with your digestive system and you should immediately make plans to rectify the problem.

If this is you, do you think that it could have something to do with you not having a healthy nutrition plan? Yes, that’s a good possibility isn’t it.

In the next segment of this guide we’ll discuss “The Benefits of Combining the Right Foods”. Here you’ll get the basics of combining foods to help create your healthy nutrition plan.

Understanding What Malnutrition Really Is

Understanding malnutrition starts with understanding its meaning which is “an imbalance between the body’s demand for nutrition and the availability of nutrients”.

When your body is not getting the right amount of nutrients over a period of time you body begins to suffer.

Without adequate nutrition your body will become weak, your immune system breaks down and your overall health degrades. Bottom line is that advanced nutritional deficiency can lead to death.

Malnutrition can be Found Everywhere

Most people associate malnutrition with people living in third world countries. While it is true that you’ll find a larger percentage of malnourished people there, you’ll also find them right in your own backyard.

Going back to our definition above and you either fill your body’s nutritional requirements or you too will be considered malnourished.

A common condition found in many countries around the world is Anorexia. Even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve probably seen it up close and maybe even personal.

Signs of Anorexia are extreme weight loss and many times it begins with a person wanting to lose weight. When the person’s perception becomes distorted about how much weight they are losing, it becomes very serious and professional help should be sought.

The type of malnutrition commonly found in third world countries is known as a protein-calorie type of malnutrition and children are often affected most frequently. Because their bodies are unable to grow and develop properly from the daily lack of food, their digestive system and organs become damaged, they suffer from starvation, and sadly they die.

Obese People Suffer from Malnutrition Too

Obese people can have severe malnutrition and you’d never think that by looking at them. But what if a person ate primarily all sugar all of the time? Empty calories, no nutrition and guess what – Malnutrition. Overweight and malnourished, how pitiful is that? Organ and digestive damage can still occur compounded by the excess strain on the cardiovascular system from being too overweight.

Remember, malnutrition is defined as is “an imbalance between the body’s demand for nutrition and the availability of nutrients”.

Many deficiencies can take hold when you fail to get the right amount of certain nutrients. You can see this in people that lack calcium for instance and their teeth, bones and fingernails turn frail and brittle. People that lack iron can become anemic and the lack of iodine can lead to thyroid problems.

The list goes on and on and the facts are that wealthy or poor, fat or thin, everyone can be at risk of malnutrition. The takeaway here is be sure that if you can’t, won’t or just don’t eat balanced nutrition, do yourself a favor and get some good quality nutritional supplements to feed your body what it’s missing.

What we’ll do next is talk a little about “Your Digestive Systems Role in Healthy Nutrition” so click that link and we’ll go through how your body uses the nutrients you consume.

Four Food Groups inside the Food Pyramid

There are four of the basic food groups that have now been placed into the Food Pyramid for a guide on eating healthy nutrition. This guide will show you just how many servings of each group you should eat each day. You’ll notice that the foods at the wider base offer you more servings a day while the top portion of the guide includes those foods that you should be eating more sparingly.

The concept behind the Food Pyramid is to eat servings from each of the different levels every day. This gives you with balance and variety that you need in your diet on a daily basis. By following these suggestions you can be certain that you are getting the right amount of nutrients in your body.

This is the type of healthy nutrition plan that you want to adapt to.

When you eat in this manner you can quickly begin improving your eating habits and in short order, you’ll feel the health of your body improve.

Separating the Four Groups inside the Food Pyramid

As you will notice in the diagram above the grain group is at the base of the pyramid. The foods you’ll find in this section are primarily cereals, pasta, breads and rice. You should normally be eating between 6-11 servings from this group each day unless you are attempting to do a no or low carbohydrate diet.

This particular food group consists mostly of carbohydrates and can provide your body with energy and fuel. Depending on your level of physical activity you may need to adjust this a bit because excess carbs can pack on the weight if your body is idle and you’re not burning the fuel from all those calories fast enough.

This is why professional athletes will often load up on carbs before a big race or sporting event. People who participate in marathons, triathlons, iron man competitions and long distance cycling events will do a “carb load” prior to the big event.

Next we have the fruit and vegetable group and you should be eating larger amounts of these foods as well. Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, fiber and more. Fiber is extremely important to your digestive system and you should eat at 6-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and if not, it’s a good idea to supplement in the areas that you are lacking.

Moving on to the next level of the Food Pyramid we have the meat and dairy products. This group is rich in protein which is essential for everyone and health and fitness nuts may want to increase their protein intake based on the intensity of their workouts. Protein and dairy originate from animal and plant sources. These include food items such as milk, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, cheese and beans.

All of the foods in this group contain important nutrients and protein that can’t be found as abundantly in other food groups. Calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc and B vitamins are essential for bone and muscle development.

The foods in this group are necessary for your body and are extremely important for children as they require more of these in their diet as they develop and grow.

Last but not least the top of our Food Pyramid contains sugars, oils and fats. You’ll find these in a variety of foods, they are very important but should be used sparingly especially in the case of sugar which offers your body mostly empty calories that provide you with little to no worthy nutritional value. Some fats and oils however are a must have for a healthy nutrition plan.

Here are a few food sources to spark ideas when planning meals:

Some of the best sources of carbohydrates include: Wheat of all varieties, corn, rice, barley, rye and oats. Varieties of potatoes like white, golden, red and sweet potatoes. The Legumes like pinto beans, peas, limas, navy beans, black beans, lentils and peanuts. Nuts of all kinds including coconuts.

Some of the best sources of fruits and vegetables include: All fruits fall into this category but some are very high in natural sugar such as grapes so be mindful of this when choosing your food.

Apples, lemons, oranges, apricots, peaches, grapes, pears, strawberries, avocadoes, tomatoes, watermelon, muskmelon, cantaloupe, casaba, honey dew, bananas, prunes, grapes, raisins, dried currants, figs, dates, persimmons, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, currants, mulberries, gooseberries, huckleberries, olives, nectarines, pineapples, plums and raspberries.

With vegetables you also have lots of choices: Asparagus, beets, cabbage, carrots, turnips, parsnips, cauliflower, cucumber, egg plant, lettuce, celery, endive, romaine, chicory, cucumbers, cabbage, celery cabbage, parsley, field lettuce, okra, onions, radish, summer squash, spinach, kohlrabi, kale, Brussels sprouts, cone artichoke, chard, string beans, celery, turnip tops, lotus, endive, dandelion, oyster plant, rutabaga and garlic.

Some of the best sources of proteins include: Animal meat of most any kind like chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, veal, pork, geese and ducks. Legumes provide protein and are important to vegetarians. Fish is known to be beneficial for its “good oils” but is also high in protein. There are many choices when it comes to fish like shrimp, shell fish, herring, pickerel, salmon, trout, bass, pike, red snapper, tuna and a whole host of fresh and saltwater varieties not listed here.

Deep cold-water fish are prized for their valuable oils as opposed to freshwater fish so this is good to keep in mind when preparing your menu.

Nuts like almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, filberts and hazel nuts are all good protein sources and some of the best sources of dairy include: cheese, milk, yogurt, Greek yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese.

At the top of the Food Pyramid we have the fats and oils.

Some of the best sources of fats and oils include: Dairy products such as cream, butter and some of the richer cheeses. Fatty fish like herring, shad, salmon and trout being high up on the list. Legumes, nuts, coconuts, cotton seed oil, flax seed oil, sesame seed oil, olive oil and more.

Understanding the Food Pyramid helps you fit together a more balanced and healthy nutrition plan and is the basics of most preplanned packaged diets. Next, we’ll briefly touch on malnutrition with “Ending the Confusion about Malnutrition” and why it’s not just a third world problem…

And why it could be your problem too.

In the world of health and fitness developing a healthy nutrition plan is as important as, even more important, than your exercise plan. Both go hand in hand and if you are serious about getting fit and staying fit, it’s in your best interest to learn the basics of getting enough exercise but more importantly, what a healthy nutrition plan is.

The Basics of a Healthy Nutrition Plan

Here we’re going to give you that basic understanding and some ideas to set you in the motion of thinking the right way nutrition. By no means are we able to cover all the details, so in this report we’ll stick to the basics of a simple healthy nutrition plan.

You already know that it’s important to eat correctly and as the old saying goes “you are what you eat!” rings true. You know that if you eat too much you’ll tend to be overweight and on the opposite end of that spectrum, if you eat too little you will be thin, sickly and suffer from malnourishment.

What we need is a well-balanced approach to a healthy nutrition plan.

In this learning series will cover some things you’ve probably already heard before and if that’s you, just use these guidelines as a healthy nutrition “refresher”. Chances are that you’ll grab a few good tips out of this either way.

At the end of this guide we’ll talk about how combining certain foods can also be a big benefit to you too. Combining the right foods can help you jump start your metabolism and get you in the losing weight mode fast. We’ll also cover a little information about eating raw foods and the importance of detoxifying. So let’s get started…

Eating the right food is important to a healthy nutrition plan.

Everyone knows and agrees that you need food to survive. Finding good quality food and fresh drinking water has been at the center of our existence as humans beings since our beginnings. We can survive, albeit not as comfortably, without a house, vehicle, and fancy clothes but give it a few days without water and a few weeks without food and simply put – We’re toast!

You can find the evidence of this can in many third world countries where malnutrition runs rampant. Where they do have some food, the food that is available does not meet the daily nutritional requirements for the body. Many times the food that is available is in such short supply and there’s not enough food for anything that even resembles a healthy nutrition plan. All too many people feel lucky when they are able to eat just once a day!

This is extremely difficult and hard on the body especially for growing children.

Your body requires food for the energy you expend with every movement you make; even breathing requires effort and energy from your body. This effort needs food to fuel that function.

Eating the right food helps keep our body in top condition and ensures that our body performs correctly and to its potential. When you eat healthy nutritional foods you feel and look better. All of your vital organs work better when fed properly and you can see physical evidence of this in your hair and skin.

A word about healthy nutrition and diets

Everywhere you look nowadays you’ll find a barrage of information on diets, weight loss and exercise plans both old ones and the next new fad. To say the least, it can be overwhelming trying to pick and choose what diet you should do.

They all seem to tout “We’re the best”.

The danger with this sea of information lies in the fact that for most people, if you don’t know what to do, you’ll do nothing at all. That’s a normal reaction but the fact is that if you do nothing at all, you’ll stay on the same path you are already on.

You’ve heard the advertisements… Low carb diets, no carb diets, Atkins diet, the Paleo diet, Weight Watchers, South Beach, and the list goes on…

Some of these diets are really good diets but some are also so restrictive that you will never last long enough doing them to accomplish your goals and that is very disheartening.

When looking at changing the way you eat, you need to look at it just that way. You’re changing the way you eat, not that you are “going on a diet”. Look at it as a healthy lifestyle change and start changing it gradually over time. In other words, don’t associate it with dieting when what you’re really wanting is a long term healthy nutrition plan for eating better.

If you’re the kind of person that likes to have a regimen to follow then following a preplanned diet might be your very best choice. Go ahead and read the rest of this Healthy Nutrition guide and apply the principles when you are looking for the best diet for you to follow.

Another point is that you might have to try a couple of different diet plans to find the one that works best for your body. There’s nothing wrong with mixing and matching different elements from different diets to develop something that will work best for you.

Again, just follow and apply some of the principles in this guide. As you continue reading you’ll gain a pretty good basic understanding of how to proceed. With that thought in mind let’s move on to “A Healthy Nutrition Plan Starts with the New Food Pyramid” so that we have a better understanding of what to eat and how often.

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