PLEASE SUPPORT THE EFFORTS OF THE MUSCLE KITCHEN. FOR THREE YEARS, THE SITE HAS BEEN ENTIRELY FREE; THAT IS NO LONGER FEASIBLE. I KNOW YOU UNDERSTAND. PLEASE BUY A BOOK OR A SET OF MAGNETS FOR YOURSELF, A STUDENT OR FRIENDS. THANKYOU.
YOU CAN CHANGE
THE WAY YOU LOOK AND FEEL by WHAT YOU EAT, WHEN YOU EAT IT and HOW
IT'S COOKED. First you have to be dedicated to making changes and follow through, visualize how you want to look,
then take one step at a time.
'Why are there rules?' It takes discipline and focus to make the physical and psychological changes which are steps to your body and health goals - more muscle, slimming, toning, strengthening or stamina-building.
The TMK Principles are
simple and basic but far-reaching in impact. Once
you get the principles engrained in your mind and routine, you’ll begin to feel and see some
big positive changes.
Combining Foods Properly
There two differing schools of thought about how to eat. What has been termed Simple (or Proper) Food Combining is often poo-pooed by one faction, an idea unnecessary even preposterous. The other embraces and extols it's virtues, including aging gracefully with unproblematic health, improved skin and sex life, clean digestion, minimal if nonexistent digestive problems and a oneness with the natural world.
There is sound rationale for the latter modality.
When mixed in the digestive system some categories of foods will cause distress. The principles of simple food combining are dictated by digestive chemistry -- different foods require different enzymes for processing.
Starchy foods require an alkaline digestive medium which is supplied initially in the mouth by the enzyme ptyalin. Protein foods want an acid medium for digestion -- hydrochloric acid.
All students of chemistry know acids and alkalis (bases) neutralize each other. If you eat an acid food (orange juice) with an alkaline food (whole wheat toast), digestion is impaired or completely arrested; undigested food mass can cause digestive disorders, become fodder for bacteria which ferment and decompose; the by-products are poisonous, one of which is a narcotic alcohol that destroys or inhibits nerve function in the digestive tract, suspending their vital action such that constipation, for instance, may well result. (Dr. Herbert Shelton, "Food Combining Made Easy")
A rather savvy seasoned nutritionist, Dr. Lark Lands*, does not believe it matters very much for most healthy people ti mix food types or portions of any food pyramid, old or new. The body has redundant systems to deal well with almost anything you throw at it or into it. (Hmm, so the resultant side effects would require antacids, baking soda, laxatives, diuretics, etc.)
A good piece of bottom-line advice in the 'un-simple food combining mode' is to eat the food groups in a particular order within one meal and the stomach will handle everything just fine. Protein first, then vegetables, then starch then fruit. So it’s start with the steak or chicken or salmon first, finish it, then the vegetable course or salad, then the sweet potatoes, mashed, pasta or rice pilaf, clean the plate, finish off with fresh fruit or fruit compote as dessert. No pastries, dairy or bakery goodies.
* http://www.larklands.net/
The ‘simple’ modality takes more discipline to get used to, but because it forces one to eat more raw produce and more often, I contend it is key to living a longer and healthier life and with fewer organic problems in one’s golden years. Raucous food combining takes it’s toll on the body very gradually and cumulatively.
Complex
meals are not really akin to our true nature. Simple is
just how we're wired.
FEWER FOOD TYPES COMBINED IN ONE MEAL WILL ALLOW BETTER NUTRIENT ABSORPTION
AND MINIMIZE DIGESTIVE CONFLICT.
Our bodies do try to cope with it all, there are redundant organic systems which try hard to cope, but things are getting out of hand. IT'S TOO EASY TO EAT CONVENIENTLY OR EMOTIONALLY INSTEAD OF RATIONALLY. There's food for fun, celebrations, holiday cheer, camaraderie and all: sure, but tone it down and only on THOSE RARE OCCASIONS. Some actually boast they don't know how to boil water or break an egg. That's a sad state of affairs. Really take of yourself and your cohabitants takes discipline. It's not easy at first, but the pay offs are incredible.
•
Be honest. How often every week do you re-live that goofy good 'I've earned it' feeling?
Hmm? How many ‘special occasions’ do you give in to?
And, most importantly and tellingly, WHY? More on that touchy subject, later on.
• Humans are designed and have evolved to function best on simpler fare, especially within the scope of a single meal. Think CAVEMAN CUISINE,
hunter/gatherer fare.
Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids
neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and
the result is fermentation and indigestion. Ergo, never eat fruit
with anything else but fruit. Even separating acid fruits from sub-acid
fruits has benefits.
Separate
protein foods and starchy carbohydrate foods.Protein foods however do require an acid medium for better digestion. (i.e., steak is better with just veggies alongside, no bread, potatoes, corn or rice.)
Only one kind of protein food at a meal. Sorry,that good ol’ new American staple Turf ‘n Surf or Land 'n Sand, is asking your stomach to digest two complicated, conflicting proteins that are FAR from indigenous to each other. Now, paella or bouillabaisse is fine, all fish, no worry. Add sausage, uh uh! Just make certain the creative un-nutritionally-educated chef hasn't thrown in two- or four-legged meat in with finned or feathered. Again, one or the other, not both. Simplicity works.
Your stomach will thank you every day from here on. In subtle ways we heal, in insidious ways we harm.
Proteins
and acid foods at separate meals.The
acids of acid (YIN) foods inhibit
digestive acids required for protein digestion. This means, no
fruit in your tossed salad. No designer
apple slices, raisins, pears, peaches, Mandarin oranges. No plum
sauce or mint jelly with your lamb chops. You get the picture:
eat around them to be polite, off to the side, into the napkin. Very few "great
chefs" know the first thing about nutrition.
Fats
and proteins at separate meals. You're
eating only lean protein to begin with, right? Of course. Lean beef,
no pork, no poultry dark meat, no bird skin. Nuts are
high in protein AND fat; use with discretion. They make a great
in-between snack. A handful of raw organic cashews has 20 grams
of fat; roasted and salted, about 90.
Almonds are smarter. They require a good deal of digestion time,
so don't mix with any other kind of food.
Sweets and proteins at separate meals. It bares repeating. Fruits absolutely separate, ideally at the very end of a meal instead of pastry or dairy desserts.
Sub-acid fruits are a great in-between snack on an empty stomach. Nuts
with fruits are a cool exception. Raisins, apples, bananas, figs,
dates. Avoid obsessive high-acid citrus fruits (which
are extremely yin): oranges,
pineapples, grapefruit, lemons, limes, etc. In very small and occasional
amounts the body can handle them,
but a huge glass of orange juice every morning, with oatmeal
or eggs, toast, coffee, a sweet roll, sausage, margarine on top.
One
concession, an exception to this rule is adding some dates or raisins,
a banana, berries or fruit juice into protein powder smoothies. The extra protein and antioxidants and energy is a minor transgression.
FEWER
TYPES OF FOODS COMBINED IN ONE MEAL WILL MAKE FOR BETTER NUTRIENT ABSORPTION AND LESS INTERNAL DIGESTIVE CONFLICT.
Sugars,
fruits and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits
digest very quickly in the stomach and just sit there if other
kinds of foods are present which need much longer digestion. Think
about
it: spinach can take up to 12 hours to fully digest and pass out
of the stomach to the small intestine. A peeled apple, about five
minutes. Great, so now the apple’s putrefying and slowly
rotting and
messing things up for the spinach. Bad food combining.
Melons,
eat 'em alone or leave 'em alone. Melons
do not combine well with any other food,
including other fruits. Melons have no fiber virtually; they're
mostly water and sugar. It passes through the stomach and small
intestine
in record time, in less than a few minutes! So anything else that’s
in the stomach at the time will PUTREFY. NOT a
healthy idea for anyone, regardless of your body goals and especially
if
you've got a medical condition. I can’t emphasize this more. Don’t eat melons or fruit or fruit juice with anything
else.
Desserts Are 4 Wimps. I mean pastries or sugary dairy desserts, not fruit. Eat them on special occasions only and preferable in the middle of the day to burn off the effects by bedtime. Other than fruit alone or fruit combined with other fruits (not melons) or yoghurt and cinnamon ... yum). The typical designer dessert is nutritional disaster, a major empty-calorie and yin overload. On top of any kind
of meal goropy desserts lie like lead in the stomach, requiring no
digestion there, they just ferment everything else in your stomach.
Bacteria turn them into alcohols, vinegars
and acetic
acids ... "anti-nutrition".
Using these techniques, you'll be eating simpler, smaller meals, and more than just three a day. Your energy and stamina will improve, you will digest your foods more completely delivering more nutrients to all your body systems. Everything will find a new balance which will extend both the quality and quantity of your life.
Sources:
1) Dr. Darrell L. Wolfe, Ac, PhD http://www.thewolfeclinic.com
2) "Food Combining Made Easy" and "Superior Nutrition" by Herbert M. Shelton D.P., N.D., D.N.T, D.N.Sc.
3) Donna Gates, nutritional consultant "Body Ecology"
PRINCIPLES
