In Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka’s “chewing-gum meal” makes Violet turn blue and swell up like a balloon. The gum is a 3-course meal with tomato soup, roast beef and baked potato with butter, and blueberry pie with cream. Sounds kind of like the Standard American Diet, right?
Last post, I talked about trying simple food combinations to decrease allergic reactions to certain foods. Elaborate food combinations are not only difficult to digest, but they also tend to cause people to eat more than they normally would. Interestingly, if you have 5 different flavors on your plate, your brain doesn’t feel satisfied until it has had a certain amount of each flavor.
Even if your stomach is full, your brain will want you to keep going to get its fill of the tastes. Eating too much in one sitting is hard on the digestive system, even if it you are following good food combining principles, and even if it is one of your favorite healthy vegan recipes.
I’ve talked before about how mixing proteins and starches at a meal is not a very good thing for your digestive system, but the way our diets are today, it is often unavoidable. If you are eating a meal that includes foods from the different groups (fats, proteins, starches and fruits), eating them in a specific order can help them to be digested.
Salty foods help to stimulate your stomach to produce hydrochloric acid, so a salty miso soup or something similar is a good food combining start to a meal. Since protein needs access to the acids and enzymes in your stomach, it is best eaten early on in the meal. Starches and fats can be eaten together, and they are best eaten after any protein dishes.
If you are planning on dessert, a salad is best eaten at the end of a meal, rather than the beginning as we are so used to. The reason for eating it last is that the enzymes of the fresh green vegetables help to digest the other foods eaten. If you are having a sweet dessert, the salad will also help to clear any remaining food from the stomach and limit the fermentation.
The best idea is to wait at least 30 minutes or more after your meal to start dessert, and simple desserts are usually easiest to digest.
Salty foods at the end of a meal have the same effect as they do at the beginning – they help stimulate the stomach’s production of acid, so this can help sort out issues the stomach may be having from a complex meal, or from overeating. This is within reason, of course. Don’t expect a pickle to make everything flow through after eating a 72 ounce steak, or Willy’s chewing-gum meal.
An interesting point to consider is that most meals take about 4 hours to empty from the stomach. High fat meals take up to 6 hours, since the fat slows the entire process. Try to leave enough time between meals for this process to clear the stomach and allow it to build up a sufficient level of acid and enzymes for the next meal.
It’s also important to remember that you should actually feel hungry before you eat a meal. It can be easy to forget that when you eat on the fairly strict schedule we seem to follow. I’ve found lately after listening to my body for some time that I need the most fuel at about 2pm. So, I go with that. I have a good lunch, and don’t need as much at dinner time.
Willy Wonka wanted to help people with his chewing gum. “No more buying of meat and groceries! There’ll be no knives and forks at mealtimes! No plates! No washing up! No garbage! No mess!” But if he knew about food combining, he might have gone for something simpler (like one of my healthy vegan recipes from last week, such as the Beet, Mushroom and Almond Salad).
For dessert, you could always take a rainbow, sprinkle it with dew, cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two. But there’s really only one person who can do that the best. Anyone know who?
I invite you to discover the “3 Important Tips For Making The Best Healthy Vegan Soups” in this free download. You might also want to check out my healthy vegan recipes on video, 5 nights a week. Prepare dinner along with me every weeknight as I discuss both holistic nutrition and healthy vegan cooking. Here is your free download: http://www.healthyveganrecipes.net/free/soup-techniques
Article Source: Willy Wonka Didn’t Know About Food Combining
