Food Combining Principles

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Permalink Reply by Michal Kreslik on November 24, 2008 at 3:14am

Thank You so much for this long exhaustive response!It´s quite funny, I finished lesson 23 yesterday :-) My goal is to stay on a 100% raw vegan diet long-term so cooked foods are not a big deal. I found that I love fruits the most, I feel awesome after fruit meal (prefer 1-2 kinds within one fruit group in one meal). But I also have one big vegetable salad a day (accordig to NH combining principles). From your text I feel the underlining message that the best way to explore different points of view ant "truths" si to make experiments on myself :-) How I feel? What are the side effects of doing this? What are the results? etc...It sound like a lot of work but a great challenge for me :-) Thank you for your patience and advice!

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Permalink Reply by Michal Kreslik on November 24, 2008 at 3:22am

Hello Xerxes,

Your words sound very wise... Interensting point! Do you think that so big shift (from my previous ordinary diet to strictly living on NH principles) might be a problem? Yes, I had some symptoms, but nothing I can´t handle or feel really uncomfortable with. Until this day I haven´t felt any enormous symptoms, so do you think if this trend will continue, It´s OK to stay on that relatively radical journey?

Love, Michal

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Permalink Reply by Michal Kreslik on November 24, 2008 at 4:39am

Got it... you know what, you´ve answered my biggest question about starting RAW in so simply way... thank you so so much!!! I hope it will have value for other members and readers as well... Thanks to both of You, Xerxes and RawforLife UK :-)

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Permalink Reply by rawMzMartha! on November 28, 2008 at 5:52pm

Hi guys!,
I'm fairly new at Raw too, and I've come to the point where I'm ready to do a little more, so I checked this thread out. I really appreciate the whole...'don't be hard on yourself', as another Raw host put it, 'your seeking progression, not perfection!'
I'm feeling that sloooooooooooooooowing down part and it's a new feeling for me. I understand everyone has their own journey and I don't compare myself w/ others, but i try to encourage someone and I rarely tell my friends, unless they know me and are familiar w/ the concepts, as it can bring down, if they don't understand! or don't want to. I lQQk forward to reading the sites! ; )
luv to live, live to luv!
Martha! ; )
BTW...who is Rawforlife UK? will you pleeze stand up!? LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Alexandra on November 29, 2008 at 11:47pm

I recently attended a lecture on raw foods/NH by a prominent raw foods/natural hygiene practitioner here in NYC, and he was quite adamant about food combining. During transition, the idea is not to eat heavy foods before light foods, both during a meal as well as throughout the day. So, start your day with juice, move up to fruit, then a salad, then for dinner eat a salad then anything you like raw or cooked. If you are going to miscombine for whatever reason, do it at night before bed so the food has adequate time to move out of your stomach before the next meal. Natalia Rose also emphasizes food combining based on NH rules in her raw foods books, with some great recipes.

There is real biochemical and physiological data about transit times needed for food to exit the stomach. If you pile poorly combined food together in your stomach, the digestive system gets confused. In order for certain digestive enzymes to work, an acid environment is required. For others, an alkaline environment in the stomach is required. If both types of food are present, then the stomach sends out both alkalizing and acidifying chemicals and pH ends up neutral, and none of the food is properly digested.

additionally, food leaves the stomach in the order it enters it, as opposed to the commonly held belief that it becomes a mixture in the stomach and gets digested together. If you eat flesh, it takes about 6 hours to leave the stomach. If you drink juice, it takes about a half hour to leave the stomach. However, if you drink the juice after eating the flesh, the flesh creates a roadblock that prevents the juice from exiting the stomach. The juice then ferments in the stomach, releases toxins, and creates additional digestive problems rather than providing the benefits you had hoped to get by drinking the juice.

Yourt body will be less sensitive to poor combination at the beginning of your transition; later on it is more important to observe food combining rules in order to avoid gas and digestive problems.

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Permalink Reply by Michal Kreslik on November 30, 2008 at 7:47am

Alexandra, thanks a lot!

Some very interesting points! I didn´t even know that food leaves the stomach in order it enters it... Very helpful! And the idea of eating lighter meals before heavier ones during day will be very helpful for me personally as well... You know responses like this one (yours) keep my desire for deeper knowledge of Raw/NH alive... Thank you very much!

Love, Michal

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Permalink Reply by Priyam on November 30, 2008 at 5:56pm

as a very general principle for food combining, simple is better & easier on digestion. I find DW selling too many food items to have a valid or objective (to me) opinion about anyone else's principles - especially Shelton. i can certainly understand if he does not agree with Shelton; but throw his principles out the window seems a bit suspect to me, don't you think? i suggest reading Doug Graham, Nora Lenz, Virginia Vetrano and any others that appeal you. then experiment and see what resonates with you. wishing you the best!!

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Permalink Reply by Michal Kreslik on December 1, 2008 at 3:41am

Hey Priyam,

I agree. In fact, I don´t really resonate with David Wolfe principles, but it doesn´t mean that I don´t respect him or even reject him. So as many of you suggest me I search multiple sources of knowledge and different points of view and try to interconnect them with my inner truth. Right now, I´m studying rawfoodexplained.com, work of Doug Graham and Nora Lenz, so let´s see :-)

Thank you very much for response and willingness to help, Priyam... keep on going

Love, Michal

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Permalink Reply by John E. Viitanen on December 8, 2008 at 3:59pm

Yo, anything that these raw lifestyle proponents suggest gets me to thinking that it then becomes an opinion of theirs and they each have their own reasons to stand behind what they preach. It was this food combining thing that gets me further along on the ultimate path of fruitarian or as I like to call myself a frugivorous being. The definition is not as restrictive. So if your a quick study then do not read my writings because they are too abstracted. Way out there. But to be a quick study you have to look into the past mistakes before you can project what it is you are all about. So David Wolfe, Doug Graham and the like are sometimes right on with OUR thinking, but in other ways they're just pandering to the poor lost souls who have money to offer up to the gods.

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Permalink Reply by Mera Magic Meraa on December 18, 2008 at 6:13am

I love it! David Wlfe was my first raw author/inspiration, thhen Cousens, then Jubb. I have great respecct for them all and all raw authors I've read, while his food combining tips helped me at first I didn't stick to them after it lost the feeling of rightness, I think it was a good transition to eating simpler and being more conscientous for me. I've just built on that over the years. I don't mix fruit & veggies besides avo's, cukes & tomatoes, but I sometimes mix nuts/seeds. I used to do this ALL the time and I think this is my transitional issue that will be a slow progress for me, but I have cut back on it and choose with awareness now which nuts/seeds I really feel I need to combine.

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