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Debunking the Myth of Food Combining No matter how blatantly false and unsubstantiated they are, some Internet-driven health myths just refuse to die. The myth of "food combining," which purports that the body is unable to digest certain foods if they are eaten in the wrong combination, ranks high among these. Typically, proponents of food combining warn that fruits must be eaten alone, lest they "rot" and feed "harmful yeasts" in the body. They also contend that when meats are eaten with grains or starches, it results in the meat "putrefying" in the gut because various digestive factors required to process protein and carbohydrate – be they enzymes or pH levels – "neutralize" one another and prevent the digestion of both. The consequences of inappropriate food combining, proponents of the practice caution, may range from gas and bloating to bona fide disease. Rotting fruits in your stomach? Putrefying meat in your gut? Sounds horrifying. And it would be, if any of these claims were remotely true. Fortunately, they are not. The rationales employed to advocate for food combining reflect a profound misunderstanding of the basic biochemistry and physiology of human digestion, and are poor pseudo-science at best. They are also grounded in a gross underestimate of our digestive system's ability to multi-task. (To be clear, I understand that there are some ancient cultural traditions, like Ayurveda, in which food combining plays a prominent role. These traditions are spiritually based and reflect a more metaphysical approach to digestion, rather than one grounded in molecular biology. The discussion below is not intended to serve as a critique of or commentary on age-old cultural food practices based on such non-Western modalities.) With this context in mind, it's time to break out that high school biology textbook and put this persistent myth of Western-style food combining to rest once and for all. Food does not "rot" in your stomach, period. Rotting is defined as the decomposition of organic matter (your food, in this case) as the result of bacterial or fungal action. Your stomach has a pH of about 2.0 or less when fasted, which is more acidic than even vinegar and lemon juice. This renders the stomach an extremely inhospitable environment to microorganisms, which are generally unable to survive there. In other words, if bacteria or yeasts are going to encounter your food at some point in the digestive process, it most certainly won't be in your stomach – no matter how many hours that food sits there waiting to empty after a large, mixed meal. There is only one circumstance under which you'd need to worry about food rotting in your stomach, and that is if you were to die mid-meal. But assuming you're not planning on doing so, go ahead and eat fruit with whatever else you please and don't give it a second thought. Food combinations do not affect digestive system pH levels. Another argument made by food combining enthusiasts is that starch digestion supposedly reduces stomach acidity, which is an essential pre-requisite for a protein-digesting enzyme (or protease) called pepsin to work effectively. This, too, is a mischaracterization of digestive biochem 101. For starters, this argument overstates the stomach's role in protein digestion. The stomach's main purpose is blending food so there's maximum surface area exposed to the multiple digestive enzymes it will encounter in the small intestine – where the vast majority of digestion takes place. Even people without stomachs – and therefore who lack the benefit of stomach's protein-digesting enzyme pepsin altogether – are able to digest and absorb protein just fine in their small bowels. The gastric enzyme pepsin is only even responsible for about 10 percent of protein digestion, anyway. Gastric pH levels are controlled by the cells which line our stomachs as they secrete gastric acid throughout the digestive process; we do not rely on foods to control stomach acid levels. And while it's true that pepsin requires an acidic environment to be activated from its precursor form, starches do not neutralize the stomach's acidic pH more or less than any other food. An empty stomach is a very acid stomach, and while the anions in all food help neutralize the pH somewhat as we are fed, the stomach remains, on balance, acidic even when fed. (This explains why people who suffer from gastritis, ulcers or acid reflux often feel awful when hungry and much better after they've eaten.) Similarly, the pancreas controls pH levels in the small intestine by secreting bicarbonate-rich pancreatic juice. At this point in the digestive process, pepsin's protein-digesting job is over, and a whole slew of additional enzymes are ready to take over. These enzymes are optimized to be activated and operational in the generally alkaline environment of the small intestine. In other words, our body has its own mechanisms to control the pH levels of each discreet environment that are required for each set of digestive enzymes to work where they are released. (Elegant, no?) And no combination of foods we eat will override these independent mechanisms. Your ability to digest and absorb protein is completely independent of what else your body is digesting simultaneously. The scientifically unsound rationales for food combining implicitly underestimate the human body's ability to do more than one thing at a time. Different enzymes digest different classes of nutrients, and all of them are released without regard to what you've eaten. Even if you're munching on pure sugar – cotton candy, for example – your body will still release protein and fat digesting enzymes as part of the digestive process. As a mixed meal passes through the small intestine, each enzyme goes about its business simultaneously, and in so doing, the absorbable building blocks of our food are absorbed as they become available. Because each type of nutrient – protein, fat and sugar (which is the breakdown product of dietary starches) – has dedicated receptors or other nutrient-specific absorptive mechanisms, they need not compete with one another for absorption. Just as you can walk and chew gum at the same time, so can your gut can absorb meat and grains – or frankly, any combination of food – at the same time as well. Don't underestimate it! By the time your meat would encounter enough bacteria to be able to "putrefy," it has long since been absorbed in the small intestine. Whether you believe it's healthy or ethical to eat animal protein or not, the fact remains that animal protein is highly, highly digestible. In other words, virtually all of the components of meat are easily and fully broken down into their building blocks and completely absorbed in the small intestine; they never even make it as far as the colon. (There's a reason you've probably seen corn kernels or sesame seeds in your poop, but never intact meat fibers!) Why does this matter? Because your colon is where the highest concentration of bacteria resides, and it's the segment of the digestive tract where your "leftover" food spends the most time: anywhere from 10 to 64 hours in normal, healthy adults on average. In other words, if a food is going to be fermented by bacteria – which, incidentally, is a normal and frankly desirable process – it's going to happen in the colon. Most of what winds up in the colon are indigestible plant fibers – fruit and veggie skins, seed hulls, bran, resistant bean starches – as well as unabsorbed sugars, as would be the case for lactose intolerant people who eat lots of dairy foods. Incidentally, this is why it's more accurate to refer to the process as "fermentation" rather than "putrefecation;" the latter term refers to the decomposition of animal flesh, which doesn't really happen in the gut for the reasons described above. Fermentation refers to the bacterial decomposition of carbohydrates, which is a more accurate term to describe your gut's goings-on. So anytime you encounter the term "putrefy" in a description of the digestive process, file it away under "scare tactic" rather than "scientific fact." Intestinal gas is not a sign of poor digestion per se. Intestinal gas – or "farting" in common parlance – doesn't necessarily mean your digestive system isn't working well. All it may mean is that you've eaten a lot of indigestible foods. Intestinal gas is produced as a natural byproduct of bacterial fermentation of fiber and unabsorbed sugars. (In this category, you should include unabsorbable low-calorie sweeteners like sugar alcohols and added fibers like inulin.) How much gas you produce is generally related to how much of this non-digestible material you eat, and what the critters your gut harbors in abundance are partial to snacking on. As a rule of thumb, people who follow more plant based diets are likely to experience more intestinal gas as well. In other words, farting is not pathological, nor is it a sign that something is necessarily amiss. It most certainly is not a sign that you've combined foods in an inappropriate way. I consider farting to be a side effect of healthy living. To be sure, excessive flatulence, exceptionally foul-smelling flatulence or a sudden increase in the amount of flatulence you experience can be indicative of other health problems or malabsorption. In other words, lots of gas is not necessarily a sign of a problem … but it can be the sign of a problem, particularly if it's accompanied by other symptoms such as pain, a change in bowel patterns, unintentional weight loss or vitamin/mineral deficiencies. If this is the case, don't waste precious time on a bogus food combining regimen; get yourself to a qualified gastroenterologist. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2015/05/12/debunking-the-myth-of-food-combining |
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