Principles of food compatibility and their application in vegetarianism

The concept of product compatibility is directly related to the theory of separate nutrition. Every person at least once in their life has faced a situation where even proper and healthy food after lunch or dinner causes discomfort in the stomach and intestines, the appearance of heaviness, nausea and increased gas formation, colic and spasms. Why is this happening? The theory of food compatibility suggests that some foods simply cannot be combined with each other in one meal. Its founder, Herbert Shelton, said that food that is not digested in the digestive tract does not bring any health benefits. Moreover, food consumed in the wrong combinations can form poisons and toxins that harm the body. Shelton’s ideas also explain the appearance of food allergies by the fact that food is consumed in the wrong “neighborhood”, that is, in fact, in such cases we are not talking about an allergy, but about a banal violation of the absorption of food.

Thus, by studying the features of the compatibility of various products, and following the rules of separate nutrition, according to Herbert Shelton, you can get rid of digestive problems, excess weight, food allergies, and improve overall well-being.

The main food groups in vegetarianism

The principles of compatibility of various products are based on their division into subspecies or groups. Naturally, this is also true for those who do not adhere to vegetarianism. However, for vegetarians this factor plays an important role. It often happens that a person refuses animal products and expects that the result of this will be lightness in the body, normalization of sleep, endurance, increased tone and activity, increased immunity, but in fact gets weakness, lethargy, nausea, flatulence and impaired chair. It is strange, but for many people today, including vegetarians, the feeling of discomfort after eating has become the norm, which a person struggles with in the wrong way – by drinking a few enzyme-containing or absorbent tablets, and without even thinking about why this happens.

There is not one classification of all food products, but the most general is the one according to which all food is divided according to its digestibility in the gastrointestinal tract into proteins and carbohydrates. The first type includes meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, cottage cheese, nuts, cheeses, seeds, legumes, mushrooms. The second half includes bread and flour products, cereals, potatoes, sugar and honey. Separate groups are fats and oils, as well as vegetables and herbs.

However, for practical use by vegetarians, more detailed classifications are of interest. For example, according to popular food compatibility tables, they are all divided into the following types:

• protein foods (legumes, soybeans, mushrooms, olives, seeds);
• nuts;
• starch (potatoes, bread, cereals, pumpkin, corn);
• fats (vegetable oils, avocados, fatty seeds, coconut, olives, peanuts);
• sugar (grape sugar, agave nectar, honey);
• fruits (apples, blueberries, apricots, kiwi, mangoes, pears, peaches, grapes, papaya, non-acidic plums);
• sweet fruits (located “at the junction” of the previous two groups: bananas, dried fruits, dates, persimmons);
• acids (sour fruits and berries, rhubarb, sorrel, sauerkraut);
• vegetables (all non-starchy), and greens;
• starchy vegetables (beets, carrots, cauliflower, artichokes, zucchini, eggplant, horseradish, celery root).

According to the chemical composition, it is customary to divide all food into proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Each of these groups needs a specific stomach environment (neutral, more acidic, or more alkaline) and a specific set of enzymes for digestion and breakdown. The combination of several different groups can lead to the fact that enzymes and physiological fluids that should work to break down food neutralize each other, and as a result, the load on the digestive organs increases, food begins to ferment and rot in the stomach or intestines, pathogenic microflora develops, in the body releases poisonous and toxic substances.

General rules for observing separate meals for vegetarians

The recipe for happiness for the gastrointestinal tract, according to the principles of separate nutrition, is to follow several rules for the formation of a daily diet. You can not combine with each other in one meal:

• various types of starches;
• fats with fats;
• proteins with proteins;
• starch with sugars;
• acids with starch;
• proteins with carbohydrates;
• fats with proteins;
• acids with proteins;
• proteins with sugars;
• fats with sugars.

Why You Shouldn’t Eat Different Types of Fats, Starches, or Proteins Together

The general principle of the assimilation of such food suggests that the same type of food interferes with the splitting and fermentation of each other. If, for example, you mix various fatty foods in one meal, the digestion process will noticeably slow down. Do not eat nuts and avocados together, nuts and vegetable oil, coconut and avocados.

As for different types of proteins in one dish, here we are talking about the fact that proteins themselves are food that is difficult to digest, and each type requires a special set of enzymes and a special concentration of gastric juice. Mixing them means creating an additional load on the stomach, pancreas and intestines.

When using several different types of starch, one of them will not be able to digest, which can cause the fermentation process to begin and acidity in the stomach begins to increase.

Starch with acids or sugars: combinations that inhibit the digestion process

Starches should be understood as corn, bananas, cereals, and acids – various sour fruits and berries, as well as tomatoes. Mixing them together is not recommended, because most starches are digested by the enzyme ptyalin. In turn, ptyalin is very susceptible to reaction with acids. The amount of acids in fruits or berries is enough to destroy the enzyme in saliva and make it difficult to digest starch. For example, a favorite fruit salad with bananas and oranges is an example of an unfortunate mix of starch and acids.

Sugars tend to be digested only in the small intestine, while the process of breaking down starches begins in the mouth and continues further in the stomach. If food that contains both starch and sugar enters the body, the latter is retained in the stomach along with the rest of the food, and the fermentation process begins.

Proteins with carbohydrates, acids, fats and sugars

The above combinations are also unsuccessful and harmful to humans. It seems that everyone who has access to television or the Internet has already heard about proteins with carbohydrates. The fact is that carbohydrates need an alkaline environment for splitting, and proteins need an acidic one. When these food groups enter the body together, the alkaline environment neutralizes the acidic, and as a result, the food is simply not digested completely, and rots in the digestive tract for a long time.

As for the use of fruit acids along with proteins, this combination will also not go unnoticed for well-being. To digest protein foods, the enzyme pepsin is needed, which acids successfully destroy and slow down the process of its production. In the presence of acids in the mouth and in the stomach, the secretion of gastric juice decreases, and it simply becomes insufficient for protein digestion.

Relatively permitted is the combination of acids with nuts: these groups do not prevent each other from splitting during digestion. But a vegetable salad seasoned with lemon juice, in company with protein foods, poses a serious threat to the stomach.

Proteins with fats are also not the best combination, since fats reduce the secretion of gastric juice, which will not be enough to digest proteins. There is a way out – you can combine fats with green non-starchy vegetables and protein.

Sugars have a similar inhibitory effect on gastric acid secretion.

A dangerous combination of fats and sugars

Like proteins, in the company of sugars, fats cause fermentation processes. Fats slow down the secretion of gastric juice, and sugars, which are usually broken down in the small intestine, linger in the stomach, starting to ferment in conditions of heat and moisture. However, for example, sour fruits like oranges can be combined with avocados or nuts, as they contain negligible amounts of sugar.

Separate food groups allowed for certain types of vegetarians

We will talk about dairy products, eggs, fish. After all, not all people who make their menu without meat immediately embarked on a strict and difficult path of a vegan. Many allow themselves some products of animal origin.

Milk, for example, is incorrectly considered a drink – it is a separate product that can be mixed with starchy vegetables, cream and butter, sweet and semi-acid fruits. Milk has the property of curdling under the action of gastric juice. If at this moment there is other food in the stomach, milk envelops it, and until this “shell” is digested, the food will ferment and rot, since it will not be possible to split it before milk.

Dairy products go well with each other, as well as with fruits and vegetables. Nuts are suitable for use with cottage cheese, but not with sour cream.

Eggs are allowed to be consumed with green and non-starchy vegetables.

Fish is best eaten lean, removing as much fat as possible. It, like eggs, is useful to eat with green non-starchy vegetables, and it does not go well with other types of food.

Healthy Eating Rules: Refusal of junk food

In addition to the fact that a full-fledged, wholesome food can, in the wrong combinations, result in unpleasant symptoms and digestive disorders, there is a group of products that nutritionists advise vegetarians to refuse altogether, since they, both in the form of an independent dish and as part of other dishes, are , at best, useless, and sometimes dangerous. Among them are margarine, thermophilic yeast and products containing them, refined sugar and food containing it, flour products made from refined wheat flour, and powdered milk.

Not much effort needs to be made in order to facilitate the process of digestion of food for your digestive tract, especially since the rules and principles of separate nutrition for vegetarians practically do not differ from the generally accepted theory of separate nutrition. Vegetarian food compatibility tables have already organized all the necessary information so that it is easy to find and use when compiling your daily menu.