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  • From: Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson <lakinroe@silcom.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Food digestion stuff that might help you
  • Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 07:06:13 -0700

Lawrence----I've been studying macrobiotics and chinese medecine since the 70'sand am a macro counselor. We've used different rules for what to eat, what order to eat
in a meal, and how often one eats a particular food. In regular macrobiotic education the food combining that you mention is rarely mentioned but i am aware of the theory and find that macrobiotic eating is in alignment with much of it. Digestion is complex and can be different for a variety of people because there are a lot of imbalances.

Macrobiotic theory suggests eating miso soup at the beginning of a meal[at least once a day] to provide those beneficial digestive enzymes especially for grains and beans and eating slightly salty pickles at the end of the meal for more enzymes for vegetable digestion.Non salted cultured vegetables would also work as would an occassional fermented dairy.The order of eating goes from eating contracting foods first then more expansive foods until dessert which is most expansive.This allows the stomach to expand naturally after not eating for awhile. This could go either soup-grain-bean dish[or fish]---grain-well cooked root veggies--grain--litely cooked leafy greens--grain---dessert......or it could go soup--grain--beans--grain--roots---grain - leaves--grain-beans-grain--roots--grain--leaves etc until finished then dessert....This isnt a hard and fast rule but seems to work for most people.When you really go off your body lets you know.

If you eat a variety of vegetables it is rarely a concern about eating too many starches in one meal but its a good thing to be aware of.. Generally combining concentrated proteins doesnt happen. I generally teach to eat one bean at a meal but occassionally a three bean salad works and its ok...nuts and seeds are not emphasized so sprinkling a few into the dishes doesnt seem to affect digestion. When fish is eaten it is usually not a lot but the grain portion is usually reduced and nonstarchy vegetables are increased...also eating sweets with grain is a bit difficult on the digestion because the sugar inhibits the enzyme ptyalin in the mouth and the grain may not get broken down properly unless you chew alot.Baked flour/grain,sugar,fruit desserts dont make up a big part of the way of eating so eating it once in a while doesnt cause too much of a problem.

Its interesting to note that if you see how the stomach digests food you could come up with a different way of eating. The stomach primarily digests protein which can take some time. It allows carbs to go thru fairly quickly. When we eat oils and fats they are hardest to digest by the bile in the small intestine. If we eat oils first that can keep the carbs and protein held in the stomach longer than they need to be and we would feel bloated. So one way to eat would be to eat all your carbs and veggies first ,then proteins, then oils and fats ..or at least come close to that like eating sauteed or fried dishes at the end.Just another thing to play around with and see what works.

Now if someone has parasites,candida, leaky gut syndrome, or other digestive imbalances you would have to get very specific as to what foods to eat and when. i use muscle testing a lot determine that.
In oriental medecine raw foods are considered to have cold energy and not beneficial for digestion at least in the long term despite the fact that they have added enzymes.You dont usually see salads in a chinese restaurant and in macrobiotic cooking we emphasize pressed salads[pressure and salts contract and start the breakdown process]. Warming herbs like ginger and cumin are used to activate the pancreatic enzymes and ensure proper breakdown.
Anyway i've used these principles for many years with lots of people and have been pretty successful with them. ------steve hoog

"Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net> wrote:
Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> Food combining for maximum digestion, maximum nutrition and maximum
> health involves creating meals wherein certain foods and food groups are matched according to how well they can be
> digested when combined.
> Foods that are acid, starchy, neutral (maybe alkaline?) foods such as non-starchy vegetables,
> subacid, sweet, oily and protein may be eaten together when combined according to certain rules. There are charts and a
> few books that define acceptable combinations. A meal must be completely digested before another can be eaten.

A few corrections and additions.

> Certain foods must be eaten alone, melons for example. Sweet foods (fruits) alone may be combined and eaten alone. Any single
> element in the protein group may be consumed but not combined with any other protein, i.e. one bean type, one seed
> type, one nut type. Oily protein may be combined with acid foods and non starchy vegetables. Starchy foods may be
> combined with non acid vegetables but not with oily protein, i.e. no starch with oily protein or acid foods.
> Sub-acid foods like tomatoes and peaches may be combined with neutral vegetables and not with oily protein or starch or acid foods.

Anyone familiar with this method of food combining and raw foods diets in general?



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  • [permaculture] Food digestion stuff that might help you, Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson, 08/22/2006

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