Food Combining

Do you ever get a certain pang in your stomach or feel bloated after eating a meal and wonder what bought that on? The chances are that the food we’ve just eaten doesn’t combine well.

In Ayurveda it is believed that each food has a distinct energy and taste and on their own they probably wouldn’t cause you any problems at all but if you mix a certain type of food with another that is incompatible it could wreak havoc with your digestive system.

There are many food combinations that are incompatible and some are more obvious than others. As you become more aware of the affect certain food has on your body and how it makes you feel you’ll be able to make a distinction about which combinations work for you and which ones’ don’t.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to combinations to avoid. It’s best to start slowly and work on one combination at a time. The usual suspects are the ones’ that we’ve grown up with and have become habits, for example eating fruit with dairy products. How often do we eat fruit yoghurt or put fruit in our cereals? Another classic example is cheese and beans on toast or in a jacket potato. They taste great and are almost a national institution but they don’t combine well in our gut and that can lead to indigestion.

Here are a few more examples of food types that combine well and incompatible foods in Ayurveda:

Fruit can be eaten with other fruits with similar qualities but try to avoid combining with dairy products and carbohydrates.

Eggs can be eaten with grains and non-starchy vegetables but you should avoid combining with milk, cheese, fruit, yoghurt, meat and fish.

Milk can be eaten with rice in rice puddings and with oatmeal but try to avoid combining with fruit, meat and bread containing yeast.

Beans can be eaten with vegetables, other varieties of beans, grains and seeds but try to avoid combining with fruit, cheese, eggs, fish, meat and yogurt.

Nightshades can be eaten with meat, fish, beans, nuts and seeds but try to avoid combining with cucumber, lemon and dairy.

Vegetables can be eaten with other vegetables but try to avoid combining with milk or fruit.

Try to avoid eating cheese, fish, yoghurt, starch and mango with hot drinks.

The list above although not exhaustive can look really daunting but as mentioned earlier there are no hard or fast rules when it comes to incompatible foods so take small steps and see how these combinations affect you by making a note in a food diary. You may find that these combinations don’t affect you at all but if they do start to avoid certain combinations and see if it makes a difference taking it one step or one food type at a time.