by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.

My wonderful patient Betsy* asked if she should eat fruit on an empty stomach. Apparently, a friend told her that if she ate it for dessert, her entire meal would remain undigested and rot in her stomach. This would somehow cause her to gain weight. It would also, she feared, induce bloating, gas, diarrhea, and a host of digestive and health problems. It could even lead to gray hair and dark circles under her eyes.

Betsy's concerns are based on the false notion that the order in which we eat our foods affects our health. Proponents of this food combining theory argue that the body is ill equipped to digest certain food combinations.

If they were really onto something, that'd mean no more chicken and rice or spaghetti and meatballs since according to them, the body doesn't tolerate carbohydrates and protein simultaneously. The claimed inability to digest fats and protein together would mean the end of pretty much everything else. I couldn't sauté my chicken in olive oil, mix mayonnaise into tuna salad or marinate my meats in salad dressings.

HOW DIGESTION REALLY WORKS
In the body's beautiful design, food triggers the release of pancreatic juices into the small intestine, where our food is largely digested and absorbed. These juices contain enzymes to digest fats, proteins and carbohydrates.

In fact, if we were unable to digest these three nutrients at the same time, we wouldn't be able to digest most foods even when eaten in isolation, says New Jersey based registered dietitian Tina Marinaccio of Health Dynamics LLC. "Think beans, bread, dairy products and even vegetables," she says. These foods aren't made of single nutrients; they're combinations of fats, protein and carbohydrates. Babies have the most immature digestive system of all, but even they digest all three nutrients at once in the form of their mother's breast milk.

"Plus, if food really became rancid in our system and did not digest," adds Marinaccio, "we would end up with whopping infections." And if food wasn't absorbed, the calories couldn't be extracted, and you couldn't gain weight from them.

When it comes to weight loss and health, what really matters is what we eat and how much we eat--not which food we eat when.

JILL WEISENBERGER, M.S., R.D., C.D.E., is a registered dietitian with National Clinical Research-Norfolk, in Virginia, and a consultant to the food industry with Jill Weisenberger Health Communications LLC.

*Name has been changed.

Last updated and/or approved: December 2009.

Comments (3)

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HOW DIGESTION WORKS
written by Sharon W. , January 08, 2010

Very good read and I'm surprised I never knew how the digestive process actually worked.

Evidence for Other Things ...
written by Leigh Ann Otte , January 07, 2010

Hi, SR. Thank you for your comment.

I looked at the interesting article you referenced. I don't want to address it directly and get into a debate with one particular advocate. So I'll just say that, in my view, if you look closely at articles like this, you find that they rely on research that didn't actually study the food combining theory.

And even these unrelated studies may not be strong (for example, a tiny evaluation of two or five people.) The fact is, if there truly were proof this theory worked, they'd be citing a lot stronger and more specific studies.

Because of the lack of direct studies, other factors must influence our decision on whether to believe the theory. Most mainstream experts I've seen say it's scientifically flawed.

As an aside and just FYI, interestingly, the article you referenced doesn't advocate all the classic food combining rules, as I understand them. For example, instead of forbidding high-fat and high-protein combinations, this article says fat and protein must be eaten together. However, as with articles advocating classic food combination rules, it does leave me confused. For example, it warns not to eat acidic foods, such as orange juice, with high-carbohydrate foods. Orange juice is high in carbohydrates itself!

Thank you for contributing to the discussion. It's an interesting topic.

Best regards,

Leigh Ann Otte
Managing Editor
www.MyFamilyDoctorMag.com

Empirical evidence to support your claims?
written by SR , December 31, 2009

I just read an article regarding food combinations on a website for Jeremy E. Kaslow, MD. The article also addresses some of the comments you made and from my perspective does a great job of it. It also appears to offer empirical evidence. Can you offer empirical evidence to support your claims?