Warning: Individuals With Weak Digestion Are Accumulating Toxins Without Proper Food Combining

The Ayurveda Experience May 29, 2016

The topic of toxins is a common phenomenon in the world of health today. There are numerous techniques for cleansing and detoxing the body, but there is not too much attention toward looking at where these toxins are coming from in the first place.

According to the ancient Ayurvedic texts, toxins come from having a weak or imbalanced digestive fire (Agni).

So now the question is, why has our digestive capacity become so weak? Of course, this will also have many answers, on a case to case basis, but at the top of this list, we will most definitely find the infamous “Improper Food Combining”.

The Importance Of Proper Food Combining

Each food type requires its own specific enzymes for break-down, along with a certain amount of time for completed digestion. When incompatible foods are taken in together, this creates confusion of which enzymes to release.

This is seen when:

• Two or more different types of proteins are consumed together
• When two food types are taken in that require a large variance in digestion time.This leads to the quicker-to-digest food type to be left in the gut longer then needed, as it gets mixed with the longer-to-digest food. This is seen when fruit is consumed with any other food since fruit is typically digested in only 30 minutes, while most other food takes well over 2 hours.

Taking in foods that are not compatible in the digestive tract will inevitably lead to undigested food being left in the system, which in turn is the main cause of toxic build-up in the body.

This undigested food leads to:

• Fermentation
• Stagnation
• Gas
• Bloating
• Malabsorption
• Slow metabolism
• Dull appetite
• Doshic imbalance and will eventually lead to disorder and disease.

Examples of Improper Food Combining

• Fruit should always be eaten alone
• Beans consumed with fruit, cheese, fish, milk, eggs or yogurt
• Eggs mixed with fruit, milk, fish, beans, meat
• Grains with Fruit
• Nightshades (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant) with diary products or cucumbers
• Milk with bananas, cherries, fish, meat, yogurt, yeasted breads
• Lemons with cucumbers, milk, yogurt, tomatoes

If you have consistent signs of toxins and indigestion (gas, bloating, acid reflux…), beginning to follow this Ayurveda proper food combining may be a great start to reestablishing health and balance.

Since there are many “food rules” to follow, I recommend beginning by choosing 2-3 of these suggestions, focusing on those until you feel accustomed to them, and then adding one more category at a time from there.

I would also suggest by starting with the first food combining guideline (always eat fruit by itself) on the list, as this is by far one of the most important of the bunch.