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Food Combining Diets
Introduction
There are several food-combining diets on the market. Their basic recommendation
is as follows:
In order to optimize digestion
and weight loss, you should avoid eating certain foods as part of the
same meal. For example, you should not eat carbohydrates with proteins.
Some versions advocate eating only fruit or fruit juices before noon.
A typical food-combining diet lasts for 5 weeks, although some versions
are indefinite.
The Claim
There is no hard scientific evidence to support food-combining diets.
The idea that weight loss becomes more likely if you separate certain
foods, is completely without foundation.
What you eat
Typically, for the first 10 days, you may eat only fruit. Thereafter,
a small amount of bread and butter is permissible with a few vegetables.
Towards the end of the third week, some meat/shellfish is allowed. Some
food combining plans permit 'sweet-allowances' and a range of high fat
treats like cheesecake, others don't.
Other dos and don'ts of
food combining may include (a) No foods to be consumed that are either
very hot or very cold. (b) No aluminum pans to be used during cooking.
(c) Allow 4 hours between protein meals and starch meals.
Advantages
A food combining diet may benefit you for a couple of days, as a type
of 'de-tox' diet. Also, due to the very-low calorie nature of the early
stages of the diet, weight loss is virtually assured. Indeed, one could
rename it 'Very-Low-Calorie-Diet'.
Drawbacks
Lacking firm scientific basis, many food-combining diets provide inadequate
vitamins and minerals. Also, they may fall below minimum recommended calorie
levels.
Verdict
Although unscientific, it's a fact that food combining diets have
helped a number of people with dietary and weight loss problems. So if
you've tried most conventional weight loss diet plans, maybe give food
combining a try.
Diet
Review
No
diet review can be more than a reasoned opinion on a particular diet plan
or weight loss method. We don't have a monopoly of diet wisdom, so we
welcome all comments on our Diet Reviews. Please email
us.
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