In my never ending search to totally fill my head with information, I stumbled across a couple articles on food combining online yesterday. While there were a lot of claims with very little concrete facts on results, I wonder if a few of the ideas have some merit for us resistance training types.
For instance, the idea that particular digestive enzymes may be competing with each other due to certain enzymes preferring an acidic environment while others prefer a basic environment. True or false, the idea is at least logical. This could lead to a glycemic nightmare if a carb-only meal is ingested, but the thought of maximizing protein digestion and assimilation by isolating it from the other macronutrients is an interesting thought.
Another golden rule of food combining is to eat any type of melon by itself, not even combined with other fruits, as digestion is so rapid (20-30 minutes). I can?t argue that it doesn?t sound crazy, but for the carb-sensitive crowd out there (myself included), this may be an interesting way to get some somewhat low-glycemic peri-workout carbs in while maximizing peri-workout protein without sending my pancreas into overdrive.
Lastly, food combining really focuses on maximizing digestion, which is a topic that I feel should be talked about much, much more in bodybuilding circles.
For the record, this is not going to make me give up chocolate protein shakes with peanut butter anytime soon. It also goes against the dogma chizled into the house that Berardi built (can we really argue with that guy???), but like other somewhat wacky ideas, there may be something valuable that can be pulled out and utilized.
I don’t really understand what you are trying to ask.
Anyway, some rules of thumb, different macronutrient and food profile combinations will change digestion times.
Foods that are digested quickly will present their nutrient load to the bloodstream faster than slower digesting foods.
The body generally does not have a problem extracting all the nutrients from your meals. Unless you have “issues” such that your digestive system isn’t working as expected, you don’t have to worry about when, how or what you eat, as long as it is food.
If you are taking medication or certain supplements you could end up with some competition going on for absorption.
Having said all the above, there are obviously strategies to eating for body composition purposes… but that is not the same as worrying about what you can or cannot digest.
Bottom line, except for making sure you are eating a variety of nutritious food that meets your body composition goals, don’t waste time worrying about it. That’s my opinion anyway.
For instance, the idea that particular digestive enzymes may be competing with each other due to certain enzymes preferring an acidic environment while others prefer a basic environment. True or false, the idea is at least logical. This could lead to a glycemic nightmare if a carb-only meal is ingested, but the thought of maximizing protein digestion and assimilation by isolating it from the other macronutrients is an interesting thought.
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This is true , but worthless. No matter what you eat, acidic or basic, the bodies glands keep portions of the alimentary canal under strict pH control. The stomach will be acidic regardless of what you eat, and the small intestines will be slightly neutral to slightly basic. Moral of the story, doesnt matter to us, but it’s true. Pepsin for instance is active in acidic environments, but not in neutral, and vice versa can be said about other enzymes. this point is useless.
there are many fruits that metabolism within 20 minutes, i believe oranges forexample. There are many fruits that digest quickly, and yes fruits are a great source of low GI carbs.
this is what we talk about already, to some degree. Following JB’s recommendations of P+C and p+F.
There are basics like, fat slows down digestion. Fiber slows down digestion. and so on there are many things i believe that someone else can elaborate on.
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For the record, this is not going to make me give up chocolate protein shakes with peanut butter anytime soon. It also goes against the dogma chizled into the house that Berardi built (can we really argue with that guy???), but like other somewhat wacky ideas, there may be something valuable that can be pulled out and utilized.
Thoughts?[/quote]
I don’t think that any of this really argued with Berardi. Berardi has his guidelines tight, and at the end of the day, you can’t argue with results.
First of all, this is why I really like this site - I catch an idea, need some additional info., and I get it without any attitude or flaming. I appreciate the feedback guys.
I didn’t really have any questions, just curious if anyone else had additional info. on the topic, which you guys obviously did.
It’s funny, as I was thinking about food combining while reading the articles I kept thinking “how does this work with what Berardi has to say?” I guess I could have much worse burned into the hard drive.