Food combining
 

I was watching Dr. Oz yesterday and Marilou Henner was on speaking about her diet. She mentioned food combining and this is the first I've ever heard of it. I'd like to know more, is anyone doing food combining?

here's more info about Marilu Henner's diet

http://www.3fatchicks.com/the-marilu...ple-meal-plan/

It's low fat, low processed foods, no dairy, no carbs w/protein which will mean fewer calories in any given meal.

Bottom line, it's a weight loss/maintenance plan because it's low in calories, not because of what foods you eat with each other.

Thanks for the link, that's helpful. But you're wrong, I saw her myself on Dr. Oz speaking about "food combining" and it has something to do with eating certain things with others things etc. It's even mentioned in the link you provided it says:

"Combine foods by eating fruit alone. Never eat protein and carbohydrates together."

Here's a recap of the show, she mentions food combining but is not completely clear http://www.current-movie-reviews.com...recap-2132013/

Another in a long line of fads

Does she have a new book out? I remember when she came out as big proponent of a macrobiotic diet years ago... and that's definitely a big part of that way of eating, so this makes sense for her, since she's coming from that perspective...

But as far as "food combining" goes... I personally have never seen any peer-reviewed literature that shows that it offers any added health benefits over a simply balanced diet...

Dr Oz touts a new diet every few days, or a new supplement, or some other magic way to lose weight. I have lost respect for him because he is just about the ratings and half of what is on there, like food combining is pure bunk. You also can't believe everything you read on the internet or I'd have several million dollars in the bank now from those Nigerians.

Just think about it. If combining foods was so bad, half of us would be dead by now.

I did this for about a week last summer. Took too much brain power to figure it all out but I DID lose weight that week and noticed a MARKED difference in my 'pooch' after only THREE days. So I would say there is some validity to it. I ate about the same amt of calories as I did previously but didnt eat certain foods together and I only ate fruit til noon (lots of fruit)...

Thanks for the input. It does sound a little hoaky. For example, why not drink water with meals? That goes against everything I've ever known. And why must fruit be separate? I love eating fruit in my salads like pears and oranges etc. And also, aren't a lot of widely known vegetables actually fruits such as tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, even eggplant.

The rationale that I've heard for this from a few people that believe this is that they think that drinking water with meals "waters down" their digestive "juices" there by diluting them and making them less effective... Now as to how "true" that may or may not be... well all I have to say is I haven't seen any research that I trust to really support it...

On the topic of drinking water with food and the effect on digestion, I found a pretty informative thread a while back:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...=584222&page=1

Long but worth the read, imo. ;) Starts off kinda ridiculous and gets scientific towards the end.

Basically, your digestive system constantly adjusts to whatever's in it. So water does not slow down or hinder digestion. You actually NEED water in your stomach to produce "stomach acid" (which you also get from the water in food, obviously).

If water breaks down the digestive juices in your stomach then why eat vegetables with a lot of water in them? That makes no sense.

Water doesn't break them down. They need to be combined with water to work at all, otherwise it doesn't form acid.

As far as I know, the idea of food combining has been debunked and there's no scientific evidence that it has any value in health or weight loss.

If anything, it gets people to pay closer attention to the foods they eat, and that can be a good thing :) We may choose healthier foods and pay more attention to quantities when following a plan like this. That would help weight loss.

Some links of interest:
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/...ning-diet-work
Love this quote by Dr. Weil
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA58597
http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/article...food-combining