Combining Food:

In my opinion and experience as a nutritional consultant in Natural Hygiene (I began studying nutrition in 1936), sequential eating represents the most advanced approach to understanding proper food combining.

After testing and retesting the concept on myself thousands of times, as well as on others, including the experience of Dr. Cursio, his family, his patients, as well as other Hygienic doctors - Dr. John Mega, Dr. Marvin Telmar, Dr. Anthony Penepent, etc.

Any quick digesting foods must wait till the slowest digesting foods leave the stomach before they can leave - a process which can take up to 6 or 8 hours. While waiting, the fruit, cooked and raw vegetables, and some of the starches undergo some decomposition and fermentation, producing gas, acid and even alcohol along with indigestion.

If there are 5 different types of food in the stomach at one meal, each eaten separately and in sequence, there will be 5 different kinds of digestion going on at the same time, each layer having different enzymes digesting each food, according to the needs of the food contained in that layer.

But when say 5 different foods are eaten at a meal, where each mouthful or bite is taken of a different food, then the entire stomach is filled with the same mixture.

One of my patients in my early days of practice absolutely refused to give up any of his accustomed, conventional, low-quality foods. In this case, feeling my hands completely tied, in desperation, I gave him all that he desired. The only change I made was to rearrange the sequence of his foods. Amazingly, all of his digestive problems vanished in just 3 days.

Grutzner fed rats morsels of food of 3 different colors. First the black, then the white second, and third the red color. Shortly after, the animals were sacrificed, the stomach frozen and then cut in sections. The different colored food was found to be in layers

There was a famous case, written about by Beaumont, during the American Civil War, where a soldier received a gunshot wound which caused a large visible opening to appear in his stomach. His digestion was studied for a period of time by several doctors present, and they observed that his food digested in different layers.

One simple test that I used on myself was to eat different foods, one variety at a time, in sequence [all at one meal], for several different meals. Then when nature called, I examined the feces and was able to see different colors in the same feces. Watermelon which was reddish in color, was first, then tossed salad which was very dark brown was next, and cheese was very light tan was last. All were joined together, exiting the body in the same order as they were eaten.

Anyone can try this test, but to be accurate, the different foods must be eaten one at a time, and follow each other in sequence.

How such an important concept as the strata digestion of food was bypassed and almost completely unnoticed for over 50 years since Howell's book was published, is a great mystery to me.

• Never Mix Dried Sweet Fruit, Honey, Maple Syrup Or Bananas With Nuts Or Seeds
• Never Mix Starch Foods With Fresh Or Acid Foods Or Fruits
• Never Mix Dried Sweet Fruits With Acid Fruits.
• Never Eat Dried Sweet Fruits With Or After Concentrated Proteins
• Never Eat Raw, Fresh Or Dried Fruits After Any Cooked Food
• Avoid Drinking Beverages Or Even Water (Sip Only To Aid Swallowing) During Or After Meals

Also in the 14th edition of Howell's Textbook of Physiology on p.777 is some very interesting research:

Abbe Spallanzani (1729 - 1799), one of the older observers on gastric digestion, found that cherries and grapes, when swallowed whole, even if entirely ripe, were usually passed unbroken in the stools.

We can assimilate only those foods which are most liquified. An excellent practice is to eat with 100% attention on the taste of the food.

• Water - When The Stomach Is Empty, Leaves Immediately And Goes Into Intestines
• Juices - Fruit, Vegetables, Vegetable Broth - 15 to 20 Minutes
• Fruits - Watermelon - 20 Min. Digestion Time
• Other Melons - Canteloupe, Cranshaw, Honeydew Etc. - 30 min.
• Other Fruits - Oranges, Grapefruit, Grapes - 30 Min.
• Other Fruits - Apples, Pears, Peaches, Cherries Etc. - Digest In 40 Min.
• Raw Tossed Salad Vegetables - Tomato, Lettuces, Cucumber, Celery, Red Or Green Pepper, Other Succulent Vegetables - 30 to 40 Min. Digestion
• Steamed Or Cooked Vegetables - Leafy Vegetables - Escarole, Spinach, Kale, Collards Etc. - 40 min.
• Steamed Or Cooked Vegetables - Zucchini, Broccoli, Cauliflower, String Beans, Yellow Squash, Corn On Cob - 45 Min. Digestion
• Root Vegetables - Carrots, Beets, Parsnips, Turnips Etc. - 50 Min.
• Semi-Concentrated Carbohydrates - Starches - Jerusalem Artichokes & Leafy, Acorn & Butternut Squashes, Corn, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Yam, Chestnuts - 60 Min. Digestion
• Concentrated Carbohydrates Grains - Brown Rice, Millet, Buckwheat, Cornmeal, Oats - 90 min.
• Legumes & Beans (Concentrated Carbohydrate & Protein) Lentils, Limas, Chick Peas, Peas, Pigeon Peas, Kidney Beans, Etc. - 90 Min. Digestion
• Soy Beans -120 Min. Digestion
• Seeds - Sunflower, Pumpkin, Pepita, Sesame - Digestive Time Approx. 2 hours
• Nuts - Almonds, Filberts, Peanuts (Raw), Cashews, Brazil, Walnuts, Pecans etc. - 2 1/2 To 3 Hours To Digest.
• Dairy - Skim Milk, Cottage Or Low Fat Pot Cheese Or Ricotta - Approx. 90 Min. Digestion Time
• Whole Milk Cottage Cheese - 120 Min. Digestion
• Whole Milk Hard Cheese - 4 to 5 Hours Digestion Time
• Egg Yolk - 30 Min. Digestion Time
• Whole Egg - 45 Min.
• Fish - Cod, Scrod, Flounder, Sole Seafood - 30 Min. Digestion Time
• Fatty Fish - Salmon, Salmon Trout, Herring - 45 Min. To 60 Digestion Time
• Chicken - 1 to 2 Hours Digestion Time (Without Skin)
• Turkey - 2 to 3 Hours Digestion Time (Without Skin)
• Beef & Lamb - 3 to 4 Hours Digestion Time
• Pork - 4 to 5 Hours Digestion Time

Note 1:Raw Animal Proteins have much faster digestion times than the above times for cooked/heated animal proteins.

Note 2: The Digestion Times given are under an ideal situation of eating only one food, chewing well, and having efficient digestion, as is the case e.g. after a fast. They are digestion times for optimally healthy persons, with good eating habits.

The digestion times are to a large part derived from Dr. Gian-Cursio's and Dr. Bass' practices.

Digestion times are much longer on a conventional diet, and for persons with non-optimized digestive systems, or persons lacking in energy, and for meals with many ingredients put together haphazardly = not in the optimum sequential order.

The smaller the amount of a particular food eaten, the less is the digestive time for that food. The greater the amount of a food eaten, the more is the digestive time prolonged. Remember the less you mix and the fewer the varieties you use, the easier it is to digest and the less you will be tempted to overeat. The greater the variety, the greater the tendency to overeat.

Due to the liquification of vegetables by blending:
1 - Absorption and assimilation of its vitamins, minerals proteins etc. is increased to approximately 5 times as compare to eating and chewing the salad.
2 - A blended salad will digest and leave the stomach in 15 to 20 min. compared to 30 to 60 minutes for a tossed salad eaten whole Etc.

Conservation of energy in the digestive process is the key to all healing. (Success in healing is measured in terms of energy available. This was known by the early masters of Natural Hygiene).

Energy is the most important factor needed for recovery of health and it must be conserved at all costs and not wasted in unnecessary digestion. Sequential eating will maximize the conservation of energy without fail.

Try it and feel the difference and you'll never go back to your old ways - I promise you that!

Don't Smoke - Experiment from experts proves that smoking a cigarette after meal is comparable to smoking 10 cigarettes (chances of cancer is higher).

Don't Eat Fruits Immediately - Immediately eating fruits after meals will cause stomach to be bloated with air. Therefore take fruit 1-2 hr after meal or 1 hr before meal.

Don't Drink Tea - Because tea leaves contain a high content of acid. This substance will cause the protein content in the food we consume to be hardened thus difficult to digest.

Don't Loosen Your Belt - Loosening the belt after a meal will easily cause the intestine to be twisted and blocked.

Don't Bathe - Bathing will cause the increase of blood flow to the hands, legs & body thus the amount of blood around the stomach will therefore decrease. This will weaken the digestive system in our stomach.

Don't Walk About - People always say that after a meal walk a hundred steps and you will live till 99. In actuality this is not true. Walking will cause the digestive system to be unable to absorb the nutrition from the food we intake.

Don't Sleep Immediately - The food we intake will not be able to digest properly. Thus will lead to gastric & infection in our intestine.

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PLEASE NOTE:
Although I research extensively, I have no professional medical training.

This material is presented as a guide to give you and your health care provider some things to discuss.

Any information contained in these pages should never substitute for advice from your physician.

Take vitamins and supplements only on the advice of your physician.