"Now You Can Get ALL Your Nutrition, Exercise, Health, And Fitness Questions Answered FAST... RIGHT HERE!"
Please use this BLOG as a resource center to keep you moving forward towards reaching your goals!
Dear Friend,
Please use this online forum for all your questions, comments, feedback, and of course, your personal success stories.
This BLOG will help capture the excitement of our weekly expert group coaching calls from http://www.freenutritioncoach.com/.
My goal with this online forum is to get your questions answered quickly, so you can stay motivated, inspired, educated, and progressing towards achieving your health and fitness goals.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing you on the next call...
Yours Always in Optimal Health, Fitness, and Performance,
Adam Ardenfriend
Founder, www.FreeNutritionCoach.com
4 comments:
Adam,
In your favorite Meal Exchange, you have fruit with one of your meals. Can you explain how that would work? An article that I received several years back stated that you should eat fruit alone because they are unable to pass through the digestive system as they were designed to do when they are combined with other foods.
I realize new things are learned all the time, so maybe something new was found out since then.
Thanks,
Michele
Hey Michele,
Thanks for your question. Sorry that it took me some time to get to it, as I did not notice it was there. Usually, I answer all questions within 1-2 days.
Yes, you know, I hear this quite a bit, but when you think about what actually happens inside your stomach when you eat, I think it will clear things up for you about all foods, fruits included, when eaten in combination with other foods, and the stomachs ability to break everything down properly.
The hydrochloric acid (HCl) produced in the stomach is an incredibly powerful acid.
In fact, it is extremely caustic to anything and everything it is exposed to, except the stomach, of course, which was intelligently designed to handle it. :)
In other words, the HCl is designed to rip apart everything!
HCl is designed by nature to break down all the larger structures you've hopefully thoroughly chewed and predigested in your mouth (along with saliva), into all the functional constituents that makes up the foods you eat.
These constituents include primarily the amino acids, fatty acids, and glucose, along with the vitamins, minerals, and natural enzymes you normally find in whole natural foods.
Once the HCl has done its job, all the building blocks (if you will) are then passed on through to the small intestine for further processing, absorption into the blood stream, and them assimilated by the cells of your body.
WOW! What a process!
Now, there are some variables here. When people age, and especially when they are sedentary and are not paying attention to what they are using as a fuel source for their body (and especially when these signals are negatively compounded over time), the body's ability to produce HCl begins to decline. It is a natural process; however, THANKFULLY, we can slow that degradation process down through applying proper nutrition and exercise protocols.
Therefore, assuming that you are a relatively healthy, conscious person when it comes to proper nutrition and exercise, the HCl in your stomach should do just fine at breaking down everything that you're eating, no problem.
I do suggest that you pay attention to how you feel after eating your optimal meals as I suggest in the report.
Listen to your body.
It will tell you if it is working properly for you or not.
After you eat, do you have lots of energy, mental clarity, strength, and a feeling of well-being for 3-4 hours?
If so, then the meal worked for you, and your body did just fine at breaking all the foods in the meal down in the normal digestive process.
If not, then we need to take a closer look at that particular meal, and why your body responded the way it did. You may have a compromised digestive system due to some of the variables described above. In this case, you may want to separate your fruits from the rest of the meal and see what happens, (as an example). You may even want to use a different carbohydrate instead of fruit to see what happens, listening to how you feel...
Therefore, your question, which is essentially about combining foods and your body's ability to break them down efficiently because of the combination, there should be absolutely no problem in combining fruits (sugar) with proteins and fats.
WHY?
It can, because your stomach acid (HCl) is designed to break everything down, no matter what.
Let's look at this a bit deeper...
When you eat a banana or an apple, for example, what constituents primarily make up those foods?
You have sugar, fiber, water, minerals, some vitamins, and a small amount of plant based proteins. Does your stomach say, "Well, since there is protein in there, I can't properly break that down, because I'm only supposed to handle carbohydrates by themselves...?"
It doesn't make logical sense.
Therefore, obviously, the answer is NO. The stomach and its acid just break down everything.
NOTE: I don't suggest that you drink a lot of water while you are eating, as it can dilute the HCl, however drinking water in-between your meals and a little bit with the meal is fine.
Your ULTIMATE JOB nutritionally is to give your body the proper hormonal signals it needs by balancing the energy in the meals you're eating. That means eating proteins, carbs, and fats together to illicit a stable blood sugar response. It insures the body will be efficient at doing its job. This is what proper nutrition and exercise is all about, Michele.
In other words, you need to keep your body fit in every respect, and the way to do it is to eat and exercise properly, consistently, compounded over time!
OK, so the answer to your food-combining question is that you should have no problem breaking down all the components of this meal and deriving all the benefits of stable blood sugar as a result.
If, when you eat the proteins, carbs, and fats together, you don't feel well, then you can try separating them.
Personally, I eat the whole meal all at once; however, I usually eat the protein first, then immediately follow with the carbs and fat (the desert).
I feel that it is more satisfying that way (for me, at least), and it stops me from over-eating the carbs and the fat portion, because the protein helps to satiate me prior to getting to the "desert". I hope that makes sense for you.
I hope this helps you in seeing the bigger "digestion" picture. It should actually give you some freedom from the paralysis of all the confusion out there in the world of nutrition!
Thanks again for your question.
Yours ALWAYS in Optimal Health, Fitness, and Performance,
Adam
Adam,
Can you please talk some on drinking around mealtime?
Thanks,
Michele
Hey Michele,
Drinking during mealtime?
Well, it's probably best to minimize the consumption of beverages, as to not dilute the stomach acids from doing their job of breaking food down.
However, just listen to your body. If you're thirsty, drink. Don't be fanatical about it though, instead pay attention to how well your body digests the foods you're eating...
If you feel well after eating and you were drinking during and/or around the time of your meals, then your body is functioning properly with that routine.
Of course, I suggest that you stick with fresh, bottled water as the beverage of choice for the majority of time.
If you can, work on drinking the bulk of your water for the day inbetween your meals and when you're working-out.
OK. I hope that helps!
Yours ALWAYS in Optimal Health, Fitness, and Performance,
Adam
Post a Comment