Do you often find yourself wondering why you have a stomach ache, bloating or severe gas after a big meal? If you suffer from constipation and other uncomfortable digestive issues, you may benefit from a better understanding of combining certain foods and how those combinations can affect your digestion. Different foods digest at different rates, requiring a bevy of enzymes to properly break them down. While certain food combinations can cause uncomfortable digestive issues, other food combinations can actually help with the ease of digestion. Specific combinations break down foods at a rate that helps reduce bloating and gives you increased amounts of energy. Here’s a look at combining foods to lead to better digestion.
- While hydration is the best thing you can do for your body, avoiding liquids with meals can actually aid in digestion. Drinking water about 15 minutes before you eat and waiting for about an hour after a meal, helps ensure your body has a chance to fully digest and absorb all the nutrients from what you just ate. Water while eating can actually dilute both the digestive enzymes needed to break down food and the nutrients from the foods you’re eating.
- Combining veggies & starchy items is good for digestion, while the combination of starches and protein may cause digestive discomfort. Things like rice + veggies, salad & pumpkin soup or a veggie sandwich on whole grain bread are excellent combinations.
- A combination of protein & veggies is great for digestion. While combining starchy foods and protein can be problematic for digestion, veggies and protein (including seeds, nuts, beans and eggs) is great. Items like a veggie omlette, a salad with lean meat or a bean and veggie stir fry are excellent options.
- An empty stomach is perfect for eating melons and fruits. Eating fruit is a good and important part of your healthy lifestyle, but the combination of fruit and other foods can easily cause gas and bloating. Eating fruits as a stand-alone snack is a great way to enjoy the benefits of fruit without the digestive issues.
In a nutshell, adding veggies to any meal is a great option for better digestion, while combining starches and sweet fruits (like granola – with dried fruit, nuts & oats) will slow digestion and create stomach upset. What do you think about these tactics for combining specific foods? Have you ever tried this and did you experience better digestion?
