Weight Loss 101 - Part 1 - Food Combining
September 17th, 2008 Posted by David Lemberg
The first step in any realistic weight loss program is to combine protein and complex carbohydrates at every small meal. This is called “food combining” and many successful food plans have been based on this principle. The science behind food combining is at least 40 years old, but most fad diets and diet best-sellers have forgotten about this key factor in healthy eating.
Tropical Fruits - Original Oil Painting by wizan
Food combining is the secret ingredient to a healthy, optimally functioning metabolism. When your metabolism is working efficiently you’re processing glucose, not storing it. When your metabolism is working efficiently your blood insulin levels are steady throughout the day, rather than swinging wildly up and down and causing all kinds of internal havoc.
The brutally honest truth is that most of us eat junk all day long. We’re so busy that eating healthy food is the last thing we think about. Breakfast, if we eat breakfast at all, is a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. When we’re a little less crazed, breakfast might be a glass of orange juice and an English muffin. Nutritional value? A couple of hundred calories of carbohydrates.
Neither of these gobbled “meals” has any protein to speak of. And, protein is the missing ingredient for proper digestion and proper use of the carbohydrates we eat. Without protein to slow carbohydrate digestion, the sugars get dumped into the bloodstream and blood insulin levels automatically spike. The glucose gets swept away and blood glucose levels plummet. Up and down, up and down. Our bodies are literally riding a rollercoaster, and our minds are experiencing the same jolts.
That burned-out feeling you get every day at 4:00PM is your body saying, “stop, I can’t take it any more”.
Eventually, all kinds of symptoms and diseases result from our poor nutritional habits. Type 2 diabetes is a typical result. The daily severe demands on the pancreas to pump out more and more insulin deplete this important endocrine organ. The outcome is consistently high blood glucose levels. The well-known symptoms of diabetes result. Currently, in the United States, diabetes is a national epidemic.
What does insulin do? Insulin is a hormone which helps muscle cells absorb glucose, improving your metabolic efficiency and helping your body burn more fat. Recent research shows that too much insulin may lead to various inflammatory diseases. Food combining helps maintain insulin levels in their normal range.
Healthy eating uses food combining principles. Of course, minimize simple sugars and maximize complex carbohydrates. Combine protein with complex carbohydrates at each meal. The steady, slower flow of glucose into the bloodstream that results from food combining allows your pancreas to do its job without stress. Insulin is released gradually and blood glucose levels stay steady. No more gyrations and mood swings.
There are other important benefits. The critical combination of protein and complex carbohydrates feeds our muscles by providing the amino acids (from protein) necessary to build and maintain muscle tissue, and the carbohydrate needed to shuttle the amino acids into the cells. Blood glucose helps transport amino acids into muscle cells. If the carbs aren’t there the protein doesn’t get used.
There’s also a human performance benefit – eating balanced meals helps improve cognitive/mental function. So we’re not only getting healthier on this food plan, we’re getting smarter!
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