We live in a world where we have plenty choice of food items which we can devour. It is a combination of various nutrients our body needs. The food we eat is rich in either one or to of the six essential nutrients. We take food as per our liking without considering the interactions these food elements have. This causes great hurdles in achieving a good health and thereby wellness.
The major nutrient in the food will have an effect as desired but taken as combination with some other food item, might have beneficial effect or may cause havoc. The food combination causing havoc being the same ones which have a positive effect on health of taken alone. Here we discuss some of the most widely used avoidable food combinations. These are the top ones hence covered here. This article is also to educate working millennial of this concept to that they can consciously take steps to avoid incompatible food combinations towards achieving wellness.
Incompatible Food Combinations
Honey and clarified butter is an interesting food combination. It is recommended to be have this combination and it has its own health benefits. However, it is recommended to never have it in equal proportion! Thereby, do not mistake this particular food combination but never have it mixed in equal proportion.
Milk and banana is a food combination which is never recommended having together. In fact, none of the fruit is recommended to have with milk. Fruits like banana have an acidic effect in our guts and cuddles the milk in our gut. This affects the functioning of the gastric juices causing uneasiness.
It is recommended not to drink water after having any fruit. It is the same thing as in case of milk. The fruits have an acidic effect and is digested smoothly in our guts given their strong acidity. However, drinking water over fruits disturbs the acidity of the gastric juices and affects its functioning. Besides, try to have warm water post meal after 45 minutes and up to 1.5 hours.
It is completely forbidden to drink water after having fried food. Oil and water never mingle which is a well-known fact. It is same case here where water only dilutes the gastric acid and oil is left undigested. This would normally result in acidity and belching.
Egg and milk is the other food combination to avoid. Same is true for fish with mill. Both the food combinations are incompatible and known to cause skin irritation on having this combination regularly.
Drinking Water with Food
It is imperative not to drink water over with or immediately after meal. So when should one drink water to quench thirst?
One should not drink water at least 45 minutes before having your meal and another 45 minutes after it. Water dilutes the strongly acidic gastric juices in our body and does not let it work optimally. Thereby, the food remains undigested and causes lot of painful experience like acidity or a heavy stomach.
Is there anything else one can drink to quench thirst after a meal? Yes, yogurt drinks or smoothie is OK to have over a meal. It adds to the acidity of the gastric juice and aids digestion. A drink made of fennel seeds is best for digestion. But that might be challenging finding across the globe.
Food aiding digestion
It becomes necessary to cover the subject of which food taken pre-meal or post-meal aids in digestion. Here a small amount equivalent to one tablespoon of warm clarified butter taken before meal is probably the topmost ranked here. This amount can be added to the soup taken before meal. It can also be added to any food item in your meal to aid digestion.
Yogurt is another food aiding digestion after having your meal. A bowl of yogurt works best. Fennel seeds and jaggery taken in small amount after meal is known to prevent acidity and aids in digestion. The jaggery should be dark and not the white variety which is most common in stores.
The Mechanism Explained
The digestive mechanism of a particular food item depends on its nature it acquires reaching our guts. Lemon contains citric acid and usually the juice is acidic when raw. However, it turns slightly alkaline when it is ready for digestion. Likewise, the nutrients in food usually behave this way. It has a particular nature when taken alone but changes its property when taken in combination with some other food during digestion. This is the root cause of avoidable food combinations. How they interact with each other is important during digestion.
Have you ever noticed that the brains slows down after a meal. You feel sleepy after a while. Our guts draw blood from all over the body when it is working hard to make the food digest. This lessen the oxygen level in our brains and we feel sleepy. It is recommended to listed to our body’s call and take a nap after a mean. This is a great method to allow our guts to digest food. This is practice followed in Japan when there is a 20-minute break after lunch so you wake up refreshed for balance of the day.
Conclusion
We are now better aware that it is not only important to feed essential nutrients to our body and also the way it should be taken. A food might be good if taken alone but might cause havoc if taken in combination with an incompatible one. Food items can have a particular nature as stand-alone but might behave differently when inside our guts.
Therefore, it is important to be conscious about such avoidable food combinations. Using this knowledge will lead to reduced inconveniences like acidity and stomach upset and thereby reduced digestion. Following a diet avoiding such food combinations will lead to wellness.
I encourage you to start being conscious of such avoidable food combinations. Leave your comments with your learning, questions and experiences in the comment box below and spread the word in your network to benefit maximum people who might not be aware of this food mechanism.
It is important to be aware of what you are eating to keep your self healthy and perform suing the day to the maximum of your potential. Acquiring knowledge about what is best for you is essential and can help you avoid illness and diseases when you get older.
Looking at the topic of incompatible food combinations, it is a topic I in fact have never considered. Even if I am very conscious wrt what I eat, this has passed me by.
Milk and fruit, and water and fruit, this is new to me and I didn´t realize the problem with it. The same with fish and milk and egg and milk.
I have bookmarked the article and will use as a reference each day from now on.
Thanks for your comments Roy,
Avoidable food combination is a subject on which not much is written and that was the reason why I chose this subject.
All the best to you in leading a life of wellness.
Stay Well!!!
Nice advice you give there but to be honest how many people don’t drink water during food? Some of the facts that you mention most people don’t even know or want to know to say the truth.
Drinking water during any meal can really put a burden on the stomach and slow down the digestion process but this is something than needs some getting used to in order to do especially if someone is used to drink a lot of water during food consumption.
But in general I like the advice you give. They can certainly help the body for a healthier process during digestion.
Thanks for your honest comments Statos,
Yes, that is the problem that not many people know this fact and don’t even want to know it. However, I have seen its effect time and again on myself and on my father. My father always used to complain about indigestion after having food and abstaining from drinking water after having food helped him cure this problem.
That was the reason why I put this up here so that the benefits which occurred to me can be extended worldwide.
Thanks once again.
Wow! Isn’t this just simply awesome to see here. Personally, I have erred in a lot of things especially the area of drinking water while eating. I never knew that water can really dilute the essentiality of the meal we are taken and can limit the potentials of the meal wow! I didn’t see that coming. But what if we take too much sauce while eating as you claimed that water should be taken at a 45 mins interval.
Thanks for your comments Abel, once again.
Who would have thought that water alongside a meal is actually incompatible and that means that all my life, I have been combiniing an incompatible meal plan together and has been put under risk without actually knowing it. This is really a very good one to read on here as you have shared some cogent tips. Thanks
Thanks for your comments Abel,
It is true that drinking water after meal is incompatible and reduces the intensity of gastric juices.
Stay Well!!!
WOW! this is awesome, what we eat most times affects us negatively because of it’s wrong combination, most people combine some healthy food and it became wrong, and dangerous to their health, so it is very important to be aware of the kind of food we combine, i never really know that food like milk and fruits,water and fruits are not a good combination, this is really an insight.Thanks for sharing
Thanks for your comments,
Yes indeed, some of the food combinations are incompatible and they harm more then providing any benefits. The objective of writing this article was to educate people about this aspect of food combinations.
Stay Well!!!
This is very interesting about the foods not mixing. I sometimes put bananas in my cereal with milk never could figure out why felt uneasy afterward and stopped eating and drinking milk instead. Another tip you have suggested is not drinking water at least 45 minutes before a meal, this is highly recommended by nutritionist when trying to lose weight as they say makes you feel full and eat less. Do you recommend drinking water during your meal, like slow amounts to wash down your meal?
Hi Janette,
Thank for your comments.
No, it is not recommended to drink plain water during meal to wash down. My recommendation is to drink a yogurt -based drink or if that is not possibly available at all – drink sparkling water.
Thanks for the question. Do let me know your experience with it.
Stay Well!!!
Interesting information, thanks for bringing it to our attention. I had known about the problem with drinking water with a meal. I do usually drink water through the day, so don’t think of it with my meal. But when eating fried food (rarely, but I do on few occasions) I am usually thirsty. Maybe I just need to avoid fried foods altogether.
However, I had not thought about the acid and dairy issue. I don’t consume much dairy (I lean toward vegan) but will have to consider the combinations more carefully when preparing family meals.
Are there other food combinations that we vegetarians need to consider (good ones or bad)? Thanks for any information you can provide.
Hi Diane,
Thanks for the comments and sharing your experience here.
Fried food is definitely something to avoid!
For a vegan diet, some of the key avoidable food combinations is not to have beans with any fruits, or hot drinks with mangoes or yogurt. Besides, small amount of garnished ginger alongwith rock salt and pepper aids digestion if taken before meal.
Do stay connected for more of such articles in this space.
Stay Well!!!
Hi, thanks for these tips.
I heard for some of those combinations, that they should be avoided but not for all of them. It’s very interesting that we grow up drinking water during the meal, in fact, in every restaurant they offer you a glass of water before, during, and after dinner. And after you have a strong heavy meal you of course go for a glass of water.
I don’t drink milk. I quit maybe 8 yrs ago or even more. We have a saying in Serbia that milk is for babies and cow cabs.
Hi, thanks for these tips.I heard for some of those combinations, that they should be avoided but not for all of them. It’s very interesting that we grow up drinking water during the meal, in fact, in every restaurant they offer you a glass of water before, during, and after dinner. And after you have a strong heavy meal you of course go for a glass of water. I don’t drink milk. I quit maybe 8 yrs ago or even more. We have a saying in Serbia that milk is for babies and cow cabs. A great replacement for cow milk is soy or almond milk.
Hi Sunny,
Thanks for your comments and sharing your experience here.
And your comment – “Milk is for babies and cow cabs” is a hit. Liked that very much.
Stay Well!!!