The Beauty Detox Solution (8 page)

It is
key
that we realize that it is not just what we eat that counts, but what we are able to
use
from what we eat. If we aren't absorbing the vitamins and minerals from that apple we ate this afternoon, it can't possibly make our skin look better, improve our immunity or do anything else to benefit us. We need to pay attention to usable nutrition.

Along those lines, we cannot just read nutritional data on the side of a box to determine the amount of nutrients, protein and vitamins in a particular food and then assume that when we eat that food, we are getting nourished by those nutrients in the exact same amount listed on the label. We have to
digest
foods properly and completely in order to assimilate their nutrients. Many of us aren't digesting our food optimally and therefore are not getting the full amount of nutrition from our foods.

Our bodies are a hot 98.6 degrees, and within them various biochemical reactions take
place, all of which must be accounted for. Evaluating a food in isolation is entirely different than evaluating the properties of the food as it is digested and broken down in our bodies. Because our bodies run at such a hot temperature, the longer a food stays in our bodies, the greater the chance that residue from the food will bake and lodge in our bodies and contribute to
sludge.

Beauty Food Pairing, which incorporates the hard and true tenets of classic food combining—which foods are best to eat together, and which combinations should be avoided at all costs—has a direct impact on our body's ability to break down foods easily and properly, thereby
saving
us large amounts of energy. Remember:

 

MORE ENERGY = MORE BEAUTY

 

Beauty Food Pairing is a concept that is not often discussed in our modern world and one that most mainstream health practitioners would dismiss, arguing that we are omnivores and should be able to digest everything we eat. After all, each and every day most of us put a whole lot of different heavy foods into our bodies, all mixed together at the same time. This is an incredibly heavy digestive burden that we are asking our bodies to bear. No, we aren't dying on the spot…but what is the long-term cost? As a society we are getting
fat
and aging
fast.
That is not optimal! If we want to look and feel excellent, we need to do something different and better than what we've been doing. This something different involves
optimizing
digestion, to free up lots of Beauty Energy!

Beauty Food Pairing is not even widely practiced in what are considered progressive nutrition movements, such as the raw food movement. I actually think a lot of raw foodists would benefit from applying this knowledge, as I have many clients that eat all or mostly raw foods and still struggle with their weight and energy levels (and don't always look that great). And it is no wonder. There are many energy-zapping, poorly combined raw food dishes.

Beauty Food Pairing is also something I, too, ignored for years. My health and energy improved tremendously when I shifted into eating more raw plant foods, but at some point I hit a plateau. I still had what seemed to be a “coating” over my muscles and abdomen…and I wanted to drop those last five pounds. Plus, I still regularly felt bloating and gassiness, and I knew my skin could be smoother and brighter. And what was up with those zits that still cropped up periodically? Wasn't a mostly raw, plant-based diet supposed to be so “clean” that it would get rid of all those issues? Something was off.

I had heard about food combining, but like most raw foodists and, well, most other people who have even
heard
of it, I had deliberately chosen to ignore it. My very first reaction was, “I've already cut so many foods out of my diet. On top of that, this sounds like it will make things more restrictive!” Still, I decided to give it a real go and used my own diet as the experiment.

And guess what?
I was astonished at how well it worked!
As they say, the proof is in the pudding. Nothing resonates as truth like personal experience. My energy skyrocketed. I shed another five pounds, which I have been easily able to keep off. My skin became glowing, any gassiness I had disappeared and my body looked much more toned—without doing anything else differently! This was especially true for my upper arms, where I had always longed for defined muscles. I had reached a whole new level of health and beauty.

Now, after practicing proper Beauty Food Pairing for years, if I go back and eat a miscombined meal, I bloat out like an overexpanded balloon and feel exhausted. My body has become quite the Beauty Food Pairing “snob,” accustomed to having the best combinations of foods to digest. I was in L.A. recently and went to visit a raw food café, where the owner made me a raw dish that was a mishmash of fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and soaked grains. After eating a small bowl of it, I became so uncomfortable and gassy that I excused myself to go to the car for a moment to relax and proceeded to fall asleep for about twenty minutes! Every one wondered what had happened to me. That's not how I want to be feeling after I eat!

Since then, I have shared Beauty Food Pairing with my clients, and it has helped them tremendously. Try it for
yourself
and say goodbye to bloating, watch the pounds drop and see how your skin becomes even more radiant. And by the way, it is
not
restrictive at all, once you get the hang of it!

Beauty Food Pairing works, and it works amazingly well. The concept is applicable and highly beneficial to
all
diets, whether you eat meat, fish, mostly raw plant foods or are a full-fledged vegan. Though Beauty Food Pairing is seldom discussed in the Western nutrition world and your doctor might shrug it off, that in no way makes it less valid. Remember that the average doctor might spend only about two weeks studying nutrition in medical school—or less. One published study suggests that only about 25 percent of medical schools require training in the medical nutrition sciences,
¹¹
and when medical schools do offer nutrition electives, there are generally low enrollments. It is simply not doctors' area of expertise—even though they have lots of training in many other areas. Therefore, we should go to the experts on nutrition when we want answers, and there are those that have studied the principles of food combining for decades.

HOW BEAUTY FOOD PAIRING WORKS

In order to lose weight and look your most beautiful, you must free up energy from digestion. In addition to the foods we eat, we can increase or decrease Beauty Energy by the order in which we eat foods and the choice of foods we eat together. Remember:

 

MORE ENERGY = MORE BEAUTY

 

One of the biggest ailments of the Western world is a chronic lack of energy. A lack of energy can lead to a viciously frustrating cycle of overeating, constant snacking, and reaching for sugary, caffeinated beverages, all in an attempt to feel more energetic and not have to struggle through the day. And, as you now know, a lack of energy makes you hold on to excess weight and look less beautiful. And why are we so tired? Because we're not combining our foods properly.

Beauty Food Pairing is based on the science of how food digests
optimally
in the body. Different foods digest with different enzymes, and some call for more acidic or more alkaline environments. Dr. Herbert M. Shelton is generally considered the foremost expert on food combining. He spent years studying the way digestive enzymes work to help break down foods, the primary basis for Beauty Food Pairing. As Dr. Shelton explains, “Every student of physiology is well aware that the digestive enzymes have certain well-defined limitations and that different digestive juices are secreted for use in digesting different kinds of food substances.”
¹²

During her thirty-five years of study in nutrition, Dr. Ann Wigmore, creator of the Living Foods Lifestyle, adamantly believed that “proper food combining is important for good health.”
¹³
I took classes on food combining as part of the programs I attended at her institute in Rincón, Puerto Rico. The principles of food combining are also taught at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, a prestigious and world-famous natural healing center. Ivan Pavlov (well-known for his research about dogs and conditioned response) outlined the fundamental concepts of proper food combining in his book
The Work of the Digestive Glands,
first published in 1902. And Dr. Philip Norman, a prominent gastroenterologist and professor in his time, wrote about the principles of food combining and its key benefits, namely, making digestion more effective.
¹⁴
The popular 1980s book
Fit for Life,
by natural hygienists Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, also advocates food combining, as do many of Dr. Norman Walker's writings.
¹⁵

So how does Beauty Food Pairing work? Let's get right into it!

BEAUTY RULE #1:
OUR BODIES CAN PROPERLY DIGEST ONLY ONE CONCENTRATED, NON-WATER-CONTAINING FOOD AT A TIME.

To understand this rule, it helps to think back to the gorilla in Chapter 1. That gorilla eats a fairly simple diet, with alkaline, water-based foods at the heart of it: fresh fruits and vegetables. The more simple our meals are, the better digestion will be.

One way to think about eating simpler foods is to classify foods as concentrated and non-concentrated. Concentrated foods are foods that do not contain any water. They include all proteins and starches. Non-concentrated foods are water-containing foods. The only truly non-concentrated foods are ripe fruits and non-starch vegetables.

 

 

To sum up, anything that is not a fruit or a non-starch vegetable is a concentrated food. Anything come to mind? Yes, I thought so! A few random examples are nuts, bagels, yogurt, toast, scrambled eggs, ice cream, flax crackers, peanut butter, lobster, etc.

The stomach secretes different kinds of juices when we eat different kinds of foods. Non-concentrated foods are much simpler for the body to digest than concentrated foods. We can handle most concentrated foods pretty well, but we can eat only one
type
at a time in order to maximize digestion. It is a huge Beauty Energy drain to ask our bodies to eat two different types of concentrated foods at one time. The two main types of concentrated foods that we will discuss first are starches and proteins, which leads us to the next Beauty Rule….

BEAUTY RULE #2:
PROTEINS AND STARCHES DON'T MIX.