The Beauty Detox Solution (9 page)
Read The Beauty Detox Solution Online
Authors: Kimberly Snyder
As you read these words, perhaps some favorite or long-accepted food combinations pop into your head: bagels and cream cheese, turkey sandwiches, eggs with toast, sushi rolls, grilled fish and wild rice, filet mignon and potatoes au gratin, chicken pad thaiâ¦. Yep, these are all improper food combinations.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, except that I know that it is in your best interest to be aware of this now. Forget the past, and forget all the years of improperly combining foods. When we have new information, we change! And, remember Melanie's storyâwe don't have to say goodbye to our favorite comfort foods.
We can eat them in moderation, but just not all of them at the same time.
To understand why protein and starches don't pair well together, you have to understand how these concentrated foods digest.
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PROTEIN: In the stomach a concentrated protein requires an
acidic
environment to be broken down, an environment that includes hydrochloric acid and an enzyme called pepsin.
Examples of Protein:
STARCH: The breakdown of starch starts with an enzyme called ptyalin (salivary amylase), which can efficiently act only in an
alkaline
medium.
Examples of Starch:
Now think back to high school chemistry class. What happens when an acid and an alkaline are put together?
They neutralize each other.
To use the words of Dr. Norman Walker, eating carbohydrates with protein at the same time results in a “serious chemical situation to contend with.”
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Since the food is not breaking down naturally, what do our poor glands do next? Our stomach has to secrete more digestive juices to try to break down the food, but because there are still opposing digestive enzymes at work, they are neutralized again and again. The digestion of the carbohydrates is interfered with by the presence of the acidic digestive juices, and at the same time the proteins are prevented from digesting properly or completely in the presence of the alkaline digestive juices.
This inefficient digestive process takes hours, costing us copious amounts of Beauty Energy. We immediately get
tired
after eating because all our energy is going right into our bellies. It is analogous to a nice Ferrari stuck in the mud with its wheels spinning. No matter how much we jam on the accelerator, the car stays right where it is, just spinning and wasting even more energy. We may experience gassiness, bloating and/or heartburn. Since we get tired pretty quickly after this ill-combined meal, this leads to a groggy afternoon with multiple trips to the company coffee machine or Starbucks, or an uninspired evening in front of the TV. Sound familiar?
Even with the huge sacrifice of so much of our Beauty Energy, the food in this poorly combined meal is never 100 percent digested. There is a major problem with all this: The longer a food stays in the 98.6-degree body, and the slower it moves through our digestive system, the greater chance it has to become toxic residue as it bakes in our body at this high temperature. In contrast, the faster a food passes through our system, providing us with adequate nutrition and then exiting, the healthier it is.
Because of these long hours of stasis in our hot bellies, much of the protein in the stomach will become putrefied (rotten), and much of the carbohydrates will become fermented.
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Now we are dealing with literally rotting matter. Much of the nutrition within those foods is lost, while we are exhausted because the body wastes incredible amounts of energy trying to break the food down.
Putrefied protein and fermented carbohydrates are unusable by the body and will not contribute to healthy, beautiful cell structure. We do not derive any value from foods that are improperly digested in this manner. As Dr. Norman Walker aptly puts it, “The greatest friends of old age are fermentation and putrefaction. Both of these are natural processes of disintegration. That is why they speed up the aging of people.”
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ROTTEN STARCH + ROTTEN PROTEIN = MORE TOXIC SLUDGE IN OUR BODIES
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Poor food pairing adds more toxic sludge to the wheel.
A large component of this constantly amassing sludge comes from fermented and putrefied material, which is built up largely from improper Beauty Food Pairings. It is indeed muddying up our natural beauty, dulling our radiance and contributing to our
getting old!
Sludge slows down our systems and makes us pack on the pounds, especially around our belly area, no matter how relatively few calories we consume.
When the food is finally pushed out of the stomach, where it has been for hours, it still has to navigate through about thirty feet of winding intestinal tract! The food could take some twenty to forty hours (or more) to get through the intestines.
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That, my friends, is
what at we call a serious Beauty Energy
drain.
Besides that, we just don't get the most nutrition from our food when we don't adhere to the laws of Beauty Food Pairing.
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IMPROPER BEAUTY FOOD PAIRINGS:
Skinless chicken breast with potatoes | Lean turkey meat on whole-wheat bread |
Tuna or salmon sushi rolls | Egg white omelet with whole-grain toast |
Grilled or baked fish over wild rice | Low-fat cream cheese on a bagel |
We have been led to believe these combinations are okayâeven healthy!âbecause they are low in fat. But they are in fact aging, slow-digesting foods that when combined contribute to the sludge in our bodies.
Not
combining proteins and starches at the same meal will optimize the amount of nutrients you can extract from foods and will free up a lot of energy. Instead of having an energy deficit, you will have an energy surplus. You will have the energy to kick butt at work, get through a whole afternoon without needing an extra cup of coffee, get a whole lot more done around the house and literally run laps around your roommate, spouse or your kids.
BEAUTY TIP
You Don't Have to Be Perfect All the Time
Of course, the reality is that sometimes we are going to miscombine foods. Sometimes, especially in the beginning and when we are transitioning, we simply
must
have our favorite sushi rolls or a tuna fish sandwich from our favorite deli or (gasp!) a hamburger. We are not expected to be perfect all the time. The occasional miscombining is okay, as long as we realize it will take us a step back and not a step forward. As you start Beauty Food Pairing, you will love how much more energy you have and how much better you feel, so you'll want to avoid miscombining naturally.
If you are going to miscombine, do it later on in the day, ideally at dinner. (We'll discuss more on that in Light to Heavy.) On these occasions, you should balance your foods like a seesaw. On one side of the seesaw are foods that are optimal for your health: salads, vegetables, fruit. On the other side are concentrated, miscombined foods. If you eat those miscombined foods, you have to balance them out with the optimal foodsâthe heavier the miscombined foods, the more optimal foods you pile on to keep the seesaw balanced for beauty. If you're going to have a heavy, miscombined dinner, start with an oil-free green salad. The salad will help neutralize some of the digestive distress the improperly combined meal creates. It will also coat the stomach with fiber and help the heavier foods digest betterâwhile ensuring you reduce your portion sizes of them!
Okay, now for the good news! Remember when I said you wouldn't have to give up all your favorite foods and ban them forever? The best part is, we can still eat the foods we like, just
not all at the same time!
The general rule is to wait three to four hours before eating one concentrated food before eating another so we have time to clear the first food out of our bellies first. Then, we are home free.
BEAUTY RULE #3:
VEGETABLES ARE NEUTRAL.
Vegetables are wonderful alkaline, non-concentrated foods. They are simple for our body to digest and are considered absolutely neutral. If you love roasted chicken or steamed tilapia fish, eat it along with some steamed vegetables and a raw green salad. If you are in the mood for a starchy dish, maybe some pasta salad or a baked yam, eat it with some vegetables.
BEAUTY RULE #4:
MIXING TWO STARCHES IS OKAY.
Even though starches are concentrated foods, they aren't as complicated to digest as protein. While simple meals are always best, two different starches are okay to eat at once.
BEAUTY RULE #5:
MIXING TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANIMAL PROTEIN IS NOT OKAY.
Proteins as a whole are the hardest food group to break down. Proteins are comprised of complex chains of amino acids, each with a very different character and chemical makeup. Our bodies must break down protein into amino acids in order to digest or assimilate them. Since the body has to concentrate so much energy on breaking down each protein, only one protein at a time should be consumed. Otherwise, the proteins will not fully and efficiently digest, and they will putrefy in the digestive tract.
Animal proteins are much more complex and difficult to break down than plant proteins, which include seeds, nuts and sea algae, and this means this rule is really only applicable to animal proteins. You can mix plant proteins without a problem, so, for example, having seeds and nuts together is fine. But surf and turf, eggs with ham, or an appetizer containing fish followed by a chicken main dish are all bad combinations. Two kinds of fish or two kinds of poultry eaten together at the same meal are okay, but remember to keep meals as simple as possible to preserve Beauty Energy.
BEAUTY RULE #6:
FATS SHOULD BE EATEN MODERATELY WITH PROTEIN (ANIMAL AND PLANT) BUT ARE OKAY TO EAT WITH CARBOHYDRATES.
Fat mixes well with starches but has somewhat of an inhibiting effect on the digestion of protein.
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You can pair minimal amounts of fat with protein, but it is best not to eat a
large
amount of fat with any protein. Even if you are eating an all-raw meal, it is best not to mix a lot of nuts (protein) together with a whole avocado (fat)! This could prevent efficient weight loss. A plentiful supply of green vegetables can be used to counteract the interaction between a moderate amount of protein and raw fat. For instance, if you are having a piece of fish over a nice green salad, it is okay to have a little oil on the salad, but go easy on it and eat up a good portion of the alkaline greens first. But if weight loss is truly the goal, it would be best to skip the oil altogether and let the protein digest perfectly on its own!