Over the years, I've heard from various people that combining certain foods is a no no. Like nuts with fruits etc. However, I haven't really experienced any negative effects from combining foods. For a couple of years now I usually eat a couple of handfuls of nuts and then a bowl of fresh plus hydrated dried fruit (figs/dates/raisins).

Anyway, here's the rub, I'm have a problem with flatulence, and I usually put that down to the beans I have with my veg salad. However, it's possible that it might have something to do with my food combinations, so does anyone have any info or experience that may help in that area? Cause it's rather embarrassing as you can imagine haha.

Cheers, geo x

I don't see it as being an issue aslong as your digestion can handle whatever combinations it is being faced with. When digestion starts to struggle, this is how many digestive disorders begin.

Gas is most commonly caused by low stomach acid due to increased fermentation and more complex cominbations are in most cases harder to digest together than alone.

[WWW.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Listen to your body.

Though the absolute worst combination I can warn you of is sweet stickly fruit like bananas and dates, with starchy vegetables (carrots, radish) Combining these in the past has made me fall into a black depression, terrible cramping, flatulence, brain fog, headache.. you name it. I pretty much become incapacitated if I combine these foods.

Everything else though I have no issues with.. I too combine nuts and raisens with no trouble. Cashews and raisens were meant to be eaten together imo.

Hmm thx, my fav nuts are cashews too, and definately with raisins. Have you tried cashews with green olives? I don't usually combine vegies with fruit either, except I do have avocado and tomato with my veg salad. Perhaps it is the beans, so if I change to chick peas the problem might be mitigated, what do you think? Or perhaps it is low stomach acidity, so what can I change to increase it?

Not sure about the beans issue, I tend to stick to raw if I can. Unless there is a way to eat beans raw?

It matters more when the food is not eaten raw, the food has less water and the body has supply everything for proper digestion

geo,

Traditionally, flatulence is perceived as a poor food combining issue. If you've been eating beans for a long time, your digestion should not be struggling with these anymore, but the only way to confirm this is to stop eating just the beans and see if the problem disappears quickly. If not, perhaps it is the fat with fruit[I cannot do this without getting bloat, as with many people]. So stop combining these and see if that corrects the problem.

powerlifer's suggestion to consider a stomach acid problem is, as usual, a good one, IMO

I've never had any issues with combining 100% raw vegan foods.

Hi Geo,
I would definately suspect the nuts and fruit combination causing gas. If you have really strong digestion, you can combine anything, unfortunately thats not the case for most people.

In my experience one has to use their own digestive health, quirks included, to determine the right answer to this sort of issue for themselves. As mentioned on another thread recently, some have trouble digesting nuts and seeds mixed together and others don't. Some have trouble with cooked bean, raw sprouts, combos of sweets and fats, etc, and others can eat anything with seeming ease.

All that said, there are certain foods that we know through the observation of science take opposing digestive forces to process. Just because you CAN eat those combinations with seeming ease doesn't necessarily mean that you Should. I think there is a certain amount of metabolic stress and even mild distress associated with doing something that is inherently hard on the body like this. It might not show now but it probably will later on down the road. Stress on the body can be wearing. When there is an obviously bad food combination, why not choose something else? At least in the regular diet, "treats" now and then don't have to be excluded (like nut and date desserts). In the regular day to day diet and habits one stands to benefit from chosing things that are more supportive than not and food combining falls into that category IMO.

Ok, yeah that's what I should do, just stop combining things like the fat with the fuit for a start, and see if it helps, thx heaps x

Oh, how long would it take to notice a difference? A couple of weeks maybe?

Geo,

You mentioned beans. Raw(sprouted) or cooked? Have you soaked the beans the night before cooking and rinsed thoroughly? When chewing are you breaking it down sufficiently. Flatulence and gas are the result of incomplete digestion in my view rather than bad combinations of food. I eat beans raw and cooked and have no problems. Lentils and smaller beans tend to be less problematic that larger beans.

I know food combining is a sensitive issue in the raw community. For me personally, it has no validity. I believe that when humans evolved we had to eat opportunistically depending the season and climate and eat a variety of foods. It seems very unlikely to me that the special rules about different combinations have much basis. Still, you cannot discount personal experience. Maybe a personal experiment is the way to go.

Paul

I am not sure if beans should be eaten at all, raw or sprouted, if they have to be eaten it must be cooked.
There are so many other cleansing foods to choose from

Nutrition is more about assimilation than nutrients



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2012 02:17PM by madinah.

I'd take beans over grains any day. More protein, lower in methionine (an amino acid linked to agin), higher in resistant starch. I will still sprout grains, but sprouted mung bean, adzuki, lentils are my preferred source of starch.

Paul

Yes, I'm not giving up beans any time soon. Sprouted, raw or cooked, they are a staple in our diet. I don't like to take chances with the kids, assuming they are getting enough protein from fruit and greens, no. At least they will eat beans in abundance and with pleasure! There is only so far I'll go with minimizing things in their diet.

I do soak them well and even sprout the larger ones before cooking (they require much less cooking time). I also make them with cumin which supposedly reduces gas. If cooked well enough they reduce to a beany paste too, this is practically "chewed" for them, good since kids often gobble and there are only so many times a mom can say "slow down! Chew that stuff before you swallow it!" LOL, kids are fun. (check out retained heat cooking to save energy if you want to cook beans to a paste.)

Bean paste in a romaine lettuce leave with other shredded veggies makes a terrific and nearly raw taco. They like that (me too ).

I some food is not digestible, it does not matter if it has nutrients. I will take grains over beans.

I will take both aslong as there gluten and wheat free grains .

Quinoa is a favorite grain of mine, especially for vegans as it is rich in zinc.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

How do you eat quinoa? cooked or sprouted?
Some of seeds do not sprout and it is very difficult to take them out, so you are basically left with eating them cooked. But about 50 percent of the zinc is lost thru cooking. [www.whfoods.com]

Canned beans are supposed to produce little or no gas, so I would experiment. I know canned isn't optimal - metal, water, salt - but just to see if there's a difference, I would try it. Let us know what happens.

Life is dead in a canned bean

madinah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do you eat quinoa? cooked or sprouted?
> Some of seeds do not sprout and it is very
> difficult to take them out, so you are basically
> left with eating them cooked. But about 50 percent
> of the zinc is lost thru cooking.
> [www.whfoods.com];
> dbid=115#impactcookingstorageprocessing

I cook it. That article states navy beans lose 50% that doesn't mean all zinc containing foods lose half of their content when cooked.

Grains are not the best food but they have their uses and when i do go for some grains like i say i choose quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat etc, grains that tend to be higher in nutrition than white refined largely useless grains such as white rice.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2012 07:40PM by powerlifer.

The tins that food is canned in are nearly all lined with the carcinogen BPA, that's not something I ever want to eat in any amount. Dried beans that have been sprouted and cooked are not difficult for me to digest and I often have fussy digestion. Beans are no problem, sprouted lentils are fine, sprouted quinoa (I guess mine is good quality because nearly all the grains sprout just fine) raw sprouted or cooked are fine. If you want to re-invigorate cooked food it can be fermented to bring it back to life. Stir in a little starter (from a previous batch of ferment), sit on a warm counter over night and voila, living food. Quite nice actually.

I wonder Madinah how you're sprouting that quinoa... it doesn't have to be soaked overnight, that can "drown" some of the seeds. Have you tried it like this? (similar instructions for sprouting Amaranth too)
[www.sproutpeople.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2012 08:33PM by coco.

coco I stopped eating quinoa because I could not solve the sprouting problem. I do not have tiny fingers to take out the unsprouted. And cooking does not help it is a little hard to chew properly and cooking destroys so much. So I went to other foods among the so many that were on the waiting list.

That doesn't exactly answer the question though... how long were you doing the initial soak for? Soaking for too long can drown the seeds resulting in a low rate of seeds sprouting. Cooking destroys zero minerals and that's what quinoa is high in after all, and cooking renders them very soft so I don't get the issue with chewing ???
Fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds are best raw, some grains and legumes are good sprouted but others are not good unless cooked. If one is going to include those non-raw foods in the diet, both are fine IMO though I personally have less trouble with beans than with grains. And eating them at the same time is a recipe for digestive disaster for me most of the time.

Thx for all this input guys. I sometimes eat wholemeal rice, sometimes soak beans overnight/rince well/slow cook and more often I use organic tin beans/chic peas. Ostensibly, a slow cooking method lessens nutrient destruction (from a study on soya beans). I've been experimenting, and I have less gas using chic peas. So beans are some of the problem here. Also, not all organic tin beans have that BPA carcinogen, but have bare tin, so not so great either. What I might do is only soak raw beans of one variety to see which beans are the worst, for me anyway.

I've also heard from oriental people that there's only certain colours that you can combine. And so it becomes further confusing. Has anyone else heard of that?

Also don't forget to eat alot of raw greens to help build up your digestion!

dried fruits ALWAYS tend to cause gas in people. raisins etc.

I feed my 100% raw kids hemp seeds, and nuts, and greens and their protein is above average!!! no need for toxic cooked food!

I'm fine with dried fruit! These "always" statements always make me scratch my head a little.

Goos point RAWLION, there is no need for cooked beans, cooked quinoa just because of protein or minerals, there is plenty of these in raw food. You will need black pepper to get these cook foods out, or reduce the gas