The document provides an overview of food combining and its benefits. Some key points: - Food combining involves not eating starch and protein together to aid digestion. Combinations to avoid include eggs with toast or meat with potatoes. - Proponents claim it leads to better health and weight loss by preventing interference between digestion of different food types. Critics argue the evidence is limited. - The history and principles of food combining are outlined, along with examples of recommended and non-recommended food combinations. Frequently asked questions are also addressed.

1. Food combining – how to
gain health & lose weight
in 3 weeks or less
HealthViaFood.org
© Ben Rockefeller 2023

2. Who am I ? Why am i here ?
•65, semi-retired, technical writer, BE/CA, messenger,
•pro-health, pro-freedom, pro-search for truth,
•certified (and self-taught) health coach, skeptical of
official, academic nutrition & Rx,
•to promote specific ideas & methods,
•to practice in-person presentations,
•to shine a light, and to (try to) learn not to be arrogant or
dogmatic, not to judge nor to blame, and to see more of
HR.

3. What is “health” ?
Toxinsout > Toxinsin AND
Nutrientsin > Nutrientsout
OVER TIME => health
This model is a contrast to theories about germs, genes,
and calories.

4. Disclaimer
• This presentation is not intended to diagnose,
prevent, treat, or cure any disease.
• If you have a medical condition, see a doctor.
• I am not a doctor.

5. Food combining - outline
• History
• In a nutshell (briefly)
• Digestion – in brief
• Details
• Frequently asked questions
• Conclusion

6. Food combining - history
• Dr. William Howard Hay MD
• Dr. Herbert Shelton MD
• Drs. Ludwig and Ilse Walb MDs
• Drs. Max Gerson, Joanna Budwig, and Stephan Domenig.

7. Food combining - bibliography
Health Via Food, Dr. William Howard Hay, 1929
Food Combining Made Easy, Dr. Herbert Shelton, 1953
Die Haysche Trennkost, Drs. Ludwig & Ilse Walb, 1972
Food Combining for Health: The Original Hay Diet,
Doris Grant and Jean Joice, 1984
The Complete Book of Food Combining,
Kathryn Marsden, 2005
…

8. Briefly
1. Do not combine starch with protein at same meal.
2. Drink water (or soup) at least 10-15 minutes before the
meal and none (or little wine) with the meal.
3. Eat fruit, if any, at the start of the meal (not at the end).
4. Eat dessert (cake, pie, …) on an empty stomach (or
between meals).

9. What is “starch” ?
• Bread
• Potatoes
• Pasta
• Rice
• Couscous
• Grains (wheat, oats, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, …)
• Pulses (legumes), lentils, beans, dried peas, …

10. What is (animal) “protein” ?
• Eggs
• Fish
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Beef
• Cheese, milk, yogurt (dairy)

11. Why does this work?
Protein requires an acidic medium
(pH < 7) and the enzyme pepsin (HCl)
in the stomach, …
Starch requires an alkaline medium
(pH > 7) and the enzyme amylase
(ptyalin) in the small intestine (and in
the saliva), …
Starch and protein can interfere with
each other, causing the partly digested
starch to ferment and the protein to
putrefy and the mass to accumulate.

12. What to combine with protein?
• Vegetables, green or non-starchy, raw or cooked,
(broccoli, spinach, kale, parsley, parsnips, onions, …)
• Salads (mixes of raw vegetables, lemon, olive oil)
• Mushrooms
• Oils (olive, flax, hemp, coco, …)
• Nuts (almonds, walnuts, macadamia, …)
• Seeds (flax, pumpkin, hemp, chia, …)
• Herbs & spices (garlic, cayenne, ginger, salt, …)

13. Examples of
combinations to avoid
•Eggs with toast, or eggs with potatoes or beans, …
•Meat with potatoes, or meat with bread, …
•Chicken with rice, or chicken with potatoes, …
•Chicken with couscous, …
Can you think of any others?

14. Healthy combinations
•Eggs with spinach (or veg., herbs, spices, or nuts),
•Meat with broccoli (or veg., herbs, spices, or nuts),
•Chicken (or turkey) with onion (or veg., herbs,
spices, or nuts),
•Soy with vegetables (vegetarian/vegan),
•Rice with beans (vegetarian/vegan).
Can you think of any others?

15. Food combining – why ?
• Your digestive system is a 10 meter long tube,
• Efficient (optimal) digestion of a specific food requires
specific enzymes (amylase, pepsin, lipase, …), a specific
environment (pH low or high), and specific organs (mouth,
stomach, small intestines, …),
• Whatever your individual biochemistry, different food types
travel at different relative speeds (fastest are melons, then
sweet fruit, then citrus fruit, then vegetables, starch, protein,
and lipids the slowest to be digested). Shelton measured this.

16. Food combining – how to start?
• Drink water or soup & stop at least 15 minutes before meal.
• At this meal, do I want to eat protein, such as fish, meat, or
egs, or do I want to eat starch, such as potato, bread, or
rice?
• Eat fruit on an empty stomach, for example at the beginning
of the meal. Eat dessert at least an hour or two after the meal.
• Eat vegetables before the eggs, chicken, or meat.
• Eat nuts or seeds at the end of the meal, except small
amounts of healthy oils with the vegetables or possibly a few
nuts with the fruit (or mixed with a smoothie).

17. Food combining –
traveling, snacking, and
eating out
• An apple or two, a boiled egg or two, and a handful of nuts
or two – could be eaten in this sequence for proper food
combining.
• Many restaurants will substitute a salad or green vegetable
for potatoes or rice or bread, if you ask them, possibly for a
higher price.

18. Food combining – Dr. Hay
1. Vegetables, salads, and fruits should make up most of the
food consumed.
2. Proteins, starches, and fats should be eaten in small
quantities.
3. Wait four to four and a half hours between starch and protein
meals.
…

19. Speed of digestion
ref. Dr. Shelton
•Melons (honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon,…),
•Sweet fruits (banana, mango, fig, plum, papaya, date, carob, raisins, dried fruit,
persimmon, …),
•Sub-acid fruits (blueberry, cherry, apple, pear, apricot, grape, peach, raspberry,
cherimoya, …),
•Acid fruits (grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange, pineapple, …),
•Green and other non-starchy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, kale,, …),
•Starch (bread, potatoes, pasta, grains, cereals, rice, chickpeas, beans, peas, pumpkin,
raw carrots, beets, artichoke, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, …),
•Protein (eggs, cheese, fish, chicken, meat, soya, …),
•Lipids (nuts, oils, and seeds).

20. Food combining – Shelton -
combinations to avoid
• Starch with protein (such as bread with eggs, potatoes with meat, rice
with fish, pasta with meat, bread with cheese, …),
• Dessert (sugar and starch) at the end of the meal (sequence),
• One protein with another protein, such as egg with cheese, …
• Acid fruit with sweet fruit, starch, or protein (orange juice with
banana, toast, or eggs, …),
• Sweet fruit with acid fruit, starch, or protein (banana with lemon,
oatmeal, or eggs),
• Beer (grain) with wine (grape).

21. Frequently asked questions
1. How much time to leave between a protein meal and a starch meal?
2. What results can I hope for, if I do this?
3. What about sugar?
4. What about dessert?
5. What about fats?
6. What about alcohol?
7. What about milk?
8. What about yogurt?
9. What about pulses (legumes)?
10. What about tomatoes?
11. What about sandwiches?
12. What about eating out at a restaurant or at a public gathering (catering)?

22. What do the critics say ?
1. This is too complicated.
2. People have been eating starch and protein together for a long time. Why isn’t
everybody becoming sick ?
3. Almost every food, such as broccoli or beans, contains some protein and some starch.
Separating them is not possible nor desirable.
4. The weight loss (health gain) is due to changing to whole foods.
5. The pancreas secretes amylase, protease, and lipase (digestive enzymes) at the same
time. You can multi-task, digesting fruits, proteins, and starch at the same time, so
separating fruits, protein, and starch is not necessary.
6. Nobody has ever done a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, nor
any clinical trial of this, so there is no evidence for this, and therefore it is not
scientific.
7. “Better digestion” cannot be objectively measured, so why bother with this ? (Bristol
stool test)
8. If this is true, why did I not learn this in school?

23. Food combining - method
It is simple to apply, if there is first a déclic.
It is harmless (non-toxic), effective, and cheap.
It requires merely a change to how you compose each
meal (either starch or protein). It does not require you to
count calories nor to weigh portions.
It is not a cult nor a sect. It is not occult nor esoteric.
It is not strange nor abnormal. It is not a secret.
It is not extreme. It works.

24. Take home message
1. Do not combine (always separate) starch and protein
at the same meal.
2. Eat fruit (or dessert) on an empty stomach (not at the
end of the meal).
3. Drink water (or liquid) at least 10-15 before the meal
and none with the meal.

25. What is Happiness ?
Health
AND (some) pleasure
AND (some) inner truth (inner peace/light)
= Happiness

26. Final thoughts
« If you lose your health, nothing else matters (to you). »
« If your doctor prescribes you pills, without asking what
you’re eating, how you’re sleeping, how you’re moving,
and what is stressing you, you don’t have a doctor. You
have a drug dealer. »
« Dead doctors don’t lie. »

28. Your questions?
For more info –
HealthViaFood.org
DIY (or email)
ben@healthviafood.org