General Considerations for Compatible and Incompatible Foods

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Julia McBride
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1 Divya s Ayurvedic Vegetarian Cooking Class Bhagavat General Considerations for Compatible and Incompatible Foods The most important consideration in proper food combining is whether a person can fully metabolize a meal at every stage of digestion. Other personal criteria are one s body type, age, pregnancy and nursing, recovering from surgery or severe illness. Following proper food combinations is especially important for the sick and weak, and for those with chronic gut disorders. Mild digestive problems often result from eating incompatible foods and are easily solved by following the suggestions below. Geographical location. It is important to eat foods appropriate for the climate and altitude you live in. Certain recipes may be good to prepare in some parts of the world but not in others. Countries and cultures include specific foods to support the population in that particular environment, and people from other cultures and climates may not be able to handle the same diet. For example, it would be incompatible to eat traditional South Indian (or any tropical) cuisine during winter in New York City. Or, even in freezing cold New York, it won t be suitable for us to follow the high altitude diet of the Afghanistan nomads. Mediterranean diet has proven to promote longevity locally, but does it work the same in other parts of the world? Season. It is contradictory to eat dry and cold foods in the winter and sharp and hot foods in the summer. Consult the previous chapter and select foods of qualities opposite to that of the weather. Portion (depending on one s digestive strength): Every person s digestive strength is unique. Depending on how strong your digestion is, you need to consider the quantity and heaviness of food you consume in one meal. If you have very strong digestion, you may eat big portions of heavy foods, but if your digestion is weak, eating smaller amounts and lighter foods would be best. For a person with weak digestion, it would incompatible to eat too heavy, too oily, or too much food in one meal. Proportions in combining some foods: Specific proportions of certain foods become toxic to the body. For example, equal parts by weight of honey and ghee (e.g. 1 teaspoon honey + 3 teaspoons ghee) is toxic. So is the combination of equal parts of honey and rainwater, honey and lotus seed, and drinking very hot water right after eating honey. Foods incompatible with one s work. If a person performs heavy manual work or excessive exercise, it is incompatible to eat mostly airy type foods (dry, cold, rough, light). Temperature shock. Do not consume very cold and very hot foods together. It is not good for your digestion or for your teeth. Avoid having hot coffee or chocolate with ice cream, drinking a glass of ice-cold water at the end of your meal, or drinking cold fruit juice with hot tea or coffee these confusing combinations could really damage your digestion and increase unhealthy cravings. Opposing food action: Mixing foods of hot and cold actions e.g. radish with raisins. Method of preparation. Undercooked or overcooked food has a negative effect on digestion; microwaving kills the life in the food; heating honey makes it act as slow poison. These are just some examples. Natural urges. Respond to nature s call before you sit down to eat; don t hold it until after your meal! Palatability: You may eat the healthiest food, but if you don t like it, it may turn toxic in your body. Enjoy your food and let it evoke happiness and gratitude.

2 Good Food Combinations Based on the concepts of the six tastes, food qualities, and digestion, the following foods commune well in a dish or a meal: Grains go well with all vegetables. Legumes go well with grains (especially when cooked with digestive spices), non-starchy vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, asparagus), leafy greens (e.g. kale, collards, chard, spinach, lettuce). Nuts and seeds go well with milk, yogurt, leafy greens, citrus fruits, sour fruits; cheese (if digestion is strong). Starchy vegetables (e.g. winter squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro root) go well with leafy greens and non-starchy vegetables. Meats go well with light foods, such as non-starchy vegetables, leafy greens, or salads. Most of the common serving methods in western society (i.e. steak and potato, chicken and bean burrito, spaghetti and meatballs, any meat sandwich, fried fish, etc.) are not optimal for digestion. Milk goes well with grains (e.g. wheat, rice, oats, amaranth, quinoa), sweet dried fruit (e.g. dates, sweet raisins), ghee and butter, nuts, spices like turmeric, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, saffron. Yogurt goes well with salt, grains, nuts and seeds, dried fruit (e.g. dates, raisins, figs, apricots), non-leafy vegetables (summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli, radish), legumes, honey and other sweeteners; animal protein (but don t cook the yogurt, add just before serving) Cheese goes well with non-starchy or green leafy vegetables; or eaten alone. Cheese and nuts together are also acceptable for persons with very strong digestive fire. Raw fruits are best eaten alone or in combination with other fruits of the same kind and predominant same taste. For example it is okay to eat different berries together, stone fruit and berries, apples and pears. Fruit and nut milks are also acceptable. However, always eat melons alone because their high water content requires a very strong and focused fire to digest them. According to Shaka Vansiya Ayurveda, the only two raw fruits that commune with a meal at lunch are pineapple and papaya because of their high enzymatic properties. Cooked and dried fruits are an exception and suitable to mix with other foods.

3 Examples of Common Bad Combinations: Their Effects and Solutions The classical Ayurvedic texts give a long list of incompatible foods (viruddha-ahara). In medical training, this study takes 6 to 7 hours a day for a week! Here we will list only the most common ones for us today. The goal eating compatible foods and avoiding incompatible foods is simple: no ama, or semidigested food. Our digestive system was not designed to handle non-stop large, heavy, complex meals (as are commonly eaten in western society). The western eating habits place continual stress on the digestive system with inadequate down-time for the system to recuperate. An overworked digestion and regularly eating incompatible foods may cause blockage downstream, resulting in undigested food that putrefies and ferments, leading to gas, bloating, and accumulation of toxins. Levels of Reactions to Contradictory Foods Some foods are contradictory when eaten in a meal but do not cause immediate side effects. No Immediate Reaction (Slow Poisoning): You may not feel any immediate discomfort when enjoying radish with raisins or cheese with nightshades. In the long run, however, consuming such contradictory foods together may develop autoimmune digestive problems or allergies. If you are used to eating contradictory foods since childhood, you may develop a resistance to an otherwise undesirable food item. Immediate Reaction (Acute Food Poisoning): Milk with citrus or yogurt this combination may cause instant nausea, fatigue, headache, or diarrhea, and should be avoided by all means. Never eat milk pudding with a refreshing glass of lemonade! Based on the concepts of the six tastes, food qualities, and digestion, the following foods are considered incompatible in a dish or a meal: Milk According to Charaka Samhita, milk is the most sensitive ingredient in cooking. Being a rich and heavy food, milk carries volatile chemical makeup that can be easily imbalanced when combined with incompatible foods. Here are some examples bad milk and food combinations in one meal: rice pudding (cooked with milk) with wine, whipped cream with berries, oatmeal cooked in milk with orange juice. Milk/ heavy cream do not go well with salt, foods of predominantly sour taste (e.g. fruit, yogurt, cheese, citrus, tomatoes, cheese, tamarind), animal protein (meat, fish, eggs), nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers), leafy greens, large beans, cheese, sesame or tahini, or jiggery the effect would be clogging of the circulatory channels, lowering immunity, toxicity. To ensure good digestion, allow 60 to 90 minute gap between drinking milk and eating other foods. Common Practice of Combining Milk/ Heavy Cream with Bananas: Both milk and bananas have sweet taste and cooling potency. However, their post-digestive effect is very different: milk is sweet but bananas turn sour. This causes confusion to the digestive system and may change the intestinal flora, produce toxins, or cause sinus congestion, cold, cough, and allergies. Common Practice of Combining Milk/ Heavy Cream with Meat, Fish, or Eggs: fish is heating, milk is cooling: due to their conflicting potency, this combination blocks the channels and pollutes the blood. All these animal proteins may taste good together give you immediate satisfaction, but they are very heavy to digest, and eating them together may compromise the complete synthesis of protein synthesis with time, undigested protein lowers the immune system.

4 Common Practice of Combining Milk/ Heavy Cream with Leafy Greens: the leaves are too astringent to deal with the heaviness of milk; the negative reaction builds up over time. Common Practice of Combining Milk/ Heavy Cream with Salt: in béchamel sauce and creamy soups; breads, cakes, cookies, etc. This combination lowers the immune system, makes amavisha (hot, reactive toxins), and may lead to leprosy. Solution: Because milk is so rich, Ayurvedic texts advise us to consume it alone, and to boil it with digestive spices, such as green cardamom, fresh ginger, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, cloves, saffron, turmeric. These spices help break down the sugar and protein molecules that make milk the rich clogging food item that it is. Another solution, in some recipes, is to replace cow s milk with almond milk. An exception for mixing milk with fruit is very ripe and sweet mango. Yogurt Yogurt does not go well with fruit, milk, leafy greens, nightshades. Common Practice of Combining Yogurt with Fruit: causes phlegm, low energy, and congestion. Common Practice of Combining Yogurt with Leafy Greens: slightly acidic yogurt and alkaline leafy greens create a bad reaction, which may lead to hyper acidic stomach. Never boil yogurt into a dish, but add it after turning off the heat. Boiling yogurt kills its friendly bacteria, and makes the ph of the food permanently acidic. A little yogurt or buttermilk used in baking for softness and leavening is OK because it causes just slight acidity. Soaking the chickpea flour in yogurt is really bad. Coconut yogurt is too heavy for most people. Cheese does not go well with fruit (causes congestion); in combination with nightshades, meat, crackers, macaroni, bread, pizza, beans, thick tahini sauce (thin is OK), etc. cheese could be too heavy for people with airy or sluggish digestion. Raw fruit does not go well with diary, cooked food, grains, legumes, salads, leafy greens. Raw fruits are heavy to digest because they have a lot of sugar and water (Soma), and need to be eaten alone to ensure full digestion. Common Practice of Melon Combining: Melons have a lot of Soma (water and earth) and a little agni (fire), therefore require very strong fire of digestion, and eating them after sunset may cause indigestion. Never cook watermelon! Solution: According to SVA, the only two raw fruits that combine well with a meal, especially with lunch, are papaya and pineapple. They are rich in digestive enzymes and are ideal as an accompaniment with your midday meal to help enhance your digestion. Make sure you do not consume any yogurt with the meal; fruits and yogurt are another bad combination. Meat, fish, eggs do not go well with milk they are very heavy and cause clogging of the physical and energy channels in the body. Ayurveda completely supports the Kosher concept! Cucumber with Lemon Cucumber is rich in Soma (water and earth), it has cooling potency (virya), and it metabolizes primarily on the level of plasma (rasa dhatu). Lemon has heating potency and also metabolizes on the plasma level (rasa dhatu). When consumed together, they create a fight in the plasma tissue the cucumber is trying to cool things off, while the lemon is pushing to heats things up. Therefore it is best not to consume them together. Eating cucumber and lemon together occasionally is not a big deal. However, with prolonged use, this combination may cause clustering of ama-visha microcrystals (hot, reactive toxins). Hopefully science will prove this Ayurvedic concept soon.

5 Solution: Use lime instead. Lime has an alkalizing effect on the body, while lemon is more acidic. Lime is less heating than lemon, but it has enough fire energy to help digest the cucumber without creating a fight. Add a pinch of Soma Salt (white Himalayan rock salt, available at Salt in general is heating, but Soma Salt is cooling. Daikon Radish and Raisins Daikon and raisin carry properties contradictory on the taste and potency levels: daikon is pungent and heating, and raisins are sweet and cooling. Honey is contradictory with boiling hot water/ tea; baked or cooked; equal amounts (by weight) of ghee; taken by a person afflicted with heat leads to death. Solution: The 2:1 ratio (by weight, two parts ghee to 1 part honey) is fine. If adding to tea, wait until ready to drink, then add honey. In baked goods, substitute agave or maple syrup for honey. Modern Nutrition s Perspective Modern nutrition recommends to avoid eating heavy proteins and starches together, for example meet and potatoes. Animal proteins, such as meat and dairy products, should be eaten with nonstarchy vegetables. No fruit with proteins. Fruits and starchy vegetables should not be mixed together. Legumes are considered starches, so lentils and grains, although heavy, are OK, but have to be cooked with spices. It takes different enzymes to digest different types of foods. Proteins call for hydrochloric acid and pepsin to be released in the stomach contents for acid protein digestion (breaking down proteins into amino acids). Starch digestion begins in the mouth (with ptyalin from the saliva) and will continue in the stomach if no acid is released, to completely break down in the small intestines. This is why proteins and starches are more efficiently digested separately. This is important especially for the sick and weak, and persons with weak digestion. Resolving Cultural Culinary Confusion There are many traditional recipes in different cultures of the world that call for mutually contradictory foods. What do you make of Italian cuisine, if cheese and tomatoes are a bad match? One way to resolve cultural culinary confusion is through the Ayurvedic concept of "homeostasis (prakriti sthapana): our bodies are coded to do their best to maintain internal stability in order to survive, evolve, and thrive. They carry an intelligence that allows them to adjust and adapt in the face of challenging situations. When consuming contradictory foods that do not cause immediate reaction, the body finds ways to accept such diet. However, it does come at a price. You may not observe or experience anything right away, but in due course of time, down the line, depending on your body's weaknesses, it will result in deep tissue imbalance. To reduce the negative effects of improper food combining, you may add spices. Spices act as connecting links between ingredients and enhance metabolism. Even in small dozes, spices help reawaken the intelligence of tissues and organs. Conclusion Ayurveda considers not just what you eat today it also looks at how the food you eat today could affect your whole life. If you decide to make changes with your food, please consider the Ayurvedic approach of the go slow, one change at a time. The ancients say that one should not incorporate sudden, drastic changes if they make one unhappy. Life and eating is all about

6 balance, and balance is the prerequisite to happiness. So, unless you are deadly ill, don t suddenly devoid yourself of your favorite Italian dishes with cheese and nightshades. That would reduce happiness, and being unhappy is definitely not in balance. Instead, begin to incorporate healthy changes in your diet by first applying some of the food combining solutions, like using spices. Before you say, This is way too complicated, how will I ever figure out what to eat? introduce yourself to Ayurvedic food combining by following some of these guidelines: Eating in general. Avoid eating lots of raw and cooked foods together or fresh foods with leftovers. Implement one principle at a time. For example, start with eating fruit by itself. Once it becomes a habit, try another principle. A gradual introduction will train your body to discriminate when your desire to eat is based on true hunger, versus a habit of eating because you like to always feel full. Slowly eliminating inefficient combinations will help you to clearly recognize the impact that food is having on your body. Eating properly combined meals gradually restores physiological balance, opens the physical and vibrational channels, and awakens the body s natural intelligence to heal itself. The more open and clean your body is, the less it will tolerate diets or routines that counter the its innate intelligence and its flow with the rhythms of nature. And the more we are in rhythm with nature, the happier we are.

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