Combining Fruit with Other Foods
We also need to consider the chemical properties of foods. Some foods digest well together, because they are compatible in how they are processed and assimilated. Other foods are better consumed away from each other.
We can simplify this idea by dividing fruit into four categories: Sweet, sub-acid, acid, and melons. It is recommended to “eat melons alone or leave them alone”. That is why we often consume melons as our first meal of the day. Sweet fruits combine well with other sweet fruits and sub-acid fruits. Sub-acid fruits combine well with sweet, sub-acid, and acid fruits. Acid fruits digest well with other acid fruits, and sub-acid fruits.
Sweet fruits tend to be dense fruits with less water content such as bananas, dates, sapote, figs, persimmons, and dried fruit. They often digest at a slower pace than high water content fruit. Sub-acid fruits have a slightly higher water content than sweet fruits. These include cherries, apples, papayas, mango, berries, stone fruit, and pears. Acid fruits tend to have a higher water content such as oranges, pineapple, strawberries, cranberries, pomegranate, and lemons. Melons, of course, have the highest percentage of water content, that is why they are eaten first and on their own.
On a different category, vegetables tend to combine well with each other. However, starchy vegetables like carrots and potatoes don’t tend to mix well with fruit. If we want to mix vegetables with fruit, it is best to use high water content vegetables like leafy greens and celery. These are much easier to mix with fruit because their water content is more compatible.
Nuts and seeds are also in different categories. We usually don’t mix these foods with fruit because they have a lower water content and a high fat content. Eating them together would be like sending fast and slow drivers into the highway at the same time.
Combinations like almonds with bananas are likely to cause indigestion and gas. When eating nuts and seeds, we recommend ingesting a small amount, away from fruits and other foods, except for high water content vegetables such as leafy greens and celery.
Food combining is experienced differently by different people, some may be more sensitive to it than others. I know my father has an easier time digesting random combinations, I have no idea why. Everyone is different, and each of us must find our own way.
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