One of the fundamental aspects of a nourishing lifestyle is to maximize your body’s ability to digest and assimilate nutrients. Eating foods in combinations that promote optimal digestion empowers your body to use the nutrients to fuel biochemical reactions that promote health and wellness, rather than create inflammation, malabsorption, weakened intestinal wall, and an open door to infection and disease.
You can improve the digestibility of your meal by making these food combinations:
Protein and non-starchy vegetable
Organic chicken and kale salad
Wild-caught salmon with steamed peppers and onion
Grains/starchy veggies and non-starchy veggies
Brown rice with vegetable stir-fry
Sweet potato and asparagus
Oils and non-starchy veggies
Avocado and salad
Olive oil or coconut oil on steamed veggies
Fruit by itself
For example, animal foods need an acid environment to fully digest, whereas carbohydrate-rich foods need an alkaline environment to digest. When these foods are eaten together, like a steak and potato kind of meal, the protein and carbohydrates will create a neutral environment where both the protein and carbohydrate will not digest fully or correctly. Improper digestion can lead to digestive distress, food allergies, autoimmune disease, inflammatory diseases, toxicity, and more.
Knowing that protein and grain/carbohydrate combinations lead to improper digestion, you can see how lentils and beans get a bad reputation for being hard to digest. This is in part because of some sugars in beans that cause gas. Also present are enzyme inhibitors that prevent the bean from growing into a plant.
Read more: Mind Body Green
