Eat Smart: Avoid These Bad Food Combinations For Your Body
Many people don’t know that certain foods don’t pair well, but we have been practicing the same food habits for decades. These dietary habits of combining certain foods can greatly harm the digestive process of the body and overall health. Certain combinations like citrus fruits with milk or starchy foods with protein may seem harmless, but these practices can create chaos in your body, leading to gas, acidity, bloating or malabsorption of nutrients. Traditions of Ancient India, such as Ayurveda, warn that consuming incompatible foods may accumulate toxins and disrupt the natural balance of the body.
In this blog, let’s discover wrong food combinations you should avoid to protect your gut and ensure optimal well-being.
1. Citrus fruits and Milk
Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and grapes are acidic (ascorbic acid). When these fruits are combined with milk (which is slow to digest or heavy), it lowers the pH, causing milk protein (casein) to curdle in the stomach, which may lead to distress in the gut like stomach ache, bloating, or nausea. Some people may experience allergic reactions, rashes or cold-like symptoms if they consume this combination frequently.
2. Tea with Poha
A perfect breakfast combination that everyone enjoys, but doesn’t know that this combination may have a health impact on their body. Tea contains compounds like tannin and calcium, which inhibit the absorption of iron present in Poha, which ultimately slows metabolism and digestion, causing digestive discomfort and nutrient deficiencies over time. It is recommended to keep a gap of 20 to 30 minutes between these two foods so that nutrient absorption is not hindered.
3. Curd with Meat
Dahi with Kebabs sounds like the most comforting food for non-vegetarians, but it is directly linked to digestive discomfort according to Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, eating curd with meat is discouraged because both are heavy to digest and have opposing energies. Meat is heating, and curd is cooling. This can disrupt digestion, leading to bloating and, accumulation of toxins in the body. You can switch Dahi with a mint and coriander chutney, and your stomach may probably thank you.
4. Orange juice with Breakfast cereal
The acidity of orange juice interferes with the enzymatic activity of the cereals, which is needed to break down carbohydrates in cereals and hence reducing the absorption activity of essential nutrients. Orange juice contains citric acid that may interfere with starch digestion, causing malabsorption and digestive discomfort. Also, orange juice contains a high amount of sugar, especially if that consists of added sugar, and if you are having this combination, you are making your sugar spike and destroying energy levels.
5. Starchy Foods with high protein foods
Starchy foods require alkaline conditions for digestion, while high-protein foods require acidic conditions; Consuming them together can slow down digestion because the body cannot produce both environments at the same time. This can lead to inefficient protein breakdown, resulting in digestive discomfort, bloating, or poor absorption of nutrients. For example, potato curry with chickpeas or kidney beans may cause gas and bloating due to digestive discomfort. Mixing these foods may reduce utilization of both protein and starch, potentially leading to production of irritants such as histamine.
Dt. Simran Kushwaha
Executive Nutritionist | The Nuva
References:
1. Viruddha Ahara (wrong food combination) – A Review. (https://jaims.in/jaims/article/view/1790)
2. Spoon-Fed: Why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong. (https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fu-hDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=wrong+food+combinations&ots=b18nWEE2Zz&sig=Xn0VUKgDe6yl9MlIggzaoKE8Mwg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=wrong%20food%20combinations&f=false)
3. Common Food Fallacies. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/7934?seq=1)
