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Thank you for visiting! Walking the Walk is meant to be a source to assist you in your quest for a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Through my own lifestyle, I hope to give you creative ideas that make adopting a healthier, more holistic lifestyle as enjoyable and easy for you as possible!

Monday, November 14, 2011

No, You Shouldn't Order that Taco Salad: A Lesson in Food Combining

Allow me to introduce the Taco Salad:


Yes, Taco Salad may look darn tasty but did you know that it may actually be wreaking havoc on your digestive system and contributing to that lower abdominal bulge?  Yes, sorry to say, Taco Salad is a food combination nightmare!

Proper food combining is the technique of placing together certain food groups for maximum digestion that allows the foods to be broken up as quickly as possible so that they can make a speedy exit through your system and not sit in your bowels, fermenting for days.  Fermentation of lingering food not only causes you to be uncomfortable (think bloating, flatulence and constipation) but it also feeds that annoying Candida and contributes to its overgrowth in the body.

I know this all seems very bleak, but there is some good news here! Food combining is actually incredibly, astronomically, magnificently EASY!  It all boils down to this simple rule: flesh with vegetables or starch with vegetables.  Since Taco Salad combines ground beef (flesh) with refried beans (starch) and rice (starch) and vegetables it is not proper food combining (see previous paragraph).


So, if you want a chicken breast (flesh) you can enjoy it with steamed broccoli and a mixed greens salad (vegetables).  Or, if you happen to feel like a pizza (starch), you can enjoy it with all the vegetable toppings you'd like, you just have to hold the meat.  You see, when meat and starch are present at the same meal they will bind to each other and slow both of their passage through your GI tract, contributing to your feeling of abdominal discomfort.  But when they are kept well away from each other, things will continue along swimmingly.  Please note though, that cow dairy is bad no matter which way you combine it so you're best giving it up in favor of a non-dairy alternative (click here to see my almond mylk recipe).  Fruit should always be eaten on its own, far away from meals (first thing in the morning is best).

Here is a handy chart to give you a basic understanding:


Flesh
Starches
Neutral
Organic Chicken breast

Baked Sweet potato
All raw vegetables
Organic Fish/seafood
Baked squashes (butternut, acorn, spaghetti)

All cooked vegetables (that are not starches)
Organic, cage-free eggs
Baked Yams

Lemons
Grass-fed, hormone-free, organic meat
Millet, Quinoa or Buckwheat (all GF)

Himalayan Rock Salt

Avocados
Almond Milk


 Beans
Raw Chocolate


So, you can choose either a flesh or a starch and combine them with any neutral ingredients to make up a meal that leaves both your stomach and your waist-line happy!

Happy combining!

2 comments:

  1. Hey, Jas! Funny you wrote about this. The other day someone offered me their taco salad but, I had to refuse on the grounds of preserving my Spleen Qi! From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective it's terrible for the Spleen Qi: mixes meat, cheese and creamy sauce with raw (lettuce, tomatoes, carrots) all of which are taxing on the spleen and, therefore digestion! You're right about it causing a lower abdominal bulge for sure!
    - Talia

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  2. Thanks so much for commenting, Talia! I'm so glad you're reaping the benefits of good food combining and TCM practices :) Here's to many more days without abdominal bulge!

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