Food Combining Chart

The principles of food combining are dictated by digestive chemistry. Different foods are digested differently...

As any student of chemistry will assure you, acids and bases (alkalis) neutralize each other.

If you eat a starch with a protein, digestion is impaired or completely arrested!

The undigested food mass can cause various kinds of digestive disorders. Undigested food becomes soil for bacteria which ferment and decompose it.

Its by products are poisonous, one of which, alcohol, is a narcotic that destroys or inhibits nerve function.

It plays havoc with nerves of the digestive tract, suspending their vital action such that constipation may well be a result! As set forth in Dr. Herbert Shelton's FOOD COMBINING MADE EASY these are the salient rules for proper food combining.

Don't Eat High Protein with High Starch or Fruits

Don't Eat High Starch with High Proteins or Fruits

Don't Eat Fruits with High Proteins or High Starch

High Proteins Best with Non Starch Veggies

High Starch Best with Non Starch Veggies

Fruits Best with Non Starch Veggies

  

   
High-Starch Non-Starch Vegetables
(high-water content)		 High-Protein
(concentrated)		 Fruits
grains
pastas
rice
corn
potato (all)
turnip
squash
parsnip
beet
carrots
eggplant
avocado		 aspargus
broccoli
brussel sprouts
cabbage
cauliflower
celery, chives
cucumber
kale, kohlrabi
leeks
leafy greens
onions
peppers (all)
parsley, radishes
zucchini
watercress
green beans
artichokes
sea vegetables
dandelion greens
endive, okra
swiss chard		 beans
legumes
fish
poultry
wild game
meat (all)
seafood
seeds
nuts
dairy products		 apple
apricot
banana
berries
cherry
date
lemon*
grapefruit*
melons (all)*
mango
nectarine
pineapple
papaya
peach
pear
plum
tomatoe*
fig
orange*
* Citrus fruits and melons often do not mix well with other fruits. May best be eaten alone.

The Nine Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining:

1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion. 

2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion.

3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal.

4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial decomposition and produces some potent poisons.

5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion.

6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals.

7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach. 

8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food.

9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids.

Sweet Fruit
Banana, Carob, Date, Fig, Prune, Raisins, Dried fruit, Persimmon, Mango, Papaya, Sapote

Sub-Acid Fruit
Apple, Apricot, Blackberry, Cherimoya, Cherry, Elderberry, Gooseberry, Grape, Huckleberry, Nectarine, Peach, Pear, Plum, Quince, Raspberry, Sapodilla

Acid Fruit
Currant, Grapefruit, Guava, Kumquat, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Loganberry, Pineapple, Pomegranate, Strawberry, Tamarind, Tangerine, Tomato

Melons
Banana melon, Cantaloupe, Casaba, Christmas melon, Persian melon, Crenshaw melon, Watermelon, Honeydew melon, Muskmelon, Nutmeg melon

Proteins
Almonds, Cashew nuts, Hazel nuts, Hickory nuts, Lentils, Peanuts, Gooseberry, Avocados, Pecans, Pine nuts, Pistachio nuts, Soy beans, Walnuts, Sunflower seeds, Coconuts

Starches
Artichoke, Bean (lima)*, Beets, Chestnut, Carrots, Corn, Hubbard squash, Jerusalem artichoke, Peanuts*, Peas, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Yam

* Peanuts, lentils, beans, and all cereals are considered as protein and starch combinations

Non-Starchy Vegetables
Bamboo shoots, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Romaine, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Cucumber, Eggplant, Endive, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce: Boston, Bibb, Leaf, Romaine, etc., Okra, Parsnip, Pepper (sweet), Rutabaga, Sorrel, Sprouts: Mung bean, alfalfa, wheat, barley, etc., Squash (ex. starchy), Turnip.

Oricinally By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton