Healthy Comfort Food

Let's cut to the chase. The final weeks of the year can be a tough time for sugar addicts and emotional eaters. Really tough. All those foods that you work so hard to avoid all the other 50 weeks of the year are literally surrounding you! Dark-chocolate-covered almonds at the pharmacy. Cakes and cookies at work. Cheese platters and cracker assortments and sweet drinks galore - even in your own kitchen! (How did that happen?) It can be daunting; it can make you want to throw in the towel. As one client put it, "I don't want to do the diet. It feels like a punishment."

How did we create a world where eating fresh juicy salads, tangy fruit smoothies, creamy avocados, savory raw goat cheeses, sweet garnet yams and quality dark chocolate feels like a punishment?

Clearly, it's not about food, it's about feelings. Feelings are what emotional eating is all about.

To begin, we have EMOTIONAL TIES to certain foods, ties based on our childhood associations and past experiences with these foods and ties based on messages we receive from family, media and society about what these foods represent. "Denying" ourselves these foods cuts to the quick of our inner child. Ouch.

Second, we USE FOOD AS A DRUG, to cover up, numb and avoid our feelings. Eat this, forget your problems (you know the drill). Better yet, have a brand new problem to distract you (you choose: stomach ache, weight gain, despair, guilt, shame, etc.)

Emotional eating comes to a head during holidays because these ritualized moments and events bring up a lot of feelings. Hard feelings for many of us. Our hearts may feel practically ripped open as we are forced to confront personal loss, stressful family dynamics, workplace pressures, cultural expectations and social conditioning all at the same time. No wonder we want to stuff the world into oblivion!

Food doesn't really help, though. We all know this. So the trick is to learn how to negotiate our feelings, recognize our needs and find alternatives.

Blogs, books, counseling all can help. That's why I'm here, dedicating these pages to supporting you. And I am just one of many. When you feel like you are "failing" at following your program, there is a lot of support for you. You are not alone.

Always remember, YOU CAN DO IT! You can achieve your highest potential, you can have the healthy, sane, balanced relationship with food that you KNOW, in your heart of hearts, is your birthright! Your natural, radiant state of being is part of you RIGHT NOW!

Understanding what foods best serve the health of your body-mind-spirit is an important and necessary step in this process. In order to be healthy, you must base your diet upon the evolution-appropriate, fresh natural foods for which the human body was designed. That's just the bottom line, and you know what I'm talking about! It's not factory-generated chicken eggs, or protein bars, or 100-calorie packs of canola-fried tortilla chips or even low-fat ice cream that will help you lose weight and feel great! No matter how much the diet and food industries want you to believe otherwise, you KNOW what is real food, and that's the food you need to THRIVE.

One of my favorite nutritionists, Natalia Rose, addresses this issue in Part One of her newly released e-book, available to members of the Detox the World Community. The following quote made me lol; I share it with you here:

“My friends, no other species in history eats according to a clock or from a package, or chooses their food based on the numbers on a label or the persuasive powers of a commercial! Can you imagine a bunch of bunnies huddled around a TV screen determining what to eat after watching an ad for Mr. McGregor’s carrot chips–or buying into the olestra version? Yes, in our culture, we’d rather consume indigestible fats and have gas an diarrhea than go without our potato chips! Olestra is right up there with saccharine, margarine, and fat-free milk products–marketed as healthful to the addicted, hypnotized masses. This is your brain on social conditioning!”

(Natalia Rose, Emotional Eating SOS Part 1, page 20.)

Can't you just picture those crazy bunnies?!? It's funny because we all know they know better. And so do we.

Overcoming emotional eating involves exercising our intelligence and experience, breaking free of what the mainstream tells us is "good for us" and realizing that our bodies desire something different, something more TRUE and LIFE-GENERATING. Real food. That is the diet piece. It is not the only piece of the puzzle, but it is an important one.

There will always be situations that drive us to seek comfort outside of ourselves. As we progress on our path of wisdom and self-knowledge, we learn ways to cope with these situations that actually help to move through the feelings, even beyond the feelings so that we can solve the underlying problem! These ways do not harm us, they do not sabotage our efforts to be healthy, they allow us to be clear and to attain and maintain our ideal weight.

Of course naturally, in the meantime, we have to eat something! Sometimes, we have to eat a LOT of something. May that something really serve you. May it move through your body with a quickness, leaving little or no waste residue behind. You may need food to help you get through today, but choose wisely and it won't ruin your tomorrow.

My number one rule of thumb is this: you can't go wrong with vegetables. Vegetables are the best health food, the best diet food, the best alkalinizing food, the best food period for humans to eat. Choose your favorites, and when the need arises, eat piles of them. Steamed broccoli and cauliflower and summer squashes, baked roots and winter squashes, beets and parsnips and leafy greens. Serve them with spices, seasonings, butter or flaxseed oil, Himalayan pink salt (my favorite!), or even a sauce (mushroom-garlic-tomato sautée anyone?) Fill up on these foods when you need to EAT. Add salads, add avocado, or substitute raw goat cheese or fish for the starchy veggies. Eat well, and be well.

Here is a list of incredibly tasty comfort foods that help to hit the spot without derailing your best intentions. With deference to Food Combining guidelines, may you enjoy them with gusto!


MEALS

Baked Garnet Yams, served with flaxseed oil or organic butter and sea salt.

A bowlful of Baked Beets topped with pesto if you like, or raw goat cheese.

Organic Vegetable Soup, canned, loaded up with leftover veggies or chopped greens and curry paste

Practically Raw Miso Soup


SNACKS

Dulse seaweed, right out of the bag!

1 or 2 Bananas + 1-2 Tablespoons Raw Almond Butter.

3-4 Medjool dates + a big handful of raw cashews.

Raw carrots dipped in Ginger-Miso dressing.

Raw Goat Cheese, plain or stuffed into leaves (romaine, endive, raddichio).

One Avocado, sprinkled with Herbamare or Spike. Eat out of the shell, or wrap in a nori sheet.



WARM CREAMY DRINKS

Freshly blended or packaged Almond Milk with cinnamon. Sweeten if desired.

"Cereal Coffee" (Pero, Inka, Cafix) with agave or raw honey and Coconut Creamer. (A new product that, while processed, makes a decent alternative to pasteurized Half and Half.)

Nut/Seed-Based Green Smoothie


DESSERTS

Organic Dark Chocolate (70%+) or Sacred Chocolate or other Raw Chocolate Bar

Instant Fudge (1 teaspoon each: raw almond butter, raw cacao powder, agave or maple syrup)

Instant Halvah (equal parts raw tahini and raw honey)

Frozen Banana "Ice Cream" (use juicer Blank or a regular blender + patience!)

Frozen Berry Sorbet (just whir frozen berries in blender - quick and sweet!)

The Joys of Being a High Raw Pescatarian and Paradise Found Thai Red Curry, Tomato & Mushroom Bisque

I like to describe my diet as High Raw Pescatarian, a term I humbly admit I coined myself. The term "pescatarian" is defined as "vegetarian plus fish," with vegetarian meaning plant foods, dairy foods & eggs but no corpses (mammal, insect, fish or bird).

In short, being High Raw Pescatarian means I eat primarily Raw Plant Foods and some Cooked Plant Foods plus a few Raw (and sometimes Cooked) Animal Foods. The main animal foods I enjoy are raw cheeses made with goat or sheep milk. (I feel so fortunate to live in the Pioneer Valley where local dairies like Hillman Farm, Blue Ledge Farm, Consider Bardwell Farm and Vermont Shepherd are creating the most delicious gourmet artisinal goat and sheep cheeses on the planet.) In addition to raw goat and sheep cheese, from time to time I may also partake of fresh sushi, cooked seafood and free-range/organic eggs.

These are the basic ingredients of the High Raw Pescatarian diet. And then there are the "extras," also known as the spice of life–from Himalayan Pink Salt to freshly ground black pepper and beyond. Some of these extras are raw and some are not but for me, all are essential. I know anything is possible... but what natural food chef would choose to be without miso (a living, probiotic-rich fermented food)? Not to mention countless other tasty condiments such as Dijon mustard, curry paste, organic powdered soup broth and Spike, Gayelord Hauser's famed vegetable salt blend that’s been around for decades. (Hauser, nutritionist to Hollywood screen stars of the 1930's and '40's, was one of the first Health Nuts of the modern era.) These treasures are part of my stealth flavor arsenal and, when called upon to serve, add marvelous complexity to the taste of my otherwise simple food.

The pleasure of pure, natural tastes and the excitement of complex flavorings coexist joyfully on my path of progress towards a clean-celled body humming with life force energy. Sometimes, all I crave is the creamy sweetness of plain, unadorned avocado, eaten right out of the shell, like a melon. Other times, I must take my mouth for a ride by sprinkling the avocado halves with Spike or Herbamare before digging in with my spoon. Truly, I find that a little pinch of condimental surprise makes the raw journey so much fun that my kitchen almonst feels like an adventure playground!

Well, last night when I entered the playground, inspiration struck. It all started with a package of organic white button mushrooms. I had planned to serve these pillowy orbs thickly sliced on a bed of watercress and mixed greens, dressed perhaps with a lemon-basil vinaigrette. That would have been good. But I’ve been experimenting a lot with making raw blended soups for supper, and suppertime it was. The mushroom salad was not to be.

Often when making raw blended vegetable soups, I’ll add about a quarter cup of raw cashews for creaminess. However, depending on how much density I’m in the mood for or what else I am having with respect to food combining, I may not want to use nuts. Other thickening options include avocado, chia seeds and chia gel (my upcoming book on this fabulous superfood supplies plenty of chia details and recipes–stay tuned for updates on the release date).

Finding myself fresh out of chia gel, it was to my trusty avocado I turned last night when concocting (no doubt with the assistance of divine forces) the thick, nut-free curried tomato and mushroom bisque you’ll find below. I must share it with you. You must try it. You will thank me. I promise.


Paradise Found Thai Red Curry, Tomato & Mushroom Bisque

This soup is indescribably delicious. Just one spoonful will send your taste buds into paroxysms of euphoria. I’m not kidding. Prepare to be transfixed. Warning: If you generally prefer sitting down to eat, get settled at table before tasting or you may never make it! I finished my bowl standing up, it was that good.

Makes 2 Bowls

1 8-ounce package white mushrooms
1 cup cherry tomatoes (or roughly chopped fresh tomato)
½ cup roughly chopped red onion
½ avocado
¼ cup minced cilantro, set aside
1 Tablespoon lemon juice or lime juice
1 Tablespoon raw coconut oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger or galangal root
1 teaspoon red curry paste (I use Mae Ploy brand)
1 Tablespoon nama shoyu or wheat free tamari
1 Tablespoon fish sauce (optional; replace with 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast or 1 teaspoon Marmite if vegetarian)
1 cup warm water (<118˚ F)
chopped fresh basil or cilantro leaves, for garnish

Set aside 2 large mushrooms, minced cilantro and garnish. Add everything else to blender and blend until smooth. Finely chop reserved mushrooms and stir into bisque, along with minced cilantro. If desired, warm gently to about 105˚ on stovetop, using a thermometer and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon till desired temperature reached. Pour bisque into two bowls, garnish with a sprinkle of chopped basil or cilantro and serve.

Parsley Pumpkin Seed Paté Roll-Ups

As a follow-up to my last blog on the Properly Combined Sandwich where I discussed how we don't want to eat bread (starch) and protein at the same meal, I thought I'd share a yummy and fun sandwich-like protein-combo lunch meal: nori roll-ups with a delicious filling of rich, savory seed cheese (protein) and chopped salad. Earlier today, a client was curious about how to make both seed cheese and nori rolls, so I decided to post a little step-by-step excursion here. You'll find the recipe for Parsley Pumpkin Seed Paté at the end.

Learning to make soaked seed/nut "cheeses" and patés is one of the best culinary steps I ever made. Since seeds are easier to digest, less expensive and less allergenic than most tree nuts, I like to focus on them. Soaked raw seeds and nuts offer the advantage of activated enzymes that initiate the breakdown of nut/seed proteins into amino acids (pre-digestion). As a bonus, they move through the body far more quickly than plain unsoaked seeds/nuts, nut butters and hummus or bean spreads. The spreads I make taste different every time depending on what seeds or nuts and seasonings I use, and are always fabulously satisfying.

To make Parsley Pumpkin Seed Paté Roll-Ups, first prepare your paté (easy recipe below) and your chopped salad, lightly dressed. My salad contained romaine, baby spinach, roma tomato and fresh garlic, all chopped and tossed with a tasty dressing of balsamic vinegar, mustard, novella olive oil, sea salt, agave and herbs.

Note: the packet of 50 nori sheets pictured above was purchased for only $7.99 at my wonderful local Asian/World food market. Sadly, the same sheets cost significantly more at the health food store. Many communities harbor these treasure trove Asian food stores - I am very grateful for mine. (This is where I learned from a master how to open a young coconut. Very easy once you know the secret!)

Step One: Lay nori sheet flat and spread a line of pumpkin seed cheese along the base (left/lower roll below). Leave room at the sides as contents will smush outward when you roll up. (FYI, you could lay out thick slices of avocado instead of seed paté - but not avocado and nuts/seeds in the same roll, please - too heavy!)


Step Two: Add a few spoonfuls of chopped salad (upper roll above), again keeping the one inch at each end free of filling.

Step Three: Stand behind the filling side of the roll and start rolling! (Don't worry about perfection, a few lumps are not a problem and after a little practice, you'll be an expert.) Just before you get to the end, dip your finger in cold water and wet the top edge of the sheet to help seal, then finish the roll.

Step Four: Plate, add raw veggie garnishes* and voila! Lunch is served. Bon appetit!


Parsley Pumpkin Seed Paté

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, soaked 2-4 hours and drained
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 lemon's juice
3 Tbs cold-pressed raw olive oil
1 tsp raw coconut oil (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (about 3 stalks)
black pepper to taste
about 1/4 cup water, more or less as needed

Place pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, garlic and sea salt in food processor, then pulse and process with S blade into a fine meal consistency. Add lemon juice and oils and begin to process. As needed, add just enough water to help get things rolling smoothly. Process for several minutes until very well combined and creamy, pausing from time to time and using a spatula to bring everything down into the center until it really catches. When the paté is very creamy and seems finished, add parsley and black pepper and pulse-process until mixed through. Store refrigerated, either in a container to use as spread or, if you want to be fancy, as a log, like chevre. (To do this, use clean hands and shape into log form; roll in additional parsley or black pepper if desired; wrap in waxed paper or plastic film.) Keeps up to 5 days.

* One summer long ago, I worked at Friendly's as a waitress. Part of my job was to garnish the plates with pickles and parsley before taking them out to the customers. "Don't forget your pickles and parsley!" was the rallying cry of my manager. Of course, we would only use a tiny sprig of parsley, but I remember thinking how that brave little sprig, the only living thing on the plate, was no doubt the healthiest item on the menu.

The Properly Combined Sandwich

I adore fresh salads and generally rely upon them as my midday meal of choice. But sometimes I get tired of eating salad every afternoon, simply because I want to take a break from using utensils! In such cases, I want my salad to be somehow contained in a neat tidy package, so I can pick it up and just bite in with freedom and abandon. What I really want is... a sandwich!

Of course, sandwiches are usually made with bread, a food item that rarely appears in my dietary repertoire. This is why I love the Veggie Wrap concept. Any salad combo can be rolled into a nori sheet or large green leaf (think cabbage, collard or romaine) to create a satisfying sandwich sub.

Typically when I don't want the salad in a bowl, I wrap it up this way. But there are days when I crave something more substantial to accompany my fresh raw greens, something chewy and grainy...hmmm. What could that be? Bread, perhaps?

We all know that a standard sandwich involves bread plus a protein filling, say peanut butter, cheese or meat. The problem here is that, as explained in an earlier post, eating bread with protein is a no-no. Starches don't combine well with proteins due to the conflicting types of digestive enzyme environments they require (alkaline for starches, acid for proteins). Eating them together overburdens the digestive system, saps your energy for hours to follow and can lead to gas, bloating and weight gain. The best thing to combine with starches (or proteins, for that matter) is vegetables alone. So what's a lunchtime sandwich craver to do?

Enter the Properly Combined Sandwich (PCS). Basically, this is simply a raw vegetable sandwich on whole grain bread with condiments and avocado, if desired. (The veggies are usually raw but you can use cooked veggies as well from time to time.) To my knowledge, the official PCS title was coined by Harvey Diamond, a natural hygiene proponent, in his bestselling 1985 book Fit for Life. You'll see it used by many others as well, because, well, the concept is here to stay!

So. To create a Properly Combined Sandwich, start with the highest quality 100% sprouted grain bread or 100% whole spelt bread (or wraps) available. Perhaps your local natural bakery can be of service here. If not, both the Alvarado Street Bakery and Food for Life companies make tasty sprouted grain breads, bagels and tortillas that may be found in the freezer section of many grocery stores across the country.

Next, consider fillings. While raw veggies like tomato, lettuce, sprouts are famous typical sandwich supporting players, in the Properly Combined Sandwich they earn starring roles. And top billing goes to that most creamy and delectable of starch-friendly vegetable-fruits, the avocado. (I eat avocados every day I can get my hands on them - they are one of my favorite foods...)

Condiments like stone ground or dijon mustard, organic salsa and miso can also be important features in the Properly Combined Sandwich. Spread a little mustard on your sprouted grain bread, add a layer of sliced avocado and pile high with veggies of your choice: spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, tomato, sprouts, grated carrot, chopped garlic, parsley, red onion, cilantro - the sky's the limit.

I recommend eating one or two open faced sandwiches rather than a single two-slice number to maximize your raw veggie intake. Place a flat leaf of lettuce on top if you need something to hold onto. Alternatively, toss a raw salad with your favorite dressing, add avocado and spoon into a sprouted grain tortilla lightly spread with mellow white miso. Roll, wrap and eat - incredible! Or fill a corn tortilla with chopped lettuce, avocado, green onion and salsa to create a soft taco style sandwich.

A Properly Combined Sandwich is fresh, colorful and delicious. Best of all, it digests beautifully, so it won't cause you to bloat up or gain excess weight. In fact, you may even lose weight eating this way. And with so many veggies to use for fillings, the Properly Combined Sandwich never gets boring! Just remember to save any dense protein items (hummus, raw goat cheese, almond butter) for your starch-free green leaf and nori wraps.

Food Combining Part Two: Reunited!

Gosh - where does the time go? It seems I just posted that last blog and suddenly it's a month later. My apologies to Sarah P. and all my other dear readers for this delay. OK - here we go with Part Two of my Exciting Adventures in Food Combining!

We left off in the late 1970's, with me as a newly minted vegetarian and fledgling raw fooder, about to leave the comfortable nest of home and embark on life. Fast forward two decades and a bundle of dietary evolution. It’s a rainy day near the end of the millennium and I’m staying dry by hanging out in Barnes & Noble, browsing the health section (of course). Still somewhat of a nutritional iconoclast (but thankfully less so, as Whole Foods culture is spreading nicely into the wider population) I must admit I haven't given much thought to Food Combining in some time. So: imagine my delight at finding the decidedly non-fringe, celebrity personality, Suzanne Somers, promoting this VERY approach in Eat Great, Lose Weight, the initial book in her “Somersize” series!

Somers' book was the first official mention of food combining that I, personally, had seen since my early health-seeking days. Of course, if I had been paying any attention to mainstream culture in the 1980’s, I surely could not have missed Fit for Life, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond’s massive bestseller whose sensible nutritional lifestyle program promotes food combining as a core foundational principle. Anyway, there in the homey glow of the cozy Barnes and Noble aisles, on that dark and rainy day, I stood entranced, gobbling up Suzanne’s choice tidbits with hungry glee. I especially remember being thrilled by her sophisticated European initiation into the mysteries of food combining, originally presented to her as a means for lasting weight loss and digestive support.

OK, so that was exciting, and then life went on. More years passed with no food combining encounters until 2005, not coincidentally the year my first book came out, as I was investigating other detox books for comparison. That search led me to Natalia Rose’s The Raw Food Detox Diet, where food combining principles appear under the alias “Quick Exit Combinations.”

I am eternally grateful to Natalia Rose for her brilliant book, as it helped lead me back full circle to raw foods, properly combined meals, and the superior health and energy I currently enjoy. (Meanwhile, as with all things Natalia, her pared-down, Quick-Exit version of food combining is one of the most practical and easy to follow, hence highly recommended.)

So, that’s my story, minus about ten thousand details! But the point is, and what I find extremely interesting in all this, is that food combining keeps coming around – whether it’s the 1940’s, the 1970’s or the 2000’s. Even more curious is that while a small number of insightful authors and nutrition experts across the decades have placed food combining at the very epicenter of their programs, many more, if not most others completely ignore it! Typically, hard science disregards food combining entirely. For example, my rigorous graduate degree program in human nutrition focused intensely on nutritional biochemistry and evidence-based nutritional therapeutics, but made no mention of food combining, despite the fact that it is reputed to have helped improve the health and digestion of thousands of people!

This begs the question, is food combining simply a pop culture fad that just won’t die–an unproven philosophy grounded in common sense wisdom but not science? Or is it something more?

After much thought, research and personal experimentation, I would have to answer no to the first question, and yes to the second. There is a great deal of truth and scientific validity in food combining, but for some reason, we don’t have many studies to back it up. And in this day and age, “sound science,” as both phraseology and concept, is often considered synonymous with and dependent upon published research studies.

I differ with this definition of “real” science as, in my understanding, the scientific method in its pure and original form is a method based on OBSERVATION, not corporate funded research. Hence, if we can OBSERVE results in our own body through the practice of food combining, we have the makings of a scientifically sound principle.

The purpose of food combining is elegantly simple: to FREE UP ENERGY in the body by SUPPORTING EFFICIENT DIGESTION and assimilation of food. This intended outcome is easy to observe from day to day, particularly in those with irritable bowel, GERD or other issues of digestive distress, as well as those who have trouble losing weight or suffering from chronic low energy. The quick results you get with food combining make it a perfect candidate for personal scientific experimentation. As a bonus, no laboratory is needed, other than one’s own body!

As noted in my previous post, two of the most important food combining rules are to eat fruit alone, and to eat starches and proteins at separate meals. There are numerous exceptions, though (for instance, DRIED fruits combine well with nuts), and countless "sub-rules" as well, in which I urge you to not get too entangled. Apply the basics, see how you feel, and take it from there.

Basic Food Combining Principles Chart © 2008 Diana Allen, MS, CNS

To help you get started, here's a chart that outlines the basic principles. Use it as a visual aid to see what goes with what. Feel free to combine foods in immediately connecting categories, and avoid eating foods from unattached categories. Above all, have fun with it!

May this and all your dietary efforts serve to increase your health and happiness.

Yours in the abundant light of wellness,

Diana ☺

Food Combining Part One: An Introduction

Have you ever heard of food combining? Long ago or lately, it’s a seriously sensible idea whose time is always coming, but never yet quite here. Strange, considering the very real, and almost instantaneous results one gets from practicing this age-old art and science.

I first became aware of food combining principles when I was a high school student exploring vegetarianism and raw food nutrition. Today it may seem hard to imagine, but back in the 1970’s, these dietary approaches were considered extremely radical by most people, my loving parents included (“What, give up meat? Preposterous!”), so there wasn’t much in the way of support or information to be found. However, by having the good fortune to come in contact, at age fifteen, with Viktoras Kulvinskas’ extraordinary raw food bible Survival Into the 21st Century and, soon after, Herbert M. Shelton’s 1940 booklet Food Combining Made Easy, I was exposed early on to the nuts and bolts of food combining.

And what kinds of nuts and bolts are these, you ask? (Or nuts and fruits, as the case may be?) Well, there are more than a few, but the basics are pretty simple.

The science of food combining holds that, first of all - and in most cases - fruits are best eaten alone, to help avoid their fermentation in the gut.

Food combining also requires that starches and proteins be eaten at separate meals, due to the different digestive enzyme environments (acidic vs alkaline) that these two macronutrient categories require. (Individually, both starches and proteins combine excellently with salads and low-starch vegetables such as onions, broccoli and kale.)

A third important food combining rule states that after eating a properly combined meal from any given category (i.e. fruit, starch or protein), one should wait a designated amount of time before eating any additional food (i.e. thirty minutes after a fruit meal, three hours after a starch meal and four hours after a protein combo) in order to allow the meal to pass completely out of the stomach - again, in order to prevent fermentation, incomplete digestion, gastric upset and other unwanted results.

As a young student of nutrition, I studied these basic guidelines, along with reams of more esoteric details, and strived to follow all to the letter. This lasted a short period, as I soon grew tired of the effort. (I guess at my age, there understandably were already too many confusing rules and “shoulds” in my life.) However, I did naturally incorporate and maintain some of the broader tenets, such as eating fruit separately from veggies, and generally applied certain other rules, often expressed in catchy slogans such as, “Eat milk alone or let it alone!” and my favorite, “Desert the desserts!”

So, that was my introduction to the art & science of food combining. This concludes Part One of this blog topic, as I must now return to planning my upcoming talk on the subject, to be held next Wednesday, October 15th at Green Fields Market!

Until next time, may you be blessed with radiant health,
Diana

Click here to read Part Two of this article.