Recipes - Food Combining Diets

There are many styles of food combining diets being used around the world, in an attempt to diet those extra pounds that many people are carrying around with them. The trouble with many food combining style diets however, is that there is very little scientific research available to back them up, or give details as to the nutritional safety of the diets.

Popular diets

Two very popular food combining diets include the Atkins Diet, and The Hay Diet. Atkins dieters go through four phases, each of varying degrees of carbohydrate elimination.

The Atkins diet

In the first phase of Atkins, “Induction”, you are only allowed to eat up to 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, mainly in vegetables, a few bites of potatoes or carrots for example, although both of these vegetables are very high in carbohydrates, so you will not get to eat many during the first few stages of Atkins! The second phase of Atkins, “Ongoing Weight Loss”, is how you find out the amount of carbohydrates your personal body type can include in your diet and still lose weight. In phase three, “Pre-Maintenance”, you will get to add carbohydrates to your intake, and in the fourth and final phase of the Atkins diet plan, “Lifetime Maintenance”, you are only restricted by the idea that the processed carbohydrates are “bad carbohydrates”, and they should be avoided if not eliminated from your diet altogether. The reason that people lose weight when doing the Atkin’s diet, is because our bodies switch from the burning of carbohydrates to the burning of fat for energy, which results in losing weight. You can find recipes and meal planning information on the Atkins web site to help you when you are first getting started on the Atkin’s diet. (http://www.atkins.com)

The south beach diet

Similar to the Atkin’s diet is the South Beach Diet - which focuses on a reduction of starchy carbohydrates, but allows much more fruit than Atkin’s.

The 'Hay Way' diet

The Hay diet is another food combining diet that started because of the belief by Dr. William Hay in the early 1900’s that human beings are not supposed to eat more than one type of food at a time- that our bodies can’t digest it properly. For example, the doctor claimed that proteins and carbohydrates eaten at the same time will result in poor elimination of wastes, contributing to weight gain. Some people feel the Hay diet is quite healthy since the majority of your food intake will be vegetables and fruits, like potatoes, carrots, apples, salads- just not at the same time. People who have tried the Hay diet often lose weight, although they say it is somewhat hard to follow because there are so many do’s and don’ts of the foods that you can eat at the same time, that it becomes hard to keep track of what is “ok” and what is “not ok”.

Combining

You can find food combining diets that have all varieties of foods restricted, allowed, or combinations of foods that can and cannot be eaten together. Some diets have you eat nothing but fruit, while others claim that you should eat only vegetables. Some diet plans call for meat, while others are strictly vegetarian.

Whenever you are considering a new diet plan, you should check with your doctor to see if you will get the proper nutrition and vitamins from the meals allowed with the diet you want to try. In many cases, dieters of food combining diets have to take supplements to make sure they have all the vitamins they need to be healthy. Cooking and finding recipes is easier now with the use of the internet, so you shouldn’t run out of food ideas for any type of diet you are interested in trying!