The Beauty Detox: How Beauty Food Pairing Works

 extract from The Beauty Detox by Kimberly Snyder

The principle of Beauty Food Pairing is so powerful that it alone can change your entire life. When practiced properly, it will forever improve your beauty and health.

HOW BEAUTY FOOD PAIRING WORKS

In order to lose weight and look your most beautiful, you must free up energy from digestion. In addition to the foods we eat, we can increase or decrease Beauty Energy by the order in which we eat foods and the choice of foods we eat together.

One of the biggest ailments of the Western world is a chronic lack of energy. A lack of energy can lead to a viciously frustrating cycle of overeating, constant snacking, and reaching for sugary, caffeinated beverages, all in an attempt to feel more energetic and not have to struggle through the day. And, as you now know, a lack of energy makes you hold on to excess weight and look less beautiful. And why are we so tired? Because we’re not combining our foods properly.

Beauty Food Pairing is based on the science of how food digests optimally in the body. Different foods digest with different enzymes, and some call for more acidic or more al- kaline environments. Dr. Herbert M. Shelton is generally considered the foremost expert on food combining. He spent years studying the way digestive enzymes work to help break down foods, the primary basis for Beauty Food Pairing. As Dr. Shelton explains, “Every student of physiology is well aware that the digestive enzymes have certain well-defined limitations and that different digestive juices are secreted for use in digesting different kinds of food substances.”

During her thirty-five years of study in nutrition, Dr. Ann Wigmore, creator of the Living Foods Lifestyle, adamantly believed that “proper food combining is important for good health.” I took classes on food combining as part of the programs I attended at her institute in Rincón, Puerto Rico. The principles of food combining are also taught at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, a prestigious and world-famous natural healing center. Ivan Pavlov (well-known for his research about dogs and conditioned response) outlined the fundamental concepts of proper food combining in his book The Work of the Digestive Glands, first published in 1902. And Dr. Philip Norman, a prominent gastroenterologist and professor in his time, wrote about the principles of food combining and its key benefits, namely, making digestion more effective. The popular 1980s book Fit for Life, by natural hygienists Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, also advocates food combin- ing, as do many of Dr. Norman Walker’s writings.

So how does Beauty Food Pairing work? Let’s get right into it!

THE BEAUTY PAIRING RULES

BEAUTY RULE #1: OUR BODIES CAN PROPERLY DIGEST ONLY ONE CONCENTRATED, NON-WATER-CONTAINING FOOD AT A TIME

One way to think about eating simpler foods is to classify foods as concentrated and non-concentrated. Concentrated foods are foods that do not contain any water. They include all proteins and starches. Non-concentrated foods are water-containing foods. The only truly non-concentrated foods are ripe fruits and non-starch vegetables.

Non-Concentrated Foods
Ripe fruit
Non-starch vegetables

Concentrated Foods
All starches (grains, starchy vegetables, breads, etc.) All proteins (fish, chicken, meat, seeds, nuts, etc.)

To sum up, anything that is not a fruit or a non-starch vegetable is a concentrated food. Anything come to mind? Yes, I thought so! A few random examples are nuts, bagels, yogurt, toast, scrambled eggs, ice cream, flax crackers, peanut butter, lobster, etc.

The stomach secretes different kinds of juices when we eat different kinds of foods. Non- concentrated foods are much simpler for the body to digest than concentrated foods. We can handle most concentrated foods pretty well, but we can eat only one type at a time in order to maximize digestion. It is a huge Beauty Energy drain to ask our bodies to eat two different types of concentrated foods at one time. The two main types of concentrated foods that we will discuss first are starches and proteins, which leads us to the next Beauty Rule.

BEAUTY RULE #2: PROTEINS AND STARCHES DON’T MIX

As you read these words, perhaps some favorite or long-accepted food combinations pop into your head: bagels and cream cheese, turkey sandwiches, eggs with toast, sushi rolls, grilled fish and wild rice, filet mignon and potatoes au gratin, chicken pad thai. Yep, these are all improper food combinations.

To understand why protein and starches don’t pair well together, you have to understand how these concentrated foods digest.

PROTEIN: In the stomach a concentrated protein requires an acidic environment to be bro- ken down, an environment that includes hydrochloric acid and an enzyme called pepsin.

Now think back to high school chemistry class. What happens when an acid and an alkaline are put together? They neutralize each other. To use the words of Dr. Norman Walker, eating carbohydrates with protein at the same time results in a “serious chemical situation to contend with.”

Since the food is not breaking down naturally, what do our poor glands do next? Our stomach has to secrete more digestive juices to try to break down the food, but because there are still opposing digestive enzymes at work, they are neutralized again and again. The digestion of the carbohydrates is interfered with by the presence of the acidic digestive juices, and at the same time the proteins are prevented from digesting properly or completely in the presence of the alkaline digestive juices.

BEAUTY RULE #3: VEGETABLES ARE NEUTRAL

Vegetables are wonderful alkaline, non-concentrated foods. They are simple for our body to digest and are considered absolutely neutral. If you love roasted chicken or steamed tilapia fish, eat it along with some steamed vegetables and a raw green salad. If you are in the mood for a starchy dish, maybe some pasta salad or a baked yam, eat it with some vegetables.

BEAUTY RULE #4: MIXING TWO STARCHES IS OKAY
Even though starches are concentrated foods, they aren’t as complicated to digest as protein.

While simple meals are always best, two different starches are okay to eat at once.

BEAUTY RULE #5: MIXING TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANIMAL PROTEIN IS NOT OKAY

Proteins as a whole are the hardest food group to break down. Proteins are comprised of complex chains of amino acids, each with a very different character and chemical makeup. Our bodies must break down protein into amino acids in order to digest or assimilate them. Since the body has to concentrate so much energy on breaking down each protein, only one protein at a time should be consumed. Otherwise, the proteins will not fully and efficiently digest, and they will putrefy in the digestive tract.

Animal proteins are much more complex and difficult to break down than plant proteins, which include seeds, nuts and sea algae, and this means this rule is really only applicable to animal proteins. You can mix plant proteins without a problem, so, for example, having seeds and nuts together is fine. But surf and turf, eggs with ham, or an appetizer contain- ing fish followed by a chicken main dish are all bad combinations. Two kinds of fish or two kinds of poultry eaten together at the same meal are okay, but remember to keep meals as simple as possible to preserve Beauty Energy.

BEAUTY RULE #6: FATS SHOULD BE EATEN MODERATELY WITH PROTEIN (ANIMAL AND PLANT) BUT ARE OKAY TO EAT WITH CARBOHYDRATES

Fat mixes well with starches but has somewhat of an inhibiting effect on the digestion of protein. You can pair minimal amounts of fat with protein, but it is best not to eat a large amount of fat with any protein. Even if you are eating an all-raw meal, it is best not to mix a lot of nuts (protein) together with a whole avocado (fat)! This could prevent efficient weight loss. A plentiful supply of green vegetables can be used to counteract the interaction between a moderate amount of protein and raw fat. For instance, if you are having a piece of fish over a nice green salad, it is okay to have a little oil on the salad, but go easy on it and eat up a good portion of the alkaline greens first. But if weight loss is truly the goal, it would be best to skip the oil altogether and let the protein digest perfectly on its own!

BEAUTY RULE #7: FRUIT SHOULD BE EATEN ONLY ON AN EMPTY STOMACH

The first time I talked publicly about how to eat fruit was on one of my segments for Good Morning America. Millions of people watched the show, and dozens of people wrote to me afterward, fascinated to know more about how to properly eat fruit. It’s very simple: eat fruit on an empty stomach.

Fruit is considered the most divine and pure food on the planet. Fruit increases our vitality and delivers key vitamins, minerals and pure, filtered water into our bodies. However, when we eat fruit is key.

I am so excited for you to try out Beauty Food Pairing and experience the spectacular results for yourself. I have done my best to present to you the research and science that are out there to support Beauty Food Pairing, but remember that the best study out there in regards to this principle is to try it out for yourself! In a short amount of time you will see how well it truly does work. And isn’t that the most important thing? There will always be conflicting and confusing reports of “scientific evidence,” or lack thereof, with regard to nutritional information. But if you try something for yourself, and you see that it truly helps you lose weight and look and feel amazing—the way Beauty Food Pairing does—who cares about all the “noise” out there? Use it to your personal beauty and health advantage.

 ‘The Beauty Detox’ by Kimberly Snyder is available from all good bookshops and the iBookstore from 3^rd May