In Ayurveda, how we combine foods together is of great importance to our digestion. We hold a focus on having wholesome fresh foods, put together in a way that is simple and easy for our body to digest.
There are certain foods that do not pair well together and can disrupt the digestive process. Poor food combinations can lead to many common digestive complaints such as fermentation, indigestion, bloating and gas.
It may surprise you to find that many popular meals promoted in modern health and nutrition, aren’t always considered the best food combinations. Some of these combinations might even be staples in your diet (I know they were for me) and can be hard to let go of at first.
Some common poor food combinations:
~ Fruit with muesli and yoghurt
~ Smoothies or smoothie bowls
~ A milky drink with a piece of fruit or muesli bar
~ Raw salads with fruit, vegetables and legumes
~ Cheese platters with fruit, meat, and nuts & seeds
~ Meat, fish or egg dishes with legumes or dairy
Whilst having poor food combinations occasionally may not seem like a big deal, the effects can accumulate over time and lead to an excess of ‘ama’ or toxins in the body. As well as weaken our ‘Ojas’ which is our body’s natural sense of immunity, resilience, and vitality.
Start to tune in to your own body and notice how you feel when you combine certain foods together. Once you start implementing some of these changes, you may find your digestive system rebalancing and you naturally gravitate away from these habits.
Food Combinations To Consider:
Fruit
Compatible: best enjoyed alone or at least 2 hours away from other food as a light snack. Eat melons alone without other fruit.
Incompatible: milk, grains, legumes, yoghurt, cheese, eggs, nuts & seeds. The only exception is dates or small amount of cooked fruit with grains.
Milk
Compatible: milk is best enjoyed alone or with grains, dates, almonds.
Incompatible: fruit (except dates), legumes, meat, salt, sour fruits such as lemons & limes.
Grains
Compatible: legumes, vegetables, cooked fruit, dates.
Incompatible: milk, eggs, raw fruit, bananas, citrus.
Legumes
Compatible: grains, vegetables,
Incompatible: milk, eggs, cheese, yoghurt.
Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers)
Compatible: other vegetables, grains, legumes
Incompatible: milk, cheese, yoghurt, citrus.
A Special Note on Fruit:
Fruit digests very quickly in the body and when it is combined with other foods, its digestibility is inhibited and slowed down. When combined with other foods, fruit gets stuck in the digestive tract and starts to ferment – causing ‘ajeerna’ or undigested food waste that gets stuck in the body.
Generally, it is best to have fruit alone as a separate meal, on an empty stomach. I usually enjoy fruit for breakfast or as a light snack in between meals. When having fruit, it is best to only have 2-3 fruits together at one time (keep things simple) and if having melons, have them alone as they digest even faster than other fruit.
When having fruit as a breakfast meal, I like to enjoy a fresh fruit bowl in the warmer months of the year with 2-3 summer fruits and in the colder months of the year, I love cooked fruit such as stewed apples with warming spices.
One exception to this is dates which are considered an Ayurvedic superfood and have a unique quality called ‘prahbava’ and can be combined with almost any other foods. You can have dates with milk, grains and other fruits.
Some practitioners do say that if you cook fruit down you are able to combine it with other foods – particularly grains. For example, a simple grain porridge (cooked with water/ plant milk) and combined with a small amount of cooked fruit like apples or pears (cooked separately).