Four golden rules of food pairings
These mealtime guidelines will help you benefit from combining, or separating, certain foods for improved digestion.
Eat melons alone or leave them alone
If you love watermelon but have had tummy distress after eating it, it’s probably because melons are one of the quickest foods to digest due to their high water content. The different enzymes required to break them down, plus the speed at which they move through your system, can wreak havoc in your stomach if they’re combined with other foods. “I recommend eating melon by itself, then waiting 30 minutes or so before you have anything else,” says Kotsopoulos.
Skip beverages with dinner
“Don’t drink anything with meals—even water— because it washes away digestive enzymes,” says Kotsopoulos. Your stomach needs those enzymes to break down and assimilate your meal; without them, you’re more likely to experience digestive upset. This rule is especially important at dinnertime or when sitting down to a big meal.
Keep it simple
“Have the least amount of different foods on your plate to yield the best digestion,” says Kotsopoulos. “The body is not designed to digest more than one type of food in the stomach at a time, nor can it manufacture all the necessary enzymes simultaneously.” The components of a big green salad, for example, are digested at the same rate. Add a light protein, like a chicken breast, and you should still be OK, says Kotsopoulos. But if you mix in a protein and a starch, such as a grilled steak and a baked potato, you’re more likely to experience digestive upset.
Greens go with everything
In case you need more incentive to eat plenty of good-for-you spinach, kale and chard, those leafy green superfoods can be consumed with anything because they won’t interfere with the digestion of proteins, fats or starchy vegetables. In terms of food complements, they’re easy additions to every meal: Blend them into breakfast smoothies, layer them in salads at lunch and sauté them at dinnertime for the ultimate easy-going and nutrient-packed side dish.
“Putting slowly digesting foods in front of quickly digesting foods is like driving a city bus in front of a Maserati.”