PROPER FOOD COMBINATION AND FREQUENCY A MUST WHEN YOU HAVE LOFTY HEALTH AND FITNESS GOALS!

High quality foods, proper food combination and proper meal frequency are the top three variables that people need to master while working on their overall health and wellness. Not calorie restriction. Calorie restriction without these three components can and will cause extreme damage!

When people partake of any sort of a health and fitness program it usually contains a nutritional component. This component, if created and followed properly, will reap the greatest results concerning your goals. I understand that the “politically correct” approach to dieting in the health and fitness industry is to create a caloric deficit by decreasing the number of calories consumed. If you have read my articles before, you realize I have all sorts of problems with this premise, and know that I teach we can only improve the quality and quantity of our lives through caloric restriction with OPTIMAL NUTRITION.

Optimal nutrition with high quality foods, proper food combination, combined with proper frequency (4-5 meals a day), moves us toward achieving our goals exponentially faster than just decreasing our food intake. The variable I would like to write about today is proper food combination.

The reason proper food combination are of utmost importance is that when our meals are combined properly for our biochemical individuality, our body will function at a very efficient level. “Let food be your medicine, and medicine your food.” Why? When the food is broken down in the body it will create a hormonal response that will either be beneficial or detrimental. Carbohydrates, which are sugars, tend to create an insulin response, and protein tends to create a glucagon response. Poor meal combining that leads to an increased blood sugar level will guarantee an insulin response. Insulin is an anabolic hormone, which simply tells the body to “store” calories and DO NOT burn body-fat. This is why, even if you are creating a caloric deficit by consuming low-fat and non-fat foods high in carbohydrate, you are still sending the message to store fat. So, if you are losing weight, the majority of it will be muscle (the highly metabolically active part of the body) which will lead to a lowered metabolism in the future. Thus, attaining your goals will be more difficult than ever before.

So, what is the answer? It is important to understand that we need insulin and we need glucagon, but just in small and balanced quantities. The combination of fat, protein and fiber slow down the breakdown of carbohydrate into glucose (blood sugar). This proper combination of foods minimizes any chance of a large release of insulin into the bloodstream. When properly combining a meal or snack we must have some fat, protein and fiber to slow the digestion and absorption process of our carbohydrate intake. This approach also lowers the Glycemic Index of the meal, which once again, is beneficial because it slows down the breaking down of the meal into blood sugar. When I refer to carbohydrates here, I am speaking of real carbohydrates, the type you can pick, harvest, and gather, not the man-made type that have been refined and leached of all nutritional value. My favorite real carbohydrates are a variety of rices (minus white) as well as potatoes. Combine with your favorite real carbohydrates a healthy fat (butter, coconut oil, olive oil), a quality protein (beef, poultry, fish, etc.), and then a non-starchy vegetable (spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, celery, carrots, etc.). This combination will not only balance your hormones, but it will also give you the opportunity to consume essential oils and amino acids for proper growth and repair.

So, what I am saying is this;

WITHOUT proper food combinations you will have a much greater chance of adding unwanted body-fat and destroying your health in the process.

I realize that developing a proper nutritional regimen is the difficult area in getting our health back. But, it will work, it just takes some preparation. Remember this, “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail”, and no other time could this saying be more true. My suggestion is this, always know where your next meal is coming from. When I cook and combine my own meals (four-five a day) I spend under four hours a week in the kitchen, TOTAL.