Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

BEYOND BRAWN
20.100 Much of the rest of this segment is based on personal experience. is is
not to discount academic study and honest anecdotal reports from others.
While my experiences are not the same as yours, I want to relate mine so
that you can see the importance of individual adjustment. Your needs will be
at least partially different from mine, if not substantially different, but what
is important is that you recognize any special needs you have.
20.101 I used to be obsessively fussy about ultra-strict food combinations during
my four-year stint with veganism. My digestion seemed to be impaired
during that period as a result of the radical diet. Strict food combinations
were a necessity then to minimize digestive tract discomfort. But strict food
combining did not work for me once I was training intensively and including
some animal products. is was because I could not get enough nutrition in
a single day if I kept to the strict combinations. But I found that strict food
combinations no longer seemed to be a necessity. My powers of digestion
improved noticeably when I stopped being a vegan. While dismissing food
combining rules altogether would cause a lot of digestive tract discomfort
for me, a compromised version works very well.
Milk
20.102 If I mix milk with anything other than dairy products, my stomach gives me
distress. I do not mix milk with anything other than dairy products, and I
keep a milk-based meal well away from any other meal. I never have milk
unless I am feeling hungry from my previous feed. But I am fine if I have
another type of food an hour or so after a large milk-based feed.
Fruit
20.103 I never mix fruit with anything. I have it by itself and at least half an hour
before consuming any other food. at gap is enough for my digestive tract
to be able to comfortably deal with both the fruit and whatever comes after
it. If I put the other food in on top of the fruit, or follow the convention of
fruit after a main meal, my stomach would torment me.
Protein and starch
20.104 I do not mix concentrated starch foods with concentrated protein foods. I
know that some foods have a fair bit of both, but I categorize all cereal/grain
foods, legumes and potatoes as starch foods. I separate them from concentrated
protein foods (eggs, fish and dairy products) by having a gap of about
20 minutes between the protein and the starch. For example, I will have fish,
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