2. Never Eat A Concentrated Protein And A Concentrated Carbohydrate At The Same Meal.

This means do not eat nuts, meat, eggs, cheese, or other protein foods at the same meal with bread, cereals, potatoes, sweet fruits, cakes, etc.

In the ancient Hebrew writing (Exodus) we read: "And Moses said * * * Jehovah shall give you in the evening, flesh to eat, and in the morning, bread to the full, * * * and Jehovah spake unto Moses saying * * * at evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread." This statement from Exodus is one of the earliest records of the practice of eating proteins and carbohydrates at separate meals. Perhaps this indicates that this was the custom of the time in which the book of Exodus was written. Was it the custom of the Hebrews only, or did they acquire this practice from the Egyptians among whom they are supposed to have spent some four hundred years and from whom they had just escaped? Some scholars insist that the books attributed to Moses were written at a later date, after the Hebrews were released from Babylonian bondage. Did they acquire the practice from the Babylonians? Unfortunately, historians have supplied us with little information about the living habits of the past.

The Bible story does not tell us anything of the origin of this custom, nor how long it had been in existence, but the fact that in that story it is invested with divine sanction may be taken to indicate how firmly fixed was the practice and how important it was considered among the Hebrews of the time. I do not pretend to know how widespread this practice may have been, nor how long it may have been practiced; but there is evidence that it was also a practice among the Greeks. In an article in Your Physique, Sept. 1946, David P. Willoughby, a leading authority on physical education, tells us that "the regular diet of pugilists and wrestlers of antiquity "consisted mainly of meat--preferably beef, pork, or kid--and bread. Meat and bread were not to be eaten at the same meal." Here is a practice of keeping proteins and carbohydrates apart in eating that has a sound physiological basis.

Remnants of the practice still exist among Mediterranean peoples. When an Italian working man makes a meal on a loaf of black bread and a few pieces of garlic, he may be following an ancient practice, that, so far as we know, may go all the way back to the instinctive practices of our primitive ancestors.

The Earl of Sandwich is credited with having invented the sandwich--a modern dietetic abomination. The hamburger, a similar abomination, is also a modern dietetic innovation. Egg sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, ham sandwiches and similar protein-starch combinations are of recent origin. Dr. Tilden used to say that Nature never produced a sandwich. How true are his words!

The digestion of carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and of protein is so different, that when they are mixed in the stomach they interfere with the digestion of each other. An acid process (gastric digestion) and an alkaline process (salivary digestion) can not be carried on at the same time in an ideal way in the stomach. In fact, they cannot proceed together at all for long as the rising acidity of the stomach contents soon completely stops carbohydrate digestion and this is followed by fermentation.

Marshall showed that undigested starch in large amounts in the stomach absorbs pepsin and thus prevents the acid from entering into combination with the proteins and so increasing the free hydrochloric acid.

Tests made in this country are said to have revealed that the eating of starches and proteins together delayed the digestion of protein but four to six minutes--an insignificant delay, if true. But Marshall's showing would lead us to think that protein digestion would be longer delayed, or that it may not be well digested at all.

Arthur Cason, M.D., D.P.H., F.R.S.A. (Lond.), writing in April 1945 Physical Culture mentions two groups of experiments made by him and his aids which showed that the eating of protein and carbohydrate at the same meal does retard and even prevent digestion. He made control tests in which were recorded digestive rates for each and a final analysis of the feces was made. He says "such tests always reveal that the digestion of proteins when mixed with starches is retarded in the stomach; the degree varying in different individuals, and also in the particular protein or starch ingested." He adds: "An examination of the fecal matter reveals both undigested starch granules and protein shreds and fibers, whereas, when ingested separately, each goes to a conclusion."

Cason's findings are more in line with what we would expect from Marshall's showings. It may be that the "tests" made in this country took into consideration nothing more vital than the emptying time of the stomach--a fallacy in the study of digestion that has been exploded in a previous chapter.

Beans contain about 25 % protein and approximately 50½ % carbohydrate or starch. This doubtless accounts for their difficult digestion and the readiness with which they ferment. Prof. McCollum says that navy beans have a peculiar and indigestible carbohydrate. But McCollum knows nothing of combinations. Beans are a "bread and meat" combination and each of their two principle constituents requires entirely different processes for digestion. The starch of the bean lies in the stomach while its protein is being digested and, except under the most favorable circumstances, ferments, producing gas and toxins. One of the best rules for eating, which I can offer you, is to eschew all beans. This does not include green beans, which contain little starch. Matured or "dried" beans of all types are known to every one to quickly ferment, when eaten, and produce much gas. The strong gastric juice of the stomach, which is engaged in digesting proteins, impedes starch digestion. Pythagorus advised that we eat no beans. We subscribe to that plan, making an exception only in the case of green beans.

Candy, sugar, etc., greatly inhibit the secretion of the gastric juice and markedly delay digestion. Consumed, a large amount at a time, candy is very depressing to stomach activity.

Whatever may be true with reference to the effects of the starch-protein combination upon the digestion of protein, it is certain that this combination is disastrous to starch digestion. There is no doubt that the gastric juice destroys the ptyalin of the saliva and stops salivary digestion.

The physiologist, Stiles, says in Nutritional Physiology; "the acid which is highly favorable for gastric digestion, for example, is quite prohibitive of salivary digestion." He, however, in common with all other physiologists, makes no practical application of this fact in feeding the well or the sick. He says of pepsin, "the power to digest proteins is manifested only with an acid reaction, and is permanently lost when the mixture is made distinctly alkaline.