Combining Fruits and Vegetables?

[cassie12]

I recently checked out some green smoothie recipes on this site and many of them call for combining vegetables and fruits. I thought because they digest differently you were supposed to eat fruits and vegetables at separate times.
Can anyone clear this up for me?
Thanks!

[belle]

leafy greens (spinach, kale, parsely, collards, lettuces, etc etc) and celery are the only neutral veges that combine with fruits.

[herbalgirl]

Where can you find this info? This is interesting! I have been making (and choking down!) smoothies with zucchini, summer squash and various fruits in them since we have soooooooooo many zucchini, etc. This is not good to do?

[G-Force]

In Alissa's book, Living on Live Foods, she has a food combining chart that I refer to all the time (p. 81-83). There are charts online, too, but hers is nice b/c it's geared for raw so you don't have to filter out a lot of other food items in the chart.

I noticed some stomach pain (like I'd eaten a rock) when I ate too many raw veggies or nuts, but I feel fine on fruit and salads, so I tend to stick with those more. Just bought some digestive enzymes which supposedly will help me with the veggie digestion.

Oh -- and eat melons alone (wait at least 30 minutes before eating anything else). I've learned that one the hard way. They digest so quickly that if you eat them with other foods that take longer to digest they end up in your system too long and can make you gassy and uncomfortable.

For green smoothies - I highly recommend fruit, ice, agave syrup, and then 1-2 types of greens. They're green, nutritious, and taste sweet so you'd never even know the greens are in there except for the color. My fave lately is 2 bananas, some frozen pineapple (I get it from Trader Joe's, not organic unfortunately), a handful of fresh strawberries (tops and all), raw agave nectar, a little water (or coconut water and meat if I have a fresh coconut), and a handful of spinach and 5 or so stalks of kale. Very sweet and goes down easy. Other greens that go well are collard greens, salad greens (like a spring mix), any kind of green lettuce, dandelion greens, etc. These all seem to do fine with fruit and I've never had any stomach pain for these (because lettuce and fruit combine well).

I wouldn't do the zucchini smoothies personally. The leafy greens are far more nutritious and seem to go better with the fruit (according to the chart and my own experience). You can do lots of other recipes with zucchini. Alissa has a nice zucchini hummus recipe in her book and her "angel hair pasta" zucchini recipe is a big hit in my extended family (worth getting a spiral slicer for). Hope that helps.

[mulch]

i don't know much about combining
but this morning i tried a really good green smoothie
spinach + watermelon
no more no less
no water just watermelon
it was really sweet too
sometimes i get overwhelmed eating an entire
watermelon and i don't want to throw it out
so throwing it in with my spinach

[herbalgirl]

Wow! Thanks for all that info. Can you tell I am new to this? ;)

Does the melon thing apply to watermelons as well as muskmelons (cantaloupe, honeydews)? I had eaten some watermelon on occasion and noticed horrible burping, bloating and gas after.. Of course, I ate it right after a meal! :rolleyes:

[G-Force]

My understanding is that ALL melons should be eaten separately -and to wait at least 30 minutes before eating anything else.

Of course, if the melon is overripe I've had a bellyache after, but that's a whole 'nuther issue.

Some people say to not eat melons at night -- and I thought it was hooey but then I noticed after having watermelon after dinner a couple of times I felt horrible - not sure if that was the food combining thing again, but probably. So now I do half a melon in the morning and then 30-45 mins later do my green smoothie.