Combing food is more than a culinary art, it’s what we all do on a daily basis. There are many traditional foods that we have always combined, but in reality, without realizing it, this can have adverse health effects. Much of what we eat comes out of habit, like what our parents fed us and those favorite dishes that we just cling to as something we have to have over and over again. Very few people really pay much attention to the health effects of what they eat. When we eat, we’re not so much interested in taking care of our bodies as we are simply getting rid of those hunger pangs and exciting our taste buds.

Eating should always be an enjoyable and even sociable event, but it should really energize us, keep us strong and move us forward, rather than slow us down or make us feel bad. Many unpleasant feelings that come to us after eating that good food have to do with the types of food we are combining.

It is not a bad recommendation that we all look for one or two nutritionists and help us make a truly balanced diet. Eating healthy isn’t just about eating some lettuce, it’s about understanding how various food combinations really don’t make sense from a body’s needs standpoint.

1. Reserve that favorite dressing for the diet version of your favorite salad.

You just can’t win by losing. Switching to that diet salad dressing because you think you’re being health conscious isn’t really a very wise choice. Vegetables have many good things for our bodies and are an important part of a healthy diet. Unfortunately, it’s the fat, in that great-tasting salad dressing, that really helps the body absorb and take advantage of all those precious benefits that a salad vegetable provides us. Diet versions of anything have never really been a good weight loss solution. Eat a balanced and healthy diet and maintain an active lifestyle that includes exercise and sports.

it is what really helps to lose weight and keep fit. Don’t buy everything that has the word diet on it at your local supermarket.

2. Mix eggs with steak, you know those famous steaks and eggs that can satisfy a lumberjack!

It is never a good idea to mix different types of protein. The best thing is to mix eggs with vegetables and then eat that heavy steak for dinner. Also, eating heavy protein too early in the day can make you feel groggy at work. Start light and continue with heavier meals later in the day or at night. We do most of the heavy digestion when we are lying down and resting or sleeping. If we force our body to work too hard to digest food while we are active, we won’t have enough blood to handle all that activity, hence the feeling of dizziness and lack of energy that we can get.

3. Bananas and milk or that banana shake

This has been heralded by nutritionists as the absolute worst combination one can force onto your body, no matter how delicious it may sound. It actually creates toxins that damage the body, creating horrible gas, upset stomach, and bloating. A nice glass of chocolate milk aids digestion, so why treat bananas to the photo? Save those for the Minions. You know those little yellow creatures that eat 50 pounds of bananas a day…

4. That famous spaghetti marinara sauce with Parmesan and American cheese.

Who would turn down a meal as good as spaghetti, especially with some garlic bread on the side and perhaps a glass of red wine? Have you ever noticed that after eating those 3 servings of spaghetti you find it difficult to even get up from the table and walk to the living room? This is because the tomatoes that make the famous spaghetti sauce are high in acid, and acid-based foods mixed with starchy foods like pasta just don’t mix. It’s a nightmare to digest, no matter how delicious it is, if you don’t want to feel heavy from what you eat, better avoid spaghetti and lasagna with tomato sauce. How about a fresh olive oil sauce with garlic and basil?

5. Bread and jelly, or that peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Oh how we love that peanut butter sandwich with fries and a glass of cold milk. Many of us grew up with it! The problem is that such simple carbohydrates in such a delicious mix send blood sugar levels skyrocketing, and then the body has to release large amounts of insulin to bring it back down. This expands more energy than we gained from eating that sandwich in the first place. After words it’s like a bad hangover, we lose energy, will and our ability to concentrate. Let’s leave the pbj to our childhood, but now it’s time to start eating with the aim of helping us in our day to day, not stopping us.

6. The habit of eating fruit after a meal rich in protein such as meat, potatoes, pasta dishes, etc., or after a copious lunch or dinner.

Fruit dishes have always been served as a sweet dessert after a good meal or to cleanse the palate. The fruit should be consumed without combining with other foods. It’s best eaten for breakfast, perhaps on top of a nice bowl of oatmeal, or bathed in yogurt. Fruit has natural sugars and meats and starches have complicated sugars. By mixing the 2, the sugar from the fruits will get stuck in the stomach, while it tries to break down the heavier sugars, and started a fermentation process, which we all know leads to nasty gas and stomach pain.

There are many more food combinations that really aren’t the best when we’re trying to eat healthy. A lot of it has to do with breaking our old eating habits and then spending a little time researching what kind of diet would really work for us. After all, we are talking about our health, our energy and our lifestyle. It certainly would not be a negative activity to try to improve our eating habits to give us a better quality of life. Talking to nutritionists, doing some research on the internet, asking around and experimenting with different health-oriented recipes could become a very enjoyable hobby for us, with the result of feeling like we are 20 again!

So enjoy your food, but make it something your body enjoys too!