
Nutrition For Mortals Food Combining Diets
Nov 12, 2025
Explore the fascinating history of food combining diets, from early natural hygiene principles to the celebrity-fueled Beverly Hills Diet. Discover the strict rules that claim to improve digestion and weight loss but lack scientific backing. Modern influencers are at it again, promoting restrictive resets. Learn about smart, evidence-based food pairings to enhance your health without the fuss. And enjoy a hearty laugh as the hosts poke fun at the absurdity of strict dietary rules.
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Natural Hygiene Was The Root Cause
- Natural hygiene claimed the body self-heals if you follow strict ‘natural’ behaviors like fasting and raw foods.
- This philosophy seeded food-combining ideas linking digestion to moral purity and disease prevention.
Hay’s Personal Cure Became A Diet
- William Howard Hay recovered from chronic illness with a near-vegetarian, one-meal-a-day approach and wrote Health Via Food.
- His protocol forbade mixing proteins and starches and promoted fruit and raw vegetables eaten separately.
Acid vs Alkaline Digestion Myth
- Hay taught that proteins require an acidic stomach while starches need an alkaline one, so mixing them causes fermentation and 'auto-intoxication.'
- This mechanistic claim lacked scientific basis but shaped decades of food-combining rules.


