Food combining

Food combining (or trophology) is a term for a nutritional approach that advocates specific combinations (or advises against certain combinations) of foods. Just as a doctor makes pills and medication prescriptions to their patients in order to cure them, trophologists make prescriptions based on healthy diets that exclude groups of food such as sugar, animal protein, whole wheat flours, among others. Some combinations are promoted as central to good health and weight loss, such as not mixing carbohydrate-rich foods and protein-rich foods in the same meal.

Food combining was originally promoted by Herbert M. Shelton in his book Food Combining Made Easy (1951), but the issue had been previously discussed by Edgar Cayce.[1] But the best-known food-combining diet is the Hay Diet, named after William Howard Hay. He lost 30 pounds in 3 months when he implemented his research. One randomized controlled trial of food combining was performed in 2000, and found no evidence that food combining was any more effective than a "balanced" diet in promoting weight loss.[2]