UKC

Just come across an unusual piece of nutritional advice from Ranulph Fiennes' book 'Fit For Life'.
He states that certain food groups - such as carbs and proteins - should not be eaten together (i.e. in the same meal) and that doing so will have a detrimental effect on both athletic performance and on general physical health (over a longer period of time). Examples of 'bad' combos included potatoes and beef, chicken and pasta and oats and fruit.
Never heard of anything like this before, I thought my diet was pretty good, but if the above were true, it would actually be terrible!?

In reply to Philo22: Steak frites can't be bad for you. It's not possible.

In reply to Philo22:
This sounds roughly correct. Consumption of starchy vegetables and pasta's can cause an insulin spike and thus your body will respond with an uptake of fat from the meal.

Carbohydrates are best consumed after exercise to allow the body to process said carbs to replenish depleted glycogen stores. Carbohydrates not converted to glycogen will then be stored as fat in your body.

That's a very crude summary of some of the processes going on.

In reply to frqnt: Makes sense. I'm fairly useless when it comes to sports nutrition. Just struck me as odd the way he was saying that combinations of foods I had thought were good for athletic type things e.g. pasta and chicken, could actually be having a detrimental effect.

In reply to Philo22:

Was it backed up with scientific studies, or was it more ill-informed pseudo-scientific hippie nonsense?

Food has to be the area where the most load of complete tosh is spouted about diets, allergies, food combining, etc etc.

In reply to JayPee630: From what I can gather it appears to be backed up by (at least some) medical scientists. A little odd that I have never heard of it before though.
I would hope that someone like Ranulph Fiennes would have the integrity not to print anything that A. He hadn't tried himself, and B. Wasn't fully supported by medical findings.

In reply to Philo22: I read that as "such as crabs and proteins"

In reply to Philo22: Actually this is the theory between a fad diet called the Hay diet (based on the doc that started it - Doctor Hay, not consumption of dry grass) that seemed to be very popular a few years ago. There may be something in it I suppose.

The best bit of advice I heard recently on a running site was "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much". Stick to that and you can't go too far wrong.

In reply to frqnt:


what about the protein (1g per Kg of bodyweight i think was the rule of thumb bandied about) that we are supposed to eat within 30..60 mins (take your pick) after exercise ?

i

In reply to Philo22:

food combining diets go in and out of fashion. Very little suggests they are relevant. some commentators positive say they are unhelpful.

In reply to andybenham: Dr Hay was referenced in the original article - which I think is pretty much an ironed out version of his findings.
As you say, the whole thing seems to be a little dated now. Was worried I might have to give up the old rice and tuna lunches!

In reply to lithos:

What about it? Protein is the building block of muscle. Training hard essentially breaks down the muscle fibers then Protein is needed to rebuild them. The idea is that after resistance training, the fibers rebuild bigger and stronger than before, hence we can record an increase in size over time

After exercise we should consume enough carbohydrates to restore glycogen stores and enough protein for muscles to recover and rebuild. Although, Glycogen can be matabolised from Protein - if one was conscious of excess body fat, they could consume a high protein meal post workout to mitigate excess carbs being stored as fat.

Then we should consider fats as there are important polyunsaturated fats like Omega 3's which have a positive effect on health. If you're very lean then fat's provide an important energy source.

That's the Nutrient level vaguely described, then there is the whole macro- and micro-nutrient categories to understand.

In reply to frqnt:

sorry i was implying that you need (allegedly) a mixed diet post training of carbs and proteins. This would fly against the advice in the OP ?

In reply to frqnt:


Right, I shouldn’t eat Carbs and protein at the same time. Got it.


Ah, I should consume carbs and protein straight after exercise but I’m not allowed to eat them together. Hmm, now there’s a conundrum….

In reply to lithos:
My error, I'm getting sidetracked. I'd be curious to know the justification sighted in the OP's book.

Especially how it states on both athletic performance and on general physical health.

In reply to Philo22:
So when I buy a ham sandwich, I'm going to have to take it apart, eat the ham, then eat the bread... or should I eat the bread then the ham?

I think I'll be saying no to butter or mayo on that

In reply to frqnt: To condense a three page article:

Certain chemicals, when mixed, create toxins that can kill <bit melodramatic>.The same is true of different foods, even though the effects are much more gradual. So it is important that you do not mix types of food which react adversely with each other in the stomach...<insert short biography of Dr. Hay>...The chemical results of mixing the wrong foods lead, after digestion, to an accumulation of acids which the body cannot get rid of. This toxic waste is a fertile bed for many diseases.... Fermented excess carbohydrate cannot be used by healthy tissue, nor can putrefied protien, so they remain in our bodies as toxic acids. The following food table shows which foods do and do not mix well...

You can mix A with B, you can mix C with B, but you cannot mix A with C

A
All fruits excluding avacadoes, bananas, dates, grapes, figs, raisins, very sweet pears, papayas
All meats, fish milk, yoghurt, cheese
Legumes, lentils
Soya, tofu
All salad dressings and mayo
Orange juice

B
All veg except potatoes
Nuts and seeds
Avocados
Butter, cream, egg yolks
Herbs
Honey, syrup
Veg oil, olive oil
Spirits

C
All cereals, bread, flour, oatmeal, rice, pasta
Bananas, grapes, dates, figs, raisins, very sweet pears, papayas
Potatoes
Beer and lager