Digestive problems are very common. Heartburn, gas, and other digestive and bowel problems affect almost everyone. These problems are not only annoying to have, but they are also signs of poor digestion and eating habits. You can avoid these problems by chewing your food properly and using a food combining principle that will allow your body to digest the food easier.

Food combining is simply eating the right types of food together that make it easy for your body to digest it. Of course, eating a large variety of food is healthy for us to do, but it's not good for our digestive system to sit down and try to digest it all at one meal. We are under the impression that we have to have one of every food group on our plate at every meal and that's simply not true. In fact, it's not good for us.

Our digestive system has one of the most important jobs of our body. When you eat food according to what will be easiest to digest you are doing your digestive system a huge favor by allowing it to do its job properly.

For example, digesting proteins and starches have different digestive requirements. So if you eat them in one meal it becomes hard for your body to digest either one of them well. Proteins require an acid environment to digest properly while starches require an alkaline environment. You digestive system can accommodate both environments at one time, but it obviously cannot create both at the same time!

Fruit has very special requirements and should always be eaten by itself. Fruit is one of those lovely foods that quickly passes through your digestive system on its own. But if you eat fruit with starchy foods or with protein the fruit cannot just pass on through the digestive track like it should, as it gets mixed up with other food that doesn't have that privilege. The sugar will then ferment in your stomach and bring about bloating and gas.

Melons are even quicker at going through the digestive process and should be either eaten alone or with other melons. This will avoid sugar fermentation in the stomach.

Here are the basic rules for food combining:

Vegetables with starches are fine

Vegetables with proteins are fine

Protein and starch are a no-no - Think meat and potatoes!

Fruit is always eaten alone or with other fruit

Acid fruits with nuts and seeds are okay

Acid fruits with sweet fruits are okay

Melons are eaten alone

We have been living on the wrong food combinations for a while now thinking that they are normal. For instance, burger and fries are consumed daily by millions of people, but this combination of food is making their digestive systems work harder than they should, and they are possibly causing digestive problems just from that meal. Now pile on 3 meals a day like that, eaten every single day.

So the next time you sit down to eat, give your digestive system a break. Take it into consideration and make its job easier. Your body and health will thank you!