What you are about to read below is a piece of text I translated from a friend of mine. This is relevant if you’re a moslem but still think that food combining is not so convincing and groundless to apply to your daily eating pattern.
So it looks like The Holy Quran implies a food combining principle in the two verses below.
وَفَاكِهَةٍ مِّمَّا يَتَخَيَّرُونَ وَلَحْمِ طَيْرٍ مِّمَّا يَشْتَهُونَ
” And with fruits, any that they may select, and the flesh of fowls, any that they may desire.” (Al Waqiah: 20-21)
In the verses above, Allah SWT explains about the food of th paradise inhabitants. What is interesting here? As anyone can read, the word ‘fruits’ is mentioned first and ‘flesh’ latter. Why so?
This seems to be the most plausible answer. While most people in the Western hemisphere eat fruits before any other foods and have fruits as their breakfast, we Indonesians are not familiar to this eating habit. The prevalent myth in Indonesia is that fruits are supposed to be consumed after eating heavier meals or eaten later close to noon or afternoon. Then we must analyze why Allah SWT mentions fruits before meat? Does it have anything to do with the Western people eating habit. The question remains unanswered.
Fruits are digested in the stomach faster than any other types of foods. It generally takes 15-20 minutes for the system to fully digest fruits (with bananas as an exception, taking around 45 minutes). The glucose in fruits instantly provides us energy needed to work in the morning. It generally takes 2 hours for carbohydrates (rice, corn, noodles, bread) to be processed provided that they’re eaten alone (without any other foods). As for animal protein (chicken, four-legged animal meat, fish, egg) provided that they’re eaten alone is usually digested by the stomach within around 3-4 hours. Typical Indonesian way of eating – which involves eating animal protein and carbohydrate at the same time – burdens the stomach because IT TAKES MORE THAN 6 HOURS TO COMPLETELY DIGEST THIS CARBO-PROTEIN COMBO. So you can imagine: before your stomach can’t get enough rest, you eat more, and on and on…BAM!
We also need to pay attention to the CIRCADIAN CYLE of body. In a nutshell, the body is cleaning itself from the metabolism residue. It’s the “leftover” in large intestine that ought to be propelled out as soon as possible unless it’ll turn toxic anytime soon. For your information, this cleaning phase happens every day from around 4 am to 10 am, which is why the body doesn’t produce digestive enzymes (because it’s too busy cleaning itself!). It’s a safe bet to ONLY eat fruits in the morning. To digest fruits, it doesn’t require digestive enzymes because enzyme contained in our saliva can do just that! This is also why we’d better chew fruits perfectly before swallowing it so as to expose it to the enzyme in saliva.
All the explanation is in accordance with Allah’s holy verses in The Qur’an :
وَلَوْ أَنَّمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ مِن شَجَرَةٍ أَقْلَامٌ وَالْبَحْرُ يَمُدُّهُ مِن بَعْدِهِ سَبْعَةُ أَبْحُرٍ مَّا نَفِدَتْ كَلِمَاتُ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
“ And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean (were ink), with seven oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the Words of Allah be exhausted (in the writing); for Allah is Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom.” ( Luqman : 27 )
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