Both of these actions, by lessening the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, interfere with the digestion of proteins, which must have that acid. Conversely, if proteins are being digested in the stomach and there is more acid there for the sugar to combine with (pick up and take along to the small intestine), then it will require just so much more alkaline secretion from the pancreas to neutralize the extra acid before it goes to work on the sugar. And the same is true of starches that are potential sugars. Not only do the sugars interfere with the digestion of the proteins, but the proteins make more difficult the digestion of the sugars!

Studies reveal when a starch meal enters the small intestine comparatively little alkali would be required to neutralize the acid it has "picked up" in the stomach, but when a mixed meal reaches the small intestine just twice as much alkaline pancreatic secretion would be needed to neutralize its acid before starch digestion could begin.

It is also clear that when a mixed meal is eaten, the proteins in it are being digested under difficult conditions. Instead of the normal acidity required, as shown by the all-protein meal, the acidity is reduced. The starches cut the acidity to one-third less! Just such conditions are most likely to produce imperfectly split up proteins - the large toxic protein molecule.

When high proteins and high carbohydrates are mixed, these studies proved, there is not enough acid to digest the protein part readily, and too much acid to digest the starch readily.

Now the bad effects of this abuse are not always immediately apparent. The digestion of youth has abundant juices but improper food combination places an extra burden. If we deplete that abundance, dip into our reserve power of accommodation, by the time we reach mid adulthood impaired digestion is evident. This may not make itself known by distressing symptoms, but the digestion is nevertheless chemically impaired. This contributes to an increasing deficiency of food elements, and that, in turn, leads to more tissue degeneration. Minor disturbances are directly created, serious diseases are made more probable, and one more obstacle is raised to our being able to live a full, long life of glowing health. Those with perfect health at present, please take note.

Nearly all foods contain some starch elements and some protein elements. This facthas misled many doctors since it seems to indicate the mixture of starches and proteins is natural and therefore presumably healthful.
Meat does contain carbohydrate - but in a form unlike other carbohydrates - glycogen. This is a carbohydrate was eaten by the animal and then metabolized and stored in its muscles. Little digestion, if any, on our part is required to make this sugar ready to be absorbed - it is ready to be absorbed as soon as it is liberated from the protein of the meat.

Similarly, the amount of protein in starchy vegetables is small indeed in proportion, and because of its negligible quantity presents none of the difficulties in digestion that result from combining large quantities of high protein with high starches.

While man, as he evolved, developed two types of digestion for the types of food he ate, other animals confined themselves to one type of food and correspondingly one type of digestion. What do they show us?
Herbivorous animals, such as the cow or sheep, eating only vegetable food, have specialized on alkaline digestion. They are equipped to eat large quantities of food in proportion to their size, compared to humans. They all first alkalinize their food by prolonged chewing (their saliva being alkali), and they all rechew their food (chewing the cud). They all have a large sack or pouch where man has his tiny appendix.

Carnivorous animals, such as lions or wild dogs, have specialized acid digestion. They bolt their food in large pieces and chew it as little as possible, if at all. Actually the less they chew it, the better it is for them. An experimental study was carried out at the Mayo Clinic in which dogs were fed meat fed in large chunks or meat ground up, and the contents of the small intestine examined for the results of digestion. The big pieces were digested far better than the ground meat.

It is highly significant that meat-eating animals have no appendix or a very small one. Man, with his small appendix, seems on this basis to fit the meat-eating animals, rather than the herbivorous animals with their large pouches. Our inability to handle starches and sugars advantageously seems to stem from fundamental physical sources. This parallels the findings from which the Page Fundamental Diet plan was developed and has been borne out over several decades.

With the atrophy of our appendix, we lost our ability to get enough protein from vegetable sources to produce the bet possible physical man. We cannot chew our cud.
When we eat meat, we should chew it as little as possible; but when we, like herbivorous animals, eat vegetable food, we should, like them, chew well and thoroughly.
Americans are notoriously calcium-deficient. Not because we don't eat foods rich in calcium, but largely because we don't eat them in combination or form in which the calcium can be assimilated. Animals never eat high proteins and high carbohydrates at the same meal. They have excellent teeth, they have strong bones, and they take no calcium supplements.

As mentioned earlier improperly digested proteins which, instead of splitting up into their proper end-products, split up into intermediate or large protein molecules that are actually toxic. Some of these molecules are the substance called histamine, an irritant and vasodilator associated with allergies such hay fever, asthma, eczema, coryza, migraine headaches and general malaise. Studies reveal unmistakable indications that mixed diets (combinations of fats with starches or high proteins with high carbohydrates) produce more histamine in the system than the combinations he recommended.

Histaminase is a substance developed from the intestines of certain food animals, it has the property of splitting up histamine and thus destroying its toxic effect. It serves as a way of testing for histamine and for finding the extent bad food combinations produce toxic results. Studies found that when patients eat a mixed meal, they require more histaminase to control their symptoms than when they eat proteins only or carbohydrates only! He concluded that the mixed diet produced more histamine! Many allergic patients, in fact, lost their symptoms entirely by simply avoiding bad food combinations; they actually lost their hay fever or headaches by eating the kind of meals he recommended. However, as soon as they slipped and ate an unwise meal, back came the symptoms.

Although theoretical physiology, laboratory tests and other research confirm it, your own experience must be equally convincing for you.
Extracts from the adrenal gland controls allergic reactions. According to Goodheart, the adrenal gland takes care of the normal amount of histamine produced in the body; but when years of improper food habits have given us certain deficiencies and degeneration's, the combination of excess histamine and food deficiencies depletes the adrenal glands, the control is lost, allergic reactions appear more readily and we are well on our way to serious bodily degeneration. The evidence on histamine production alone was sufficient to justify his recommendations on the food combinations!

The Amino Acids

Not all proteins are of equal value in nutrition. Proteins vary widely in chemical composition and in their ability to satisfy the body's requirement of nitrogen; they vary in the degree to which they supply the amino acids essential for tissue building and tissue repair. Ten amino acids have been shown to be essential to human nutrition and must be consumed in the diet since they can not be manufactured by humans.
The value of any protein is measured by its ability to supply some or all of these essential amino acids. A protein is called complete if it supplies all of essential amino acids. Unfortunately few proteins are ideal and therefore the diet must be properly varied from not only the muscle tissue of animals but also the connective tissues and tissues from their organs, plus eggs. Eating in this manner will usually supply all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantity.

Dietary Rules Simplified

The general rule is to be sure you eat enough of the vital food elements; and be sure you eat them in the right combinations.

1. Eat all kinds of meats, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits (and carbohydrates only if you must) as the safest way to avoid deficiencies.
2. Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream or bacon) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, cakes or sweets) in any one meal.
3. Do not combine acids (citrus juice, vinegar, buttermilk) with high starches at any one meal.
4. Do not combine high proteins (meats, fish eggs, cheese) with high starches at any one meal.
5. Eat fats freely with proteins and acid solutions.
6. Be sure you get enough of each essential nutritional element as follows:

a. Meat, fish, fowl and eggs: One serving of each, or two servings of one per day with butter or other fat.

b. Milk, buttermilk, or cheese: Two glasses of raw organic milk or buttermilk, or two and one-half ounces of cheese a day (or one glass of milk or buttermilk plus an ounce or more of cheese).

c. Raw, low-starch fruits and raw green and yellow vegetables: Two servings a day or one large salad bowl a day.

d. 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of a plain cod liver oil, or its equivalent in other fish liver oils, or their concentrates in capsules. But if you use capsules, then be sure to take plenty butter fats and cream; your liver must have fats, if it is going to make bile for you.

e. If you are a carbohydrate eater, supplement with yeast or other equivalent Vitamin B Complex. Other natural fats and oils may also be necessary as the fact remains that natural fats and oils are absolutely necessary in ample quantities for natural, healthy metabolism.

How quickly you feel noticeable improvement depends largely on how good your health is to begin with, and how bad your eating habits have been in the past.

1. If you are now in fine health, have been eating plenty of protein, have no digestive troubles, no marked deficiencies, you may experience no detectable effects of this diet in one month's time. But you will later. If you will come around in ten years' time I can tell if you have been following perfect eating habits by just looking at you.

2. If you now suffer from occasional flatulence, indigestion, "acidity" and gas, a month on this regimen with no cheating will work wonders. Your ailments will probably disappear.

3. If you now feel "all right" but sluggish and under par, if you have been eating unwisely--too much carbohydrates and not enough of the other food factors - you will experience a new feeling of wellbeing and full health which perhaps you did not believe possible.

Be certain to eat enough high proteins without fear of eating too much unless you have no control over your appetite or have a specific medical condition that dictates otherwise. Although you may continue to exist on a relatively low protein intake, there is ample evidence that a more liberal intake favors the development of better physique and improvement of general health. Any excess of proteins, above your body's requirement for growth and repair of tissue is used as body heat and energy.