From: ah690549@mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu (Annette C. Hollmann)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition,rec.food.veg
Subject: Re: VEGETARIAN DIET
Keywords: some people need LOTS of food energy
Date: 10 Sep 1992 03:04:34 GMT
Followup-To: sci.med.nutrition
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx

If I tried to live on fruit until noon, I would get a hypoglycemic crash
before I even got going! The only way fruit will not make me crash is if I
eat lots of starchy food such as cereal at the same time. The fruit gives
me the quick boost I need to get my blood sugar up and quickly reach a
maximum energy level. Then, when the sugars from the fruit are used up,
the energy from the more complex carbohydrates start supplying energy.
Then protein, and last, fats, will be available for energy.
According to my Biochemistry textbooks, any normal combination of foods
should be easily digestible. Here is what happens to the different components:

1. Carbohydrates:
Starch is broken down partially by amylases in saliva. The longer you chew
your fruit or bread, the more starch is converted into disaccharides
(units of 2 linked simple sugars). Simple sugars such as glucose can be
absorbed directly through the mucous membranes of the mouth in appreciable
quantities.

The acid environment of the stomach does not itself break down starch, nor
does it contain enzymes that break down polysaccharides. Carbohydrates
pass through the stomach unaltered.

In the small intestine, enzymes further digest carbohydrates and
disaccharides to simple sugars. The simple sugars are then absorbed.

2. Proteins

Proteins are not altered by enzymes in saliva. They are the main food
component that is digested by the acidic conditions and the enzymes in the
stomach. Other proteases in the small intestine finish the task of
breaking down proteins into amino acids.

3. Fats
Fats are not altered in the mouth or the stomach. They are emulsified by
bile salts and digested by lipases in the small intestine.

The secretion of enzymes in the digestive tract is stimulated mainly by
the physical presence of food rather than by chemical effects of the
different components of that food. No matter If you eat an apple, or a
spoonful of peanut butter, or a peanut butter and apple sandwich (try it -
it's great), you will aways have all enzymes secreted and ready to work.
The enzymes will find their target no matter what else is there. An excess
of fat will not stop you from digesting carbohydrates from an apple. It
could, however, overwhelm the lipases and bile salts because there are too
many "target molecules" i.e. fats around for the bile salts and lipases to
handle.

This information can be obtained from any senior biology text with a
section on nutrition. I don't have mine here at the moment, but I can
email you the reference if you want. Stryer's Biochemistry text also has
some useful information on enzymes, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins -
probably more than you'd need or even want to know.

Based on scientific evidence, the references for which I'll post or email on
request, I agree
with Steve Dyer and say that food combining rules are unnecessary and
could even be harmful to some people.

Annette
ah690549@mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu