What is the food combining diet and how does it work? I’ve heard that it stops your body from storing fat and helps it burn fat. Is that true? Vernesia J. [via Ask Questions]

What is the Food Combining Diet? Does the Food Combining Diet work? These are all good questions that are not easy to answer. Why not? Because there is a lot of misinformation about the Food Combining Diet.

First of all, the Food Combining Diet, or any other diet for that matter, certainly cannot prevent your body from accumulating bodyfat. Second, the Food Combining Diet does not help your body burn fat. If you need to lose weight and burn fat, read the How to Lose Fat and How Do I Lose Weight Fast? posts.

Having said that, the Food Combining Diet is not entirely useless, it actually can help you lose weight and burn fat, if you know how to make it work. But I just said that it cannot do those things, right? I did. So let me explain.

The basic premise behind the Food Combining Diet It argues that eating certain foods together has numerous health benefits. There is no one uniform diet that subscribes to this idea. There are many diets out there that describe themselves as “The Food Combining Diet,” but in reality they are just fad diet based on nutritional myths and misconceptions.

Why the Food Combining Diet does not work My main beef with this diet has to do with the fact that food combining is highly overrated, counterproductive and ultimately is just a giant waste of time. For example, combining carbohydrates with carbohydrates does not accomplish anything except overloading your body with too much sugar. Combining one kind of protein with another kind of protein is not a good idea either. And do not even get me started on combining different kinds of fat.

How to make Food Combining Diet work for you Food combining does work, but it only works if your goal is to combine what you eat for the purpose of creating a balanced diet. Sure, some foods are more nutritious than others, but the pillar of a healthy diet is in a calorie-controlled combination of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Therefore, you do not want to eat, say, only vegetables one day and only protein another day, you want to eat at least 4 meals a day that contain a balanced combination of vegetables, proteins, fats, and fruits.

The bottom line on the Food Combining Diet If you need to lose weight, your goal should be to consume a wide variety of healthy foods. Why? Because your body needs a combination of nutrients from vegetables, proteins, fats and fruits to function optimally. The only way you can help your body lose weight is by controlling how many calories you consume daily.