Unless you are one of those who still looks for ways to lose weight and get rid of digestive problems, this may not interest you. However, there is an energy component in here, too, so maybe this will be helpful.
It is not enough to read an article about an eating program, without also hearing from people who are doing this or have done it, to share what they know. After writing the article on how sequential eating can assist in digestion and health issues, I took my own advice and launched myself out of my comfort zone. I began the program, and made several discoveries, just in the last three days.
Before I share these morsels with you, I would like to say that there is more to eating sequentially than simply eating one thing at a time, which many people do out of habit or preference, and may have for years. For some, it simply means at meal time, they may eat their spaghetti with meatballs first, then their Caesar salad, followed by their fruit cup, with a drink of choice to accompany the meal. While that is eating sequentially in theory, it is not what constitutes the program. The true “strata eating” means that items are eaten in a certain order, and that each item is not a mixture in and of itself, such as spaghetti with meatballs. In true sequential eating, each item will be as unmixed as possible with other items. So, an improved variation of this meal would be, and in order, fruit cup first, as it is the wateriest and most easily digested, and salad second (no croutons – they’re a starch). The spaghetti and meatballs would be served as separate entities, with the spaghetti first, and meatballs second, as the meat takes much longer to digest.
Foods that take less time to digest (fruit) get piled up in the digestive freeway “off” ramp behind foods that take much longer. In this case, if the meal is eaten in the wrong order, the fruit and starch ferment behind the meatballs, which can take up to three hours or more longer to digest. Fruit always goes first, then salad, starch, meat and proteins last.
Another good piece of this, is that food, as it is digesting in order, leaves the stomach right away, shrinking the size of the stomach immediately. Eating a jumble of foods keep everything in the stomach waiting for the sluggish digestion to make some more room.
This may be why we feel bloated, gassy, with GERD symptoms happening even hours after a meal. Most of the meal may still be present in the stomach. I have gotten up the next morning after eating “mixtures” and I feel as if the whole mess is still sitting there. It probably is. And I feel half sick, sluggish and with no measurable brain activity (”She’s dead, Jim”).
So, armed with my newfound knowledge, I began to eat this way when I wrote the first article: http://gomestic.com/cooking/reduce-appetite-and-improve-health-by-eating-sequentially/
The first impulse was to think I had to limit my quantities (I didn’t), and I was awkward about how to plan a meal. I was over-thinking it. I finally realized that I can eat anything I want, I just need to eat them in order, and avoid mixtures as much as possible. I stumbled over thinking I couldn’t have mustard on my corned beef. But I knew that if I start that severely, I would fail, so I put some mustard on. Same with salad. I am not one to sit and eat plain lettuce. So, I made salads, but simple ones that were still appetizing. I just used lettuce, but put homemade creamy garlic dressing on it. My usual salad would be a show-stopper, as I like cheese, nuts, chopped vegetables and pieces of meat or chicken, maybe tuna. I often make salads with canned beans, canned peas or beets, chopped celery and whatever else the plate will hold. Of course, those are salad meals. I wondered about the starches, as I make fresh potatoes all the time. Again, not one to eat a dry potato or plain noodles, I did put some butter on the potatoes and used seasonings in my noodles. So, a couple of my meals were in order, a chopped apple, a lettuce salad, herbed noodles, corn on the cob and corned beef with mustard.
A purist might say that butter and salad dressing are not acceptable, but if it keeps me sane, then that’s the way I will eat. I did back off a bit on the butter and dressing, but it all tasted delicious.
The first day after starting to eat this way, I noticed that my appetite was out the window. I didn’t want anything until 3pm. The second day, I seemed hungry much of the day after noon. Today, I ate a piece of toast for breakfast, and didn’t eat again until 3:30. By that time I was famished. I couldn’t remember when I was so hungry. Another good point about this way of eating is that I can eat one thing to put a lid on my appetite, while the other items are cooking. So, I grabbed a glass of apple juice as soon as I got in. I sipped on that while I fixed another simple salad. I put frozen corn on to steam. I ate my salad, and I was in good shape. I ate my corn after I put some fresh sliced potatoes in with real butter and a sprinkle of garlic on to fry. My potatoes were ready after my corn was eaten. I enjoyed the potatoes immensely.
This kind of eating makes me focus on my food. I slows me down and makes me think about what I am eating.
The first morning after I started eating this way, I felt pretty good, not bloated or sick, as I might normally. I had no appetite for hours, as I mentioned, which is highly unusual for me.
Appetite in general is good, and I don’t have to fight with myself about wanting something else, or a snack before bed, as long as I keep track of what I ate last. If my dinner ended at 7:30pm, and I want something at 10pm before I go to bed, I will think about what will best work with that last food. If the last food was a protein such as meat, then I will do better to stick with another protein that has a similar digestion time. Not all proteins do have the same timing. They can vary vastly. So if beef was the last thing, I don’t want to toss in a couple of hard boiled eggs, which take less time to digest. The meat may need a couple of more hours to exit the stomach.
The digestive chart for this kind of eating is important, and I will have to get it down either in my memory or on paper ( I don’t have a printer) for when I do not remember. Having to pull up the website all the time is a pain. I want to post it to my refrigerator.
My energy is up, way up. I slept very well last night, with much less urge to use the bathroom, which is a pain, as it disturbs my sleep, constantly, and sometimes I cannot go back to sleep. I wasn’t restless as I am when I eat badly. My stomach is not fighting with itself. Although, I had to start with antibiotics three days ago also, as I have an infected bug bite, so there might be an issue there. During the night I did have two stomach cramps, but I blame that on the medicine.
So, its a journey, and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I realize that there aren’t too many foods I can’t have, and if it means giving up “mixtures” of foods, I am OK with that. I think about never having a hamburger again, and I know I can, but it will have to be in the order of lettuce/tomato, bun then meat order. Doesn’t sound like much fun that way, but we’ll see. After all, fun is what got me overweight, and eating things in order isn’t bad, as a matter of fact, it’s making me appreciate what I am eating more.
Drinking is supposed to be restricted to between meals, and is discouraged during or right after eating. So, I do my water drinking in the morning when I have my coffee, and in between meals. If I need water to get my food down, I will take only a small amount, enough to “wet my whistle”, but not enough to interfere with digestion. Digestion does require a lot of water, so it is good to always make sure you are not deprived of water or other fluids as needed between meals.
I will keep you posted, especially if I find out more about the history or medical advantages of this eating program. There doesn’t seem to be much online about it that is not repeated information, and the book by Dr. Stanley Bass has long since gone out of print, and is no longer available. I am searching tonight for other books that might help. Similar books on food combining are not the same thing, as they mix similar food items together, and have a different protocol.