A quick note on FOOD COMBINATIONS:
Your body takes everything you eat and turns it into something- energy, electrical impulses, cells, tissue, bone, etc. The body doesn't always recognize what we eat as food however, either because it isn't actual food (processed, highly refined, chemical filled and such) or because we unknowingly combine foods in a way that doesn't allow us to digest them properly. This causes confusion for our bodies, stress, stagnation, and even inflammation as our system tries to burn off the undigested food it can't absorb.

*here are a TON of rules out there on how to combine foods and even how to combine them to achieve a desired fitness result. I'm going to keep it simple in this post and just mention the Ayurvedic improper food combinations for your [and my] sanity as a starting point.

Here's a list of incompatible foods to keep in mind:
- Milk with meat (think cream, cheese sauces)
- Salt and milk
- Cheese and fruit
- Fruit with milk (think smoothies, yogurt)
- Stale food (including leftovers)
- Fish with yogurt or milk
- Milk and yogurt in excess
- Excessive intake of wet, green, leafy veggies (like spinach) or salads (cooked veggies are easier to digest)
- Excessive amounts of pickled or fermented foods
- Ice cream at night
- Improper seasonal diet (eat for the season)

A lot of these will go against our diets, our favorite food combo's, and even what we've been taught as children, but we must remember that our bodies are highly efficient and will most of the time do its best to process whatever we put into it. We have no idea what our organs look like on the inside though, so even if we are not feeling any great discomfort, we may still be stressing and depleting our system when we don't eat proper foods. Food is intended for nourishment and regeneration- this is what leads to longterm health.

Keep these improper combinations in mind the next time you prepare a meal or order out to improve your digestion, increase your energy, and maintain your overall balance. We will dive deeper into proper food pairing in a future post, promise!