The hay diet involves avoiding foods that so called 'fight' with each other, it is a food combining type of diet, which means that you avoid eating certain foods together because it is supposedly bad for your digestion. Protein is not eaten with starch, they can both be eaten but at separate meal occasions.

Scientifically this is impossible to achieve since most starchy foods such as bread and potatoes contain some protein anyway. The body is well adapted to digest both proteins and starch, and the enzymes necessary to digest them are secreted in response to the food being in the stomach.

The diet first gained credence as a method of weight loss since most dietary restrictions usually mean consuming less calories than the body needs. It is not better than any other diet that is low in calories, any weight loss should only be achieved through a sensible diet. This diet should always be avoided by anyone who has diabetes since carbohydrate should be spread evenly throughout the day and not kept to one meal only.

Description of the Hay System

The Hay System is primarily a normalising system. To put it in its simplest terms: -

• 70% of the food intake should be fresh fruits and vegetables, as much as possible in their raw state.
• The remaining 30% should be made up of proteins (Meats, fish, eggs, etc) and starches (carbohydrates, e.g., pasta, bread, etc). These two categories of foods should be kept apart, i.e. eaten at different meals.

Generally, the effect of not eating 'foods that fight' at the same meal gives improved digestion. Proteins 'fight' starch', and citrus fruits 'fight' carbohydrates.

You eat your fill at every meal (not over-eating, as with any sensible system) , then you wait about four hours before taking anything else, or until your tummy 'rumbles'.

Each day you need to aim for:

• One protein meal (lunch is best)
• One starch meal (last meal of the day is best for this)
• One purely 'alkaline forming' meal

This regime seems to suit the human digestion, and you should find your digestive system feels much more comfortable as a result.

The Hay System will regulate body weight up or down, to a suitable healthy weight for your body. You can do this without feeling 'starving': you should never go hungry, yet your weight will stabilise to suit you best.

The diet is in no way 'punitive', and is based on sound nutrition. It encourages a delight in , respect for, and greater enjoyment of good food.

While organic foods are preferred, it still works out as good value, because your body makes full use of what you give it, and you should find there is no need to spend large sums in order to eat well.

'Everything in moderation' is a key phrase. Very few items are discouraged, except the obvious cakes and biscuits, etc. Even alcohol in moderation is o.k. - gin, whiskey, beer, wine, cider, etc. All are allowed, if used in correct combinations with other items from the correct category of meal. For example, sweet liquors come in the category of 'starches', as you might expect, because they have a lot of sugar in them. At the other end of the spectrum, dry white wine, for example, goes with the 'protein' category, because it will not 'fight' with protein, as sweet sugary substances do. This may sound a little baffling at first, but it all makes sense, as you should find if you read more about how to choose foods and drinks that complement each other. It comes as second nature after a little while, and is not difficult to understand.

There have been reports of previously very stubborn medical conditions that have unexpectedly responded to correct food combining. Widely occurring conditions can be helped, and reversible conditions improve, or even clear up altogether. However, no-one is claiming to be able to cure conditions where there has been a serious, irreversible organic change.

The value of the Hay System is that it gives the human body its best chance of healing itself, then maintaining itself to optimum efficiency and well-being.

The choice of items you can use to suit your own taste is extremely wide. A perfect lunch meal could be smoked haddock and apple salad, with dry white wine. This meal would be in the 'protein' category, for example, and the trick then is to not ruin it by eating a sweet pudding, but if a dessert is wished, then fresh fruit and cream is fine, and does not 'fight' the above protein meal.

For a mostly 'alkaline' breakfast, you could try:

• One apple, peeled and grated,
• Approx one to two tablespoons of natural bran or 'All Bran',
• Approx. three tablespoons of natural, preferably organic, yoghurt,
• Approx one tablespoon of honey;
• Approx. two ounces of ground almonds. (these contain protein, but actually behave as a 'neutral' food, and are an excellent food).

The above quantities do not have to be measured exactly, you can use more or less according to taste. But the above amounts do make a substantial and satisfying breakfast, which seems to stimulate the digestion ready for the other meals of the day, which follow at appropriate intervals.

A general daily pattern that seems to work well is Alkaline, then Protein, then Starch categories. When you are faced with a set meal of meat and vegetables, if you want the meat content, all you need to do is discard the starch content, usually potatoes or chips. It does not mean you have to forego these altogether - you simply reserve them for the Starch category meal that you have perhaps as your evening meal. By doing this you have decided it will be a protein meal.

By the same token, when you come later to your starch meal, you omit items containing protein, having reserved them for eating at lunches. If you have to eat a dinner that contains all the categories, you just decide which category you will put the meal in, then eat appropriately. If you have chosen a protein dinner, but then along comes a starchey sweet that it would seem rude to reject, if you have been careful with the first course, then you might find the 'mistake' has less bad an effect. It's not that strict a system, but of course the closer you stick to the guidelines, the more benefit you will gain.

A 'Starch' (carbohydrate) meal for the evening could be pasta with a compatible sauce or vegetable curry and rice. Even chips, if fried in good vegetable oil: in fact with this diet there is no harm in the famous 'Chip Buttie' because potatoes and bread are both starches, and therefore don't 'fight' each other.

Further reading:

'Food Combining For Health', by Doris Grant and Jean Joyce (Thorsens) ;

'Food Combining For Life', by Doris Grant (Thorsens).

'How To Take Control Of Your Health', by Rosemarie Mann, please enquire about the latter via E-Mail: Tobypaws2002@aol.com

By Mrs Pat Bacon SRD Dip Ad Diet and Ms Rosemarie Mann