We began to talk about the Gracie Diet and its principals in a recent article. We wanted to revisit that and expand on its particulars. As we discussed, the Gracie Diet is not a restrictive dietary approach to nutrition but it is about food combinations and when to eat. It is not so much what we can eat but what we are able to digest and assimilate that determines our nutritional health.
With that in mind, let’s look at the main guidelines.
Gracie Diet Principles:
* Digestion is the Body’s Toughest Workout – The Gracie Diet is based on the standard that digestion is the body’s toughest daily workout and that streamlining this process enables the body to divert a maximum percentage of its resources towards other essential functions like training, healing injuries, fighting disease, etc.
* Different Food Groups Require Specific Digestive Enzymes – Specific digestive enzymes are needed to digest different types of foods. Foods can be grouped according to the digestive enzymes needed to break them down to enable quick and easy absorption and processing.
* Eat Only Foods from Compatible Groups at Each Meal – Since different combinations of foods require specific sets of enzymes and enzyme production is an energy-intensive process, one can dramatically reduce the body’s workload by only eating foods from compatible groups at each meal.
* Let the Body Recover Between Meals – The Gracie Diet is very specific about keeping four and a half hours between all meals. This allows the body to finish its job of digestion, recover, and return to its neutral state before having to produce another set of digestive enzymes. Also eating meals slowly so that the stomach isn’t inundated at once and chewing food thoroughly makes for smaller easier to digest meals.
* Eat Whatever You Want – The only foods that are expressly forbidden under the Gracie Diet are pork products. Almost all foods can be eaten, provided they are combined correctly. The Gracie Diet does not allow for the consumption of what are considered drugs- caffeine, nicotine and alcohol- as they have no positive effects on the body.
* Don’t Overeat – Eating too much overloads the body’s digestive system. Always leave the table feeling like you could eat more. A good general rule is to eat what you can fit on the palm of your hand.
Now on to those food groups. Here is a quick over view of how they combine. For a detailed list of which foods are in each group, please see below.
The Food Groups and their Combinations:
Group A – (Vegetables, greens, seafoods, meats, fats and oily foods)- Combine with each other, plus one of Group B
Group B – (Starches)- Do not combine with each other
Group C – (Sweet fruits and foods, fresh and creamy cheeses)- Combine with each other, plus one of
Group D – (Acidic fruit)- Do not combine with anything else, or each other.
Group E – (Raw banana)
| Combines with:
* all fresh sweet fruits
|
Does not combine with:* avocado * dried fruit * honey * oil/fat * Group A or B |
Group F – (Milk)
| Combines with:
* Group B
|
Does not combine with:* Group A * avocado * oil/fat * most fruits |
Group G – (Fresh milk cream)
| Combines with:
* Group B
|
Does not combine with:* dried fruits * egg whites * meats * vegetables * oil/fat |
Now we’ve looked at the guidelines, groupings, and combinations, let’s talk about where to begin with eating in agreement with the Gracie Diet.
Since all food are broken into food groups with this diet, it takes time to become familiar with the food groupings. It is easier to make a gradual switch to eating by correct groupings than to jump in straight away. Here are some stagees you can go through to begin the change to eating correctly:
Gracie Diet Phase 1
Start by spacing your meals at least 4 ½ hours apart and eat just three meals each day. No snacking and limit yourself to water in between meals. This is important because chemical reactions resulting from the continuous consumption of food before digestion is complete increases fermentation and blood acidity. Once you have gotten use to this eating schedule it’s time for the next phase.
Gracie Diet Phase 2
Eliminate desserts and sodas from your diet. Later you will be allowed to eat desserts but the challenge during this phase is to learn how and when to eat them.
If you are still hungry after meals you should not eat dessert but rather eat more of your main cooked meal instead. If you want to eat fruit you can have it as one of the three meals of the day but not as a dessert or snack. The sugars in fruits are not a replacement for sweets!
Gracie Diet Phase 3
In this phase you learn not to mix different varieties of starches in the same meal. As an example, if the meal contains bread then you can eat another wheat-based food, such as pasta, but no other starches like rice or potatoes. Start with eating correctly for one meal a day that follows and meets all the requirements and work up from there. As you increase the number of meals and repertoire.
Once you have been through the three phases you then learn the finer details of the diet such as specific food combinations.
Lastly, here are some recommendations for food staples that work the best with the Gracie Diet:
Fruit, vegetables, cottage cheese, cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, milk, fish, avocados, beans, soy, cashews, macadamia, pistachios, walnuts, Brazil nuts, chicken and turkey breast, egg yolk, coconut water, brewer’s yeast, oatmeal, rye bread, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, honey.
Stay tuned for more recepies to come from our Gracie Sydney Team!