I was reading the other day in a sports nutrition book, that it was a bad idea to eat protein and carbohydrates together. Something about protein taking longer to digest and only digesting in the stomach, whereas your saliva begins to break down the carbs in your mouth, so it takes a shorter time in the stomach. This led to an over acidic stomach or something.

I was wondering three things really:

1) Is this true?
2) What can be considered mixing carbs and proteins (if I have a piece of toast with my tuna, is that too much Carbs)?
3) How does it adversly effect one's athletic performance?


Funnily enough, I was staying with my Granny a few days ago, and she does the same thing. I couldn't get a clear reason why she does though, it pretty much ran to: I think it upsets my stomach a bit.

Well, i think in scientific theory there is probably some sense behind it, but in reality its a myth. There is protein to some extent in sources of carbs (pasta, rice,cereals etc), and also carbs in most natural sources of protein. Seeing as how you cant truly seperate the two, then it seems silly to go to the trouble of trying IMO.
As with all things, give it a try providing you get sufficient quantities of all nutrients in your days eating, but it seems a lot of unecessary mucking about to me.
I will stick to a nice chicken salad baguette thanks.

Alright Thanks for that chaps. I think I'll stick to mixing the two: I had wondered about the fact that most foods have both carbs and proteins in myself Cord, and your post makes it clearer to me.

Cheers mate!

I was worried about this. It seemed like a pain in the butt so much extra thought and planning before a meal. I'll just stick with mixing them.

Sounds like junk science but...

What is the title of this book? Who wrote it and what is his/her qualifications? Are conclusions based on peer-reviewed research?

Harvey Diamond bwahahahaha: http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/fitforlife.html

I know, he and his book are a total joke. Scary thing is, people buy into this stuff every day. When I bought his book, I was fresh out of high school, still bright-eyed and very easily influenced.

Of course, years later, and years of education later, make him easy to see through.