I’ve been reading a book that happens to put together the bits and pieces of useful tips, information and insights I’ve gathered over years of reading about proper eating.

Proper Food Combining Works (Living Testimony) by Lee DuBelle explains very well the reasons for various good eating habits, reasons based on the nature of different foods, how the body digests them, and how long it takes for them to be digested. Thus, some foods can be eaten together, but not others. Basically, she suggests fruits in the morning, starchy food and vegetables for lunch, and the same for dinner. Non-vegetarians can have fish or meat for dinner, although DuBelle says it is better to stay off meat altogether. Milk too. Water should be drank between, not during, meals.

Here’s DuBelle’s summary of the right food combinations to eat at which meal (she has a longer list; the shorter list below is Philippine-specific):

BREAKFAST FOODS (digested in 2-3 hours)

A. Fruit, Acid	B. Mild acid	C. Sweet		D. Syrup
Lemon Orange Pineapple Strawberry Tomato Mango, Unripe Santol	Apple Guava Mango Guayabano	Pineapple Sweet mango Chico Date Papaya Banana Grape	Melon Watermelon	Sugar Carob Honey

LUNCH FOODS (digested in 5 hours)

E. Starch (with F)		F. Green vegetables (with E)
Rice Corn Bread Yam Pasta	Grains Squash Peanuts Potato Cereal	Asparagus Bamboo shoot Bell pepper Pechay Broccolli Cabbage Cauliflower	Lettuce Mushroom Okra Onion Peas, fresh Radish Spinach	Squash Celery Sprouts Eggplant Watercress Cucumber

DINNER FOODS (digested in 12 hours)

G. Fat (with E,H)	H. Protein fat (with [F][G])	I. Protein starch (with [F])	J. Protein flesh (with [F])
Butter Cream Oil	Avocado Cheese Nuts Seeds Yogurt	Beans, dry Peas, dry Soy beans	Animal meat Fish Eggs Seafood

Remember: Keep meals simple. Avoid mixing food groups. Do not eat between meals. Drink water instead: 15 minutes before or 2 hours after meals, 8 glasses daily.

There is only one point where I disagree with DuBelle. She suggests drinking water that is steam-distilled, or prepared with reverse osmosis or similar methods that remove hard minerals, additives and impurities.

Her aversion to tap water which, she says, “can kill you”, might be location-specific. But I’ve also read elsewhere that drinking distilled water exclusively will leach minerals out of your body. We evolved drinking water from streams, rivers and springs, which are rich in minerals. The people with the longest lifespans, the Hunzakuts of Pakistan, drink mineral-rich water from melting glaciers. In my non-expert opinion, clean spring or mountain water is best.

There’s one area where I can speak with authority, based on personal experience: juices. I led a hunger strike against genetically engineered corn (Bt corn) in 2003. Encamped in front of the central office of the Department of Agriculture, we ate no food, but drank water and various juices. Food was banned around the strike area. After the first week of the strike, we’ve probably tried all kinds of juices (mostly donated by the public): pineapple juice, orange juice, grape juice, apple juice, tomato juice, guava juice, mango juice, and so on. Sometime after the second week, our empty stomachs started rejecting all these juices, except one. This was the one juice that kept us alive for the last two weeks of the hunger strike, which lasted 30 days.

The juice was fresh coconut water. The top of the coconut would be chopped to expose one of the holes in the shell. We’d insert a straw in the hole and suck out the water. I now consider fresh coconut water the best juice in the world.

On the 30th day, when we ended the strike, two hunger strikers were left: Cita Esmao, a farmer-leader of the farmers’ federation PAKISAMA, and myself, representing the Philippine Greens. Ka Cita had been rushed to the hospital a week earlier, but rejoined me after a few days.

Here’s something else to think about: I was healthier after the 30-day hunger strike.