Imagine your favorite breakfast—a ham and cheese sandwich—as a time bomb for your gut.
In 2023, the journal Gut published a study that shook the world of nutrition: the combination of dairy products and meat leads to fermentation, the release of ammonia and the growth of pathogenic bacteria in the intestines.
"This is a Chernobyl-level food incompatibility," gastroenterologist Dr. Emily Smith told Health Digest .
Scientists from Oxford have proven that this combination disrupts the pH of the stomach, turning it into a “swamp” where Candida fungi thrive.
Why has this become the norm?
In the 1950s, the food industry began to push "fast" protein combinations to workers. But no one studied the long-term effects.
“It’s a legacy of an era when the goal was to feed, not to preserve health,” food historian Mark Kurlansky noted in The Story of Food.
Global context: how other cultures eat
In Japan, meat and cheese are almost never combined. For example, in traditional dishes, tofu cheese is served with vegetables, and meat with rice and seaweed.
In Greece, cheese is eaten with olives and honey, and meat with stewed vegetables. “Tradition is a centuries-old experiment that science is only beginning to understand,” chef Yotam Ottolenghi said on MasterChef.
Real Stories: From Bloating to Insight
Karina, 35, Berlin: "After sandwiches with ham and cheese, I suffered from gases and bad breath. The doctor advised me to separate the products. Now I eat cheese for breakfast and meat for lunch. My intestines work like clockwork!"
How to fix the situation
Combine meat with non-starchy vegetables: broccoli, zucchini, asparagus.
Eat cheese with fruit (apples, pears) or whole grain crackers.
Separate meals: there should be at least 3 hours between meat and dairy products.
“Food combinations are not a culinary whim, but a matter of microbiome survival,” emphasized Dr. Herbert Shelton in Food Combining Made Easy.
