Today we will talk about DISSOCATED DIET; in particular, we will mention HOW IT WAS BORN, what are the CARDINAL POINTS, DEFECTS and ADVANTAGES of the diet in question.
In reality, it is not entirely correct to speak “individually” of DISSOCATED DIET, since the VARIATIONS of this nutritional style are very numerous. However, the very first type of dissociated diet is undoubtedly the HAY DIET, also known as the FOOD ASSOCIATION DIET.
The term Hay diet derives from the surname of its discoverer: WILLIAM HOWARD HAY, American doctor born in 1886 and died in 1940. HAY, a specialist surgeon for 16 years, converted to NATUROPATHY after contracting NEPHRITIS, a kidney disease that could NOT then be cured (or slowed down) in any way by traditional medicine. In an effort to solve his ailment, HAY benefited from a moderate health improvement by VARIING the combination of foods in the diet. In particular, the scholar tried to DETOXIFY his own organism by RESPECTING the pH of foods and digestive juices, ASSOCIATING or DISSOCIATING foods on the basis of this specific criterion. Obviously, the doctor-naturopath could not have known that, in all probability, the improvement of his condition was linked to a poorer and more restrictive diet, rather than to the respect of the alimentary or digestive pH. Therefore, in 1920, he spread his own "VERB" creating the DIET HAY which led him to PARTICIPATE in numerous conferences and to the PUBLICATION of several books.
The HAY diet, as well as the various dissociated ones that followed it, is based on the digestive COMPATIBILITY of the various types of foods. Based on this criterion, foods can be classified by their nutritional characteristics and by pH.
The food groups of the dissociated diet are divided MAINLY into:
- VERY PROTEIN FOODS: such as meat, fish, eggs, cheeses etc.
- FOODS WITH A LOT OF CARBOHYDRATES: such as cereals, potatoes, white sugar, bananas, sweets etc.
- ACIDS and ACID FRUITS: vinegar, lemon, oranges, grapefruits, etc.
- LOW PROTEIN FOODS: for example legumes
- FOODS WITH LESS CARBOHYDRATES: such as honey, dehydrated fruit, maple syrup, etc.
- LESS ACID FRUITS: such as apples, pears, pineapples, etc.
- FOODS WITH NEUTRAL or ALMOST NEUTRAL chemical PROPERTIES: seasoning fats, vegetables, milk and yogurt or butter or dairy products.
In practice, it is allowed to consume meals based on:
- PROTEIN FOODS but deriving from ONE SOURCE, possibly with SEASONING FATS and VEGETABLES
- FOODS with CARBOHYDRATES, possibly with SEASONING FATS and VEGETABLES, but WITHOUT SOUR FRUITS
- DO NOT MIX MILK or, YOGURT-BUTTER-DAIRY, WITH HONEY AND SYRUPS
- DO NOT MIX LOW PROTEIN FOODS WITH SEASONING FATS, but not even with MILK or YOGURT-BUTTER-DAIRY PRODUCTS.
From a management point of view, HAY divides the diet into 3 daily meals, placed 4-4.5 hours apart. In his “TYPICAL DIET”, the doctor suggests consuming ONLY ALKALINE FOODS in the first meal, ACID and NEUTRAL FOODS in the second, and ALKALINE and NEUTRAL FOODS in the third.
As we have already said, the dissociated diet is not "ONE and ONLY ONE". Following the discovery of HAY, in addition to the differentiation of the very first ACID-BASE diet which took place 50 years later, some very important reinterpretations were made which differences can be summarized in 4 recommendations:
- Consume fruit and sweet foods ONLY in secondary meals
- Increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables at the expense of junk foods
- Place the largest meal no later than the first half of the afternoon
- Concentrate meals containing carbohydrates at the beginning of the day, while dinner must be totally free of them.
- First of all, the FIRST classification of foods based on pH does not respect the real chemical criterion. Furthermore, the evaluation of food pH is NOT always superimposable to that of digestive pH, which makes the DISSOCIATED method further inaccurate.
- Secondly, in the dissociated vaire, the foods are treated as if they contain EXCLUSIVELY carbohydrates, proteins or fats. Conversely, almost all foods provide two or three energy nutrients and require the secretion of all digestive juices. Furthermore, it has been shown that the pancreas does NOT have a SELECTIVE exocrine function; in practice, once stimulated, it releases lipolytic, glycolytic and proteolytic enzymes at the same time.
- Speaking of slimming effectiveness, the dissociated does not stop disappointing. A study published in a well-known scientific journal of the year 2000 highlighted the FAILURE of the dissociated diet in promoting weight loss compared to a traditional diet.
- And again, despite the updates mentioned in the previous slide are based on two undoubtedly more innovative concepts of the "primordial" HAY diet (circadian rhythms, and respect for insulin calm before sleep), if contextualized in a balanced diet, they assume a little incisive role on weight loss.
- A final criticism is aimed at the monothematic trend of dissociated diets. This unpleasant feature promotes boredom in nutrition and, if on the one hand it can promote weight loss, on the other it could induce abandonment.
- Certainly, the dissociated MODERN favors the increase of fruit and vegetables in the diet to the detriment of foods that are harmful to health; however, this is not a unique feature and is COMMON to most contemporary diets.
- On the contrary, the tendency to improve DIGESTION in subjects with hypersensitivity or defects in the process is much more interesting. By dissociating foods with a high carbohydrate content from protein ones (taking care to moderate fats) it is possible to shorten the time and intensity of digestive processes, especially in more abundant meals than normal.
