I don't understand why fruits must be eaten separately from carbs. Fruits ARE carbs, aren't they?? So why can't they be eaten together? I can understand separating fruits from pro/fats, but since fruits ARE carbs, why must they be segregated?

I would love to be able to eat whole wheat toast with all-fruit jam, or raisins in my oatmeal (all in moderate amounts, of couse).

Has anyone tried combining fruits and carbs? If so, what were the results?

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Her argument for eating fruit alone, even though it is technically a carbohydrate, has to do with two things. First it is the fact that there is so much sugar in fruit and secondly that the acids fruits can produce when combined with other foods in the digestive tract can cause gas and interfere with the proper digestion of nutrients. This is not a scientifically proven fact, but it's a fairly commonly held belief in France, where her food combining concepts were originated. (she learned them from her French in-laws. The story is in her first book)

I know that some fruits will cause gas when mixed with other fruits because some are more acidic than others and they don't mix well once you begin to digest them. Overeating certain mixes of fruit can often cause severe stomach pains. And, of course, we all know the stone fruits; prunes, plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines and cherries, have a laxative effect. Prunes being the most famous for this.

Because many of the nutrients are no longer in fruit once it is pressed into juice, she feels that fruit juices are primarily sugar and recommends that you eat whole fruit, or blend whole fruit into juice yourself. She also avoids things sweetened with fruit juice for this reason. Dried fruit has much more concentrated sugars and fewer nutrients as well, which is why rasins and other dried fruits are on the funky list.

Berries have very low sugar levels, so if you want to cheat a little, those are the fruits to use on your toast etc. Suzanne has some fruit spreads that are "almost level 1" and Smuckers makes four flavors of sugar free preserves and jams that are legal carbos on level one if you don't mind Aspartame.

I do cheat and eat raisins in my sprouted grain bread once in a while without stalling, but I keep it to a minimum. I'd suggest that when you first start out you follow her plan to the letter, then once you are losing well you can experiment a little and see what you can get away with. Each person is different, so nobody else can tell you what is going to work for you and what will stall you.