Do not eat fruits with meals. Dr. Rubman recommends eating fruits as an appetizer a half-an-hour before a meal, rather than as a dessert. He explains that fruits are normally digested very quickly. For example, when you eat fruit, just half an hour later you’ve digested it. When you eat fruits with other foods, however, you slow their digestion.

The fruit sits and can ferment until all foods are ready to move on together. This, again, can allow damaging microorganisms such as Candida to gain a foothold in the body, warns Dr. Rubman.

When you belch after a meal, he points out that it is often not from swallowed air, but from gas and fermentation in the stomach due to improperly combined foods.

Just say no to dessert. The worst thing you can do is to put a simple carb on top of a healthful, balanced meal, notes Dr. Rubman. Sugary sweet high-glycemic desserts, which would normally be digested rapidly, instead sit and ferment while the whole meal undergoes lengthier digestion.

If you’re going to eat sweets, it’s best to eat them on an empty stomach for optimal digestion (of course, this is not so good for blood sugar, but that’s a discussion for another day). Treat sweets as special treats rather than every day events, chew them slowly and thoroughly so the pleasure lasts longer.

Combine foods that contain different amino acids. Especially for the vegetarians among us, it’s important to combine grains, fruits and vegetables — which contain different amino acids — in order to complete the essential amino acid profile, says Dr. Rubman.

They do not need to be eaten together in one meal (although that’s fine too). However, eat portions within a four hour time period. A black bean chili or white bean soup, and a healthful grain such as brown rice — will do the trick. To learn more about these combinations, Dr. Rubman recommends taking a look at Diet for a Small Planet (Ballantine) by Frances Moore Lappe.