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For optimum health and heightened resistance to disease the diet should, ideally, consist of alkali-forming foods and acid-forming foods in the ratio, approximately, of four to one, which, when metabolized, will produce a corresponding ratio in the body.

When Dr Hay was asked what was the scientific basis for this ratio, he replied: ‘We have no way of arriving at the relative proportion of alkaline and acid elements needed by the body except through an analysis of its excretions. When we take into account all of the excretions through the four avenues of elimination, we find that the loss in alkali is four times as great as that in acid. This means that if we would replace our losses fully we need four times as much of the alkaline intake as of the acid intake. This is a fact well known to physiologists and can be verified in almost any work on physiology.’

With regard to the chemical balance of the human blood, Dr Hay wrote: ‘It may seem strange that the slight difference between a pH 7.1 and 7.6 spells the wide difference between an acidosis and an alkalosis, yet this is true; and even this slight variation makes all the difference between function of the most chaotic variety and that of high efficiency!’ Judging by the average of those of his patients who had conserved their alkaline reserve for several years through observing the proper ratio of alkali-forming foods to acid-forming ones, the ‘normal’ alkalinity – as distinct from the ‘average’ one – should not be much below pH 7.5. From the standpoint of averages this is considered an alkalosis, yet when the alkalinity of the blood is sufficiently high to show a 7.5 pH, ‘there is extremely high functional activity with comparable feeling of good health, mental activity and physical efficiency’.

An interesting and important sidelight is thrown on this question of alkalinity by Dr Dudley d’Auvergne Wright in Foods for Health and Healing (Health Science Press, Sussex). He points out that ‘the normal alkalinity of the body fluids is the most favourable one for the action of vitamins’. In her book about the growing problem of osteoporosis, Professor Jane Plant confirms the importance of the acid – alkaline balance for the health of our bones and muscles and for our general health. As she remarks, ‘keeping the blood at a slightly alkaline pH is a top priority in the body’. (Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Osteoporosis by Professor Jane Plant and Gill Tidey, Virgin Books, 2003.)

It is not difficult to distinguish between alkali-forming and acid-forming foods:

Alkali-forming foods comprise all vegetables (including potatoes if cooked in their skins and the skins are eaten);^* all salads; all fresh fruits (except plums and cranberries); almonds; milk.

Acid-forming foods comprise all animal proteins such as meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, poultry; nuts (except almonds); all the starch foods such as grains, bread and flour and other foods made from cereal starches; sugars.

Complete lists of both types of foods are given in the Appendix (page 257).

It should be emphasized at this point that there is sometimes confusion for some people regarding the classification of ‘acid’ fruits (grapefruit, oranges, lemons, berries, etc.) as ‘alkali-forming’. It should therefore be understood that this classification does not relate to the ‘acid’ taste of the fruit but to its end-product in the body.^* The acid fruits, moreover, are the foods which deposit the highest alkaline ash of all foods. It is an interesting fact that the acids of these fruits leave the body within an hour or so of being eaten. They do so via the lungs (mainly), and the skin, urinary tract and bowel. The alkalis, when released from their combination with the acids, provide a highly valuable contribution to the body’s alkaline reserve. The only way in which acid fruits can be said to be ‘acid-forming’ is when they are wrongly combined with starches at the same meal, when they can cause an uncomfortable ‘full-up’ feeling, or even pain. Sufferers then conclude that acid fruits don’t suit them!

In order to approximate the ideal four-to-one alkali – acid ratio, the day’s meals should include one protein meal only, one starch meal only, and one wholly alkaline meal, with occasionally two, or even three, wholly alkali-forming meals. An occasional ‘health day’ on nothing but frequent meals of one kind of fruit – a gesundheitstag as it is called in Germany – is highly beneficial. Young children and people doing much manual work can, however, have extra starch meals.

How to plan these meals is described in Part Two.

A word of warning is necessary here. Changing to any new dietary programme requires, at first, a certain amount of self-discipline. For this reason, compatible eating is not recommended for people who are quite content with their state of health, or who can eat incompatible mixtures without discomfort or apparent harm. Dr Hay warned that such people do not have the very necessary ‘burning desire’ to recover from some departure from health, or the willpower, ‘guts’ and determination to see the thing through. He therefore advised that any change in the diet should be made slowly, by degrees. It was quite sufficient, to begin with, he said, just to observe the starch – protein rule. When this change is well established, the natural whole foods – especially those in uncooked, salad form – should be gradually increased, and any refined carbohydrates, and other processed foods, should be proportionately decreased.

The number of alkali-forming meals should then be increased. Especially recommended for beginners are vegetable or salad meals containing delicious potato dishes; they are not only less expensive but also more satisfying in our cold climate than meals composed of only vegetables, salads or fruit.

Compatible eating, it should be pointed out, can be as cheap – or as expensive – as the housekeeping purse dictates. And it is definitely more economical, as small, correctly-combined meals are better digested and thus more satisfying than large orthodox meals; it is not the amount of food that counts, but the amount that is properly digested, absorbed and metabolized by the body. Proof of this fact for followers of the Hay system is the falling-off of any desire for mid-morning snacks and afternoon tea with cakes and biscuits.

It is important to note that observing the rules for compatible eating considerably reduces the amount of fat in the diet, especially those fats arbitrarily occurring in so many processed, supermarket foods today – and this reduction takes place despite the culinary use of cream which raises compatible eating to delicious heights of enjoyment. Cream, in moderation, is almost a necessity for this way of eating. Health wise, there need be no cause for concern on this score as explained in Chapter 4. Cost wise, the extra expense of cream is balanced by the reduction which compatible eating makes in other food costs, such as those of expensive, ready-made, ‘convenience’ foods, and of the weekly meat bill. Apart from the starch – protein rule, the Hay system is in fact totally in line with the World Health Organization’s recent recommendations for a healthy diet (WHO report, 2003).

It is even more important to note that observing the rules for compatible eating automatically reduces the acid-forming foods in the diet and automatically increases the alkali-forming foods rich in accessory food factors, thereby contributing to the alkaline reserve and a well-balanced body chemistry. In this correct chemical balance lies the secret of health and resistance to disease.

An interesting analogy here is provided by the fact that the correct alkali – acid balance is also of importance in the soil. In the Soil Association Journal of December 1973, Michael Blake draws attention to this fact and stresses that the effect of an imbalance is not restricted to the soil, but is of ‘universal importance to all living organisms’.

Finally, it cannot be repeated too often that the Hay system is not a joyless, wearisome ‘diet’ but a ‘philosophy of living’. Joan Hodgson, a convert to the Hay system, enthusiastically agrees. In A White Eagle Lodge Book of Health and Healing (The White Eagle Publishing Trust, 1983) she writes: ‘Harmonious food-combining is a way of life. Once the rules have become familiar, imaginative cooks can have fun thinking up the most delicious meals. This is not a régime of constant self-denial, but of rethinking the meals so that each one is based on family favourites with food combined in such a way that more nourishment can be extracted with less tax on the digestion, and consequently more energy for enjoying life.’

Fifty years of ‘enjoying life’ on the Hay system, and the experience gained in helping countless people to regain health by its means, have convinced me that health is our normal state, that we were designed, created, born to be healthy. This experience has also provided proof in plenty that correct eating can not only greatly improve the quality of life but can also prevent many of the degenerative diseases.

^*In view of sprays that are used on potatoes today it is best to buy organically grown.

^*It should also be emphasized with regard to the classification of concentrated starches and concentrated proteins as ‘acid-forming’, that this refers only to their end-products in the body, and not to the mediums necessary for their digestion, i.e. an alkaline medium for starches, and an acid medium for proteins.