Bread and juice, together they taste the best... but are they bad for the stomach?

Bread and juice

Eating bread and juice together can cause digestive problems. The enzyme ptyalin in saliva breaks down the starch in bread to aid digestion. However, when the acidic components of juice mix with saliva, the effect of ptyalin diminishes, making it harder to digest the bread's starch. It is better to eat bread with milk rather than juice. Milk is rich in essential nutrients such as calcium, protein, and vitamin D.

◇Beans and cheese

Eating beans and cheese together reduces the calcium benefits because the phosphorus in beans reacts with the calcium in cheese to form calcium phosphate, which is expelled from the body. A good food to pair with beans is seaweed. The saponins abundant in beans have excellent anticancer effects, but excessive intake can lead to the excretion of iodine from the body. To maintain iodine balance, it is advisable to eat beans alongside seaweeds such as kelp and laver.

◇Spinach and tofu

According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, eating spinach and tofu together can cause kidney stones to form in the body. The nitrate compounds in spinach react with the calcium in tofu, transforming into calcium nitrate, which hardens inside the body. This coagulation process leads to the formation of stones. To reduce nitrate levels in spinach, it is recommended to thoroughly blanch it before consumption. Additionally, another method is to eat spinach with sesame seeds. Sesame seeds reduce the nitrate content in spinach and increase its calcium content.