Carlos took the position as leader of the brothers and built a strong relationship between them as a mentor. He studied a variety of subjects related to the mind, body, and spirit and soon understood the important relationship between health and physical performance.

It is important for any fighter to be physically fit but also very healthy. Realising that different foods would cause different chemical reactions within the body, Carlos narrowed his focus on food combinations. His idea was to make sure that at each meal, the foods we ate would combine to cause healthy chemical reactions. The objective was to prevent blood acidity and avoid fermentation. This would then facilitate the digestive process, which is the most energy-consuming activity of the human body.

Although he never had any formal education in the field of nutrition, Carlos read the works of numerous experts from all over the world. Using himself and the rest of the family as guinea pigs, he dedicated 65 years of his life to the development and improvement of the Gracie Diet.

Below are some of the Gracie diet tips...

Basic Rule About Carbohydrates

• Never combine Wheat or Rice or Potato with one another; they don't go. This means that you don't eat Bread or Pasta if you are having Rice or Potato with your meal.
• Corn combines OK with the other fuel foods (i.e., Corn goes with any of Bread, Pasta, Rice and Potato); however, watch out for Cornbread (as well as some of the commercial corn tortillas), because they often contain Wheat flour as well as Corn.
• Banana does not go with Bread , so if you're having a banana for breakfast, forget the toast.

Foods that must be eaten alone (Group D)

Some foods do not combine with other foods, and must be eaten alone. Carlos referred to these as "Group D" foods. After you eat one of the Group D foods, you need to wait 3 to 4 hours for your body to digest it before you eat something different. The fruits and other foods that are in Group D (and must be eaten alone) are:

• Apple (if green or acidic)
• Apricot
• Cherries
• Currants (fresh)
• Grapes (if acidic)
• Peach
• Pears (if acidic)
• Plums (if acidic)
• Blackberries
• Raspberry
• Strawberry
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Cider
• Loquat
• Pomegranite
• Quince
• Grapefruit
• Lemon
• Orange
• Tangerine
• Acidophilus Milk
• Curdled Milk
• Kefir
• Yogurt

NOTE: None of the individual fruits and foods listed above combines with any other food or even with each other. That means don't blend the juices of different citrus fruits, don't combine blackberries with raspberries, and watch the blend in fruit salad, if you want to follow the Gracie Diet.