DEAR SPROUTMAN: I regularly mix carrot and apple juice together. But my friend who read about food combining says that fruit and vegetables don’t mix. Has he gone bananas? – FRUITY

DEAR FRUITY: Hold onto your skins. Those food combining rules are primarily concerned with solid foods and their interactions in the stomach. Juices are pure water extracts which pass right through the stomach and digest in the small intestine. Not all liquids mix well, but they allow for a great deal more versatility than foods. In either case, apples are a good mix because they are high in pectin and digestive enzymes such as malic acid. Therefore the old saying: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away…” No banana can say that.