Rest Day
Lifestyle Tip #5
We are back talking about digestion this week. Just like sleep it is important enough to come back to. We are what we digest!
Where does digestion begin? It begins when you see and smell your food. Your mouth starts to salivate at the sight or smell of something tasty. Why is this? Because there are key digestive enzymes in your saliva. Enzymes that help break down the food so we can get the most nutrients from them.
So your first opportunity to build a healthy digestion will start with seeing and smelling your food. Look at it, smell it, appreciate it. Next step is your MOUTH. This is a key part of the process. Your mouth is designed to chew and break down the food before it gets into your digestive system.
Your digestive system doesn’t have teeth. So if you swallow a large piece of food that hasn’t been chewed, you are placing a really hard demand on your digestive system. It is likely that the demand will be too great and you won’t be able to digest that food (remember the corn in the toilet?).
In our fast paced world people have forgotten to chew. Many studies have tried to look at the foods different cultures eat to determine what is healthy. What hasn’t been talked about is how different cultures actually consume their food. Which ones love to sit down, take their time to eat, chew their food, relax, and let their bodies do what they know how to do? This is perhaps the missing link to understanding the connection between food and health.
Directive – sit down to eat, chew your food 30x per bite, and try to relax without distractions from your phone or your TV.
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