Eat with Awareness
Eat with Awareness
In today’s world of a million distractions, many children or even
adults are eating food while watching TV or playing on their computers.
This habit can interfere with digestion, as the body is not primed to
digest food when it is distracted. When the body is stressed, it diverts
energy away from digestion and instead prepares to fight-or-flight.
Children and families should practice mindful eating around meal times.
This habit will encourage the body to digest food that was consumed
properly.
Chew the food well
Chew
until you can 'drink' each bite: 20 to 100 times!
Good
digestion begins in the mouth. Especially for complex carbohydrates, which
digest only in the mouth and the small intestine.The
stomach acids DO NOT break down carbohydrates!
The saliva that coats your food as you chew actually
contains digestive enzymes that begin to digest your food before you
even swallow it. The enzymes alpha-amylase and lingual lipase begin
digesting carbohydrates and fats, reducing the amount of work for which
the stomach will be responsible
If
you don't chew the carbs (greens, salads, grains, and beans) not only do nutrients remain
locked in the fragments, but these fragments create an environment in
the colon that is conducive to digestive distress—bacterial overgrowth, gas, bloating, and slight pain in the
belly.
In
fact, those symptoms are very common due to the way we eat: little chewing, on
the go, multi-tasking.
Chewing
also gives notice to the body that food is coming down, so the stomach, liver,
gallbladder, pancreas, etc., all get ready, and bloating is avoided. The enzyme Amylase in the salivary glands is
responsible for digestion of carbohydrates in the mouth. Without chewing,
Amylase secretion is poor, and healthy digestion is compromised.
Carnivorous
animals don't have to chew. In fact, they can't, as their jaws don't move side
to side. They rip the food instead. They eat mostly fats and protein, which get
digested in the stomach just fine.
Herbivores
(like chimps, gorillas, horses, cows, giraffes, elephants, AND humans) have
to chew.
All
herbivorous animals chew. Sometimes for hours. Have you noticed that?
Except
for us, humans. Somehow, we have ignored to observe nature and our obvious
biology.
