Prime Your Digestion: Eating Mindfully

Have you ever pondered how healthy eating goes beyond what you put on your plate?

Yes, it’s important to eat nutritious foods, but it’s also important to properly digest those foods so you can absorb the nutrients and successfully eliminate toxic waste products.

So how do we eat in a way that lets our gut do all of its jobs?

The key is to stay in a relaxed state while you eat. Your body is primarily either in a relaxed “rest and digest” state or an alerted “fight or flight” state. The relaxed state is called the parasympathetic state, and this is what we want for digestion because it allows us to secrete the acid and enzymes we need to break down our food.

When we eat food in the car or while we’re working on the computer, we’re not fully engaged in our meal and our body is not in a “rest and digest” state. This can cause bloating, acid reflux, and constipation.

Here’s some steps we can do instead, to enter our relaxed parasympathetic state:

1. Take a few deep breaths before meals. Focus on a long exhale.

2. Eat mindfully in a quiet place—without phone/computer distractions.

3. Give gratitude for your food—whether to the farmers and the preparer of your food, or in a more spiritual way.

4. Be aware of the food in front of you—notice it, anticipate how it will taste, smell it, and then savor it and notice its flavor as you eat.

5. Chew food fully before swallowing. When first practicing this, aim to chew eat bite 30 times.

6. Evaluate how full you’re feeling as you eat. Aim to stop when you’re about 80-90% full. It takes a few minutes for our satiety hormone to catch up and kick in. The goal is to still feel like you could take a light stroll after a meal.

If you need to lend your stomach a hand while you practice these steps, ask your ND about using apple cider vinegar, herbs and bitters to prime your stomach to make digestive acid. Sufficient stomach acid reduces bloating, food intolerances, inflammation, and interestingly enough often reduces heartburn.