Conscious Eating
At Golden Roots Kitchen we take pride in offering our community quality, nourishing meals, as well as inspiring the power of radical self-care. If you are a member of the GRK community then it is likely that you share similar values, and are choosing to prioritize them in your life. While sourcing quality ingredients and thoughtfully preparing meals is the bulk of the work to eating well, it isn’t the whole journey. We often hear the phrase “you are what you eat." I want to make the case that— you are not just what you eat, but how you eat, and what you digest and assimilate. The practice that coincides with this idea is known as mindful eating.
Mindful eating has been practiced by traditional and ancient cultures for centuries, and has been known to bring the body into the most relaxed state for optimal digestion. In modern Western culture we have lost touch of this practice, and in return lost touch with our food. Chronic disease is at an all time high, and nearly all disease can be rooted back to stress and inflammatory markers in the body. In Eastern and alternative medicine practices it has been stated that inflammation and dis-ease begins in the gut —the digestive system, which is the portal from the external world to the internal. The digestive system is a complex organ system that sustains our precious life force by taking nutrients from the food we eat and converting them to energy. In order for this system to do it's hard work, the body needs communication that it is safe to do so. The practice of mindful eating is one that reaps tremendous mind/body benefits, and is something that you can start practicing today.
How Our Eating Habits Determine Our Digestion
The nervous system plays a crucial role in our eating patterns and habits. For example, if you find yourself eating on the go, in a stressed or anxious state, or answering consuming emails, the body naturally opts out of the full digestive process. Instead, the body senses a threat, whether real or perceived, and adapts to get you out of harm's way — aka increased insulin and cortisol. Being conscious and intentional with our eating habits allows us to live in harmony with our body. It allows us to honor and show gratitude for those who used their life’s energy to produce our food. This practice invites us to feel connected to the luscious lands that nurtured our food. A mindful eating practice brings us deeper in connection with our life force, and we in turn can more clearly understand what our individual needs are.
If you feel called to dive deeper in understanding the physiology of the nervous system and how it relates to digestion, I invite you to scroll down below the diagram at the end of the post where I break it down. There is a lot of juicy information surrounding this topic and I want to send you off with tangible and practical ways to implement all of this and get started on developing a mindful eating practice. With this information you can understand how to best support and train your nervous system to come back into balance.I invite you to adopt your own unique practices and meet yourself where you are right now.
Be present with your meal
Being present and showing gratitude for your food can be a special way to create a healthy relationship with your body.
Bringing awareness to your food allows your body a safe space to feel pleasure from food, digest, feel nourishment + fullness.
Deep breathing before and after meals activates the vagus nerve - a nerve that assists in the complex processes of digestion
Mindfulness creates trust within, and allows you to become aware of your unique cues, emotions and stories revolving around food.
We cannot go without food and we must learn to live in harmony with it.
Chew your food
This is a big one!
Chewing allows your digestive juices to report to the scene.
Aim for 30 chews per bite!
Digestion starts in the mouth - enzymes in your saliva begin the process of breaking down food.
Eating too quickly or swallowing food whole tricks the system and causes the stomach to take on tasks it was not designed for, resulting in digestive distress.
Limit Distracted Eating
Eating while stressed, stimulated, distracted or using devices is a no-no.
This one is a hard one for many people and it all ties back to being present with your food.
When food enters the mouth a multitude of signals are sent to the brain - including sensory and nutritive signals.
If you are distracted your brain will believe it missed out, sending mixed signals causing you to eat too much, not feel satisfied and then feel the urge to eat more to feel that pleasure response.
This one's for all you eating at your desks, on your phones and while driving ;-)
One Bite at a Time
Consider incorporating mindful eating into your life. Start with a deep breath, a prayer of gratitude, a break while you enjoy and begin to digest your meal. Creating new habits is hard but the good news is, every bite is another opportunity! And hey, reach out and let us know what mindful eating looks like for you and maybe even how it’s changing your health and well being. When you change and transform, you inspire others to do the same!
Wishing you wellness always,
Mary and the GRK tribe
Mary Smith has her Bachelor’s of Science in Nutrition and Food Science, is a Holistic and Integrative Gut Health Coach and serves as GRK’s in-house nutrition expert and blogger.
Contributing editor and photographer.
The Dual States of Being; Relaxation Response (PNS) VS Fight or Flight (SNS)
The amygdala is the part of the brain that processes emotion, gathers this sensory information and sends messages up to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the brain's control center, the captain of the ship. The hypothalamus sends signals throughout the body via the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls involuntary functions within the body. The ANS is divided into:
Sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).
The SNS responds and protects you in life-threatening situations by firing off hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that produce physiological changes to run from danger. When the SNS is activated you experience increased heart rate and blood pressure, increased alertness, perspiration, dry mouth and the digestive and reproductive systems take the back seat. This response is commonly known as “fight or flight”. This response is necessary — to protect us when the body and brain perceive danger, and to keep the immune system sharp. Repetitive activation of the stress response, especially low grade chronic stress, takes a toll on the body and increases the risk for countless chronic diseases and symptoms — we all know this!
Meditation, breathwork and deep relaxation practices are tools each of us can access that can activate your relaxation response. The parasympathetic nervous system puts the brakes on the stress response — and brings our body back into harmony. The PNS activates “rest and digest” signals to the body that we are out of harm's way and can safely relax. When the PNS is activated we are in deep relaxation: the body is able to heal, heart rate and blood pressure decrease and the digestive system is ready to do its job again! By rewiring our nervous system we can learn to better cope with stress, gain new perspectives on stressors, focus on the present moment, bring clarity to our challenges, and simply slow down and be.
Sources:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050399/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219460/