Sit, Eat & Chew First, food is something to enjoy, it is the basis of culture, family and every cell in your body. Given that, there a few rules, old rules that we seem to have forgotten. Sit. That’s right sit to eat. You are nourishing your body and perhaps your relationships as well. Forcing yourself to sit from first bite to last at a table with the intention of eating has the effect of cutting out mindless car calories, habit snacks, nervous noshing, and a host of other eating blasphemes. Eat. And nothing else. Don’t multitask on this one. Mindlessly shoving in food, while you’re concentrating on other things is the cardinal sin of the both, the overeater and the unconscious eater. Bring food back to its rightful place as the foundation on which you are built. Your body is a temple and food is the medium of devotion. This is called conscious eating. Being aware of what you are doing and the relationship that you have with nourishing yourself. Even if you’re choosing to put Twinkies into your body, do it mindfully, check in with your body and how it feels, how you feel. Eventually you will begin to relate positive foods with positive feedback. Chew. Chewing is a highly underrated part of eating. Everything that happens when something passes your lips is carefully designed to assist in digestion. Food being chewed, ground into mush means that there is increased surface area on every particle. That surface area is the center of activity for digestive juices. Chewing churns your food with saliva. Saliva is full of enzymes and begins the breakdown of carbohydrates into sugars. As you taste and smell your food during the chewing stage, the rest of your digestive track is getting complex messages of what to do next with food coming down the pike. Chewing actually means chew 40-100 times per mouthful. ‘That will take forever!’ you exclaim. Actually as you learn to eat and savour you’ll discover two great benefits. First all of your taste buds are on your tongue so the only way to prolong that fabulous flavour is to chew. As those carbs breakdown the food in your mouth will become sweeter, satisfying your sweet cravings. Secondly, slowing the intake of food gives your body the chance to let you know that it’s full. That signal takes a little time to reach the brain. Shoving in forkful after thoughtless forkful with a brief nod to chewing means that you will consistently eat more than your stomach can comfortably hold (and digest). So those are the 3 primary rules for eating. Sit. Eat. Chew.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:27:43 +0000
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