Enjoy Your Food to Nourish your Body

It is difficult to turn on the television, pick up a magazine, or read a newspaper without finding some reference to the necessity of eating properly to maintain a healthy weight. Within the past two years, the newest food pyramid was published emphasizing the intake of whole grains and cereals. Obesity in America has become a major health issue in newspaper headlines. Television commercials for weight loss programs bombard the airwaves day and night. All of the health magazines that I have in my office emphasize eating balanced meals consisting of plenty of vegetables and fruit. I have even dedicated many of my “From An Eastern Perspective” columns in the Old Town Crier to the need to eat properly and according to the season.

However, something that I have failed to emphasize and that has also been ignored by all the news articles, television commercials and magazine ads is the absolute need to enjoy eating in order to receive optimum nutrient absorption. Research has shown that nutrient absorption is 60 to 70 percent greater when the food is eaten in a relaxed state versus in a harried or agitated state. Just as drug research not only studies how the test drug affects the body, it also studies how the body affects the drug. If the body breaks down the drug in the stomach and excretes it through the colon without any absorption, then the drug is useless. The same concept holds true for food. No matter how wonderfully organic a food may be, if the consumer of that food is emotionally upset or eating hurriedly, the nutrient absorption declines dramatically as compared to eating the same food in a relaxed and calm state of mind.

One train of thought of why so many Americans have a weight problem is that we have lost the ability to savor food and enjoy it. We eat quickly, wolfing down a large quantity of food to fill a void so that we can go on to the next task. If we ate slowly, after about twenty minutes our digestive feedback system would kick in and we would feel full; perhaps consuming half the calories we would have if we had inhaled a larger meal. The nutrient absorption of the meal eaten more slowly would also be higher.

What happens when we eat food under stress? The safety mechanism of the central nervous system comes into play switching on the sympathetic response to stress. This feedback system has evolved over thousands of years to protect us from life-threatening events. When the body activates the stress response, blood pressure increases, hormones such as cortisol are released into the blood stream to provide energy, the blood flow is rerouted away from the midsection to the brain for quick thinking and to the legs and arms to provide power for quick action. The digestive system shuts down. When the body is geared to protecting you from a saber-toothed tiger, digesting this morning’s breakfast is of little concern.

So, let’s update this scenario. You grab a muffin on your way out the door to work and eat it as you dodge traffic because you’re already late. Lunch is inhaled at your desk while you’re answering your phone and trying to complete a deadline. You return home and eat dinner in front of the television while thinking about the miserable day you had at work. The body has been on high alert all day and has initiated the stress response thus shutting down the digestive system. Is it any wonder that you have abdominal pains and feel that food is just sitting there in your stomach? Well, that is exactly what is happening. Food is just sitting in your stomach awaiting the parasympathetic response to turn digestion on which may take several hours.

Let’s examine this further as to what is really going on from a physiological standpoint. When digestion is turned off in response to stress, salivation in the mouth is decreased which is the first step in digestion; enzymes that breakdown protein, fat and carbohydrates in the stomach are decreased, and blood flow to the small intestine is decreased. The limitation of blood flow to the small intestine can decrease the nutrient assimilation by as much as four-fold. This means that all of the nutrients that would have been absorbed if food were eaten in a relaxed state are excreted. Other byproducts of the stress response that can remain in the body are increased blood cholesterol, elevated cortisol and insulin, gastrointestinal reflux, decreased levels of essential hormones such as growth hormone, sex hormones, and thyroid hormones, and reduced presence of healthy gut flora just to name a few.

Digestion really begins in the mind. It begins when we experience the pleasure and satisfaction we feel to the aroma, taste, and visual stimulation of a meal. Nutritional experts estimate that as much as thirty to forty percent of the total digestive response is due to our awareness of what we’re eating. Think about your all time favorite meal for a moment and focus on what it smells like, the texture of the food on your tongue, the pleasure you feel as you are chewing. Is your mouth watering in response to this thought? Smelling food, tasting, chewing and being aware of what we eat initiates the parasympathetic response. Anticipation and awareness of our meal initiates increased salivation in our mouth, gastric acid and enzymes in our stomach and the full production of pancreatic enzymes. Blood rushes to the digestive organs so that the stomach rhythmically contracts, and electrolyte concentrations shift in preparation for the anticipated incoming food.

What happens when we are not consciously aware of what we are eating? If we eat a meal on the go or are preoccupied with doing another task at the same time, our brain has not experienced the taste, pleasure, aroma, and satisfaction from food and registers this missed experience as hunger. The brain doesn’t remember stuffing down the breakfast muffin, or inhaling the lunch salad between phone calls and answering emails or absent-mindedly eating dinner in front of the television. The brain simply remembers not being satisfied which registers as hunger so we reach for more food.

In closing, enjoying our food plays just as big a role in nourishing our bodies as eating all the correct foods. Take time to enjoy your breakfast, get out from behind your desk and enjoy your lunch, prepare a decent supper and focus on what you’re eating. Use this time to decompress and relax so that the food you eat can also nourish you.