Jar Gem Wholistic

The start of a new year means a lot of people are looking at their diet and, more importantly, their health. One looks at what they put in their mouth more closely and hopefully forms some life-changing habits. 

To get things going for your health, why don’t we help your body use what you’re feeding it? In other words, let’s talk about digestion. 

Where do you suppose digestion starts?  The stomach?  Nope!  The mouth? Getting closer. Actually, digestion starts in the brain. When we think about food, when we see food, and especially when we smell food, our brain starts telling the rest of the body to get ready to eat. 

So smelling food is important?  It’s a start. Taking time to not only smell your food but be in a relaxed state while eating is very important. You digest food best in what is called a parasympathetic state – in other words, when you’re relaxed. That’s why it’s so easy to have indigestion when eating on the go. 

Once we sit down to eat at the table (not in the car or the living room with the TV on), we need to be mindful of how we eat. Chewing our food thoroughly helps farther down the digestive tract. Some people count while they chew food, but what might work better is to simply put your utensils down between bites. If you’re eating with others, this could be a good way to keep the conversation going with everyone taking one bite while another person talks and then rotating. 

Another aid in digestion is not drinking a lot of water with your meal. Water is important, but you should be sipping it throughout the day, not gulping it down with your food. If you find you need a beverage to wash down your meal, you likely are not chewing your food enough. 

There’s a lot of different things people drink, but the one thing you don’t want to drink with your meal is soda, pop, soft drinks or whatever you call carbonated beverages. This is not about the usual evils of soda, which I’m sure you’re already aware of. The reason is because of the phosphoric acid in them.  Phosphoric acid triggers the body into a sympathetic, or active, state. Remember, you want to be relaxed, in a parasympathetic state, when eating so your food can digest. Save the soda for when you’re active if you’re not ready to quit it yet. 

The last small suggestion for you might be surprising. Add butter to your vegetables!  The human body needs fat, good quality fat, to make cells and hormones and to absorb and use vitamins. Saturated fat is not the enemy, just like carbohydrates aren’t. They’re all needed in the right balance. I’m not suggesting to load up on French fries – the fats they’re now fried in are hydrogenated and the human body does poorly trying to use them as building materials. This includes the bile that our gall bladder secretes. Without good fats, the gall bladder gets gunked up, with the additional irony of then not being able to emulsify the fats you are eating so enzymes can act upon them. In other words, without good fat, you can’t digest your fat. So put a little butter on your carrots, get the whole milk with the cream on top instead of the non-fat milk, sauté in coconut oil and drizzle the olive oil on your salads and everything else. 

So just to recap:
[*] Stop and smell the rosemary
[*] Drop that fork
[*] Sip it
[*] Once you pop you won’t stop
[*] Pass the butter