Mindful Eating
It’s wonderful to be eating healthy organic food but have you considered how you are eating? The way we eat can play a big part in getting the optimum amount of nutritional benefits from our food.
We seem to have such busy lives these days, so “eating on the run” seems to be the norm. Shovelling food into our mouths with our fork poised ready with our next bite or quickly gulping down a sandwich to fill a hole before moving on to the next task, with not much awareness of what we have just eaten. The end result can be indigestion, burping, gas, bloating and overeating to name a few.
Slowing our eating down or “mindful eating” is so much better for our digestion. Consciously chewing our food well, with each bite, starts the digestive process. It triggers our salivary glands to produce saliva as well as our organs to excrete their digestive juices, thereby allowing the food to be better absorbed. This, in turn, stimulates the brain so it can register when we are full.
Taking our time and being mindful of our eating allows us to savour the flavours, textures and aromas of the food; giving us the tools to truly enjoy our meal. Having more awareness of our body and its reactions i.e. fullness, stress, rumbling stomach, pain etc. We may even notice that we are eating less due to feeling full sooner.
How do we eat mindfully? Each time we take a bite of food, put down the fork or sandwich, sit back in the chair and chew, chew, chew. Chew as much as possible before feeling the need to swallow. Take another bite and continue doing the process. The more often we do this, it will soon become second nature.
Why don’t you give it a try? What have you got to lose?
