EATING PRACTICES

Persist Nutrition

Food hygiene, or eating practices, captures the way in which we prepare and consume our food. Everything from the moment we connect with the food we are going to eat, to how we actually get that food into our bodies, and ultimately the state our bodies are in when we receive food falls under the category of food hygiene.

Why is Food Hygiene Important? 

There is an undeniable interaction between our nervous system and how we digest food. The way we go about creating a relationship to food and how we consume food has a direct impact on the state of our nervous system when we receive food, and therefore how we can digest and process nutrients. If we can optimize our state when we receive food then we will experience less digestive stress, better breakdown of food, optimal nutrient absorption, and ideal physiologic feedback loops that tell us when we are full and satiated, or when we need more of something.

How to Optimize Food Hygiene

  1. Prepare your food – preparing our own food has a number of benefits. The more obvious and tangible is the fact that when you prepare your own food, you know exactly what is going into it and you can therefore control what ingredients (quantity and quality) end up in your body. The less obvious is the how the preparation of our own food creates connection to what we eat.
  • Smell and sight – when we make contact with food with our eyes and our nose, we begin the digestive process. Those sights and smells will start to get mucus, saliva, and enzymes in our mouths and digestive tract to start production and secretion. These will aid in the process of digestion.
  • Energetic connection – having put in time and energy into your food, it becomes more meaningful to us. There is a recognition of the cost that goes into making food and we are more likely to respect our food in how much we eat, how fast we consume it, and how much we savor it. 
  • Enjoyment of the senses – in modern life, food is often seen as fuel or simply a means to an end – better aesthetics, performance, health, etc. While these are all worthy goals, taking time to enjoy food simply for the pleasure of tasting and eating, especially in the company of family and friends, can provide a welcome place in your day to recharge and create a positive relationship with food.

2. Set your nervous system state – Rest and Digest vs. Fight or Flight. Consider for a moment that our autonomic nervous system has two different states, parasympathetic and sympathetic. The parasympathetic state is designed for mechanical and chemical digestion and nutrient absorption. We have the power to set our nervous system state with our breath, intention, and environment.I challenge you within these 40 days and beyond to fight the current of modern society that has us humming in a sympathetic state more often than not, and do the work to protect your eating time and get into a parasympathetic state to digest. You can do this by learning to slow things down around you, by turning off devices and nervous system stimulation around you when you eat, and harness the power of your own breath to change your state.

3. Chew your food – Lastly, the mechanical breakdown of food happens in your mouth and stomach. As I’ve stated before, the stomach doesn’t have teeth, so we need to utilize chewing to do the initial breakdown of food. Chewing your food more helps accomplish several things:

  • Slows down the eating process, which allows for better feedback loops to signal satiety
  • Denatures proteins and cell walls of our foods so we can have better subsequent breakdown in the stomach and small intestine

Allows our saliva to mix with our food adequately. Saliva moistens food to allow for easier transport to the stomach, and because saliva contains some enzymes itself, there is some immediate chemical digestion of carbohydrates in our mouth.

Ideas to Try

  • Sit down for meals – start with one if you never sit down to eat
  • Smell your food before eating; notice how you start to salivate (and start the digestion process)
  • Take five deep breaths before eating; or pause for a brief moment of gratitude for your food
  • Chew every bite 25 times, or until every mouthful is thoroughly chewed
  • Place your fork down between bites
  • Put screens away
  • Save water until the end of your meal; avoid gulping food and washing down bites with liquid
  • Cook and eat more with people you love

Take the First Step

During the challenge if you do nothing else, try to set a timer for 15 minutes and sit down for as many meals as you can. Slowing down is so hard in modern life, and this is trickier than it sounds – but myself as well as many of my clients have found this one thing to make a huge difference. Give it a try and do the best you can to carve out time to eat – your gut will thank you.