Tweak Your Eating Habits.


I post a lot of recipes on my blog and I also follow a lot of food blogs along with yoga blogs. Food is such an important aspect of every human being's life. On average, I come across about 30 new recipe posts every week. Everybody wants to share their food love through blogs and photos. **thumbs up** As much as food and variety of ingredients are important to our diet, I have to say that the attitude towards eating does concern me. The primary focus has always been on what you should and should not eat. Sadly, nobody seem to emphasize on how you should eat. Let me tell you, your mood, surroundings and mental state does affect how your body utilize the food that you eat. Probably you may feel I am repeating what you have been thought when you were young, but forgetfulness is in our genes.

1. Like Mama said, Chew Your Food.

As I always say, digestion begins at your mouth. I cannot emphasize this enough. The starch present in your food are initially broken down in the mouth by the salivary amylase. Imagine swallowing your food with minimal chewing, you're skipping the a very crucial step of digestion. This may be a shocker, but it seems you are supposed to chew your food 40 times; if it's vegetable based or 60-80 times; if they are meat based. No excuses! Chew!

2. Keep you water away. 

I have already discussed this subject on a blog post. Click here to read. Drinking water or any type of drink while eating immediately leads to bloating and slows down digestion process. Try not to drink water at least 30 minutes before a meal, during a meal and at least 30 to 45 minutes after a meal. 

3. Shhhhh!

Avoid socializing when you are having a meal. When it's time to eat, focus on the food and the eating process. When you feel hungry, the brain gets a signal that the stomach is going to be filled with food and it directs blood flow to the stomach and intestinal region to aid digestion. So all 5 senses will be focused on food consumption. When you do other activities while eating, you are distracting your senses and blood flow from functioning fully on the eating and digestion process. To summarize on the things you shouldn't do while eating.
  • No talking.
  • No reading.
  • No watching television.
  • No fiddling with your technological devices.

4. Listen to your body.

Do you really pay attention to your body's needs? Or do you eat, drink and sleep according to a schedule set by yourself. I'm sure everybody claims to have a body clock of their own, but does everyone share the same clock? Do you think everyone has to eat at 1 PM? Simple example I can give you, babies don't have a brunch time or tea time, they cry when they're hungry. The older we get, the more distant we get from our natural instincts. What I'm trying to say is, eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty and sleep when you're sleepy. Try not to force your body to fit into a schedule. Listen to your body clock and not the wall clock.

~M~


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