Just Because You Ate It Doesn’t Mean You Digested It!

Has anyone else felt like we get busier and busier each year? Our schedules have gotten out of control lately, with more people embracing a more on-the-go lifestyle. We are running from one thing to the next, squeezing meals between meetings or having breakfast in the car. While this has helped maximize our professional and personal schedules, it has hindered our bodies' schedules.

Digestion all starts with the “body state” we are in while eating. Let me explain.

Sympathetic

We all have heard of fight or flight. This is our sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for helping us escape a dangerous situation. It starts with a stress trigger. This trigger can be anything from a wild animal confrontation to someone cutting you off in traffic or receiving an email from a particular person. It is any trigger that can be considered stress-inducing.

Once triggered, your body will go through the following changes:

• Increased heart rate

• Increased blood pressure

• Increased breathing rate

• Increased blood flow to your brain

• Increased alertness

• Decreased digestion

Now, what does this have to do with eating? If you consume food under stress, you will eat in a sympathetic nervous system state, decreasing your ability to digest food properly. Stress could be anything from standing up to getting a phone call you weren’t expecting to feeling rushed when receiving a particular message, etc. It can be any number of things that trigger stress for you or your body.

While in this stressful state, your brain will divert blood to your heart, lungs, and brain, not your digestive tract. During this state, you are not really able to properly digest your food. You are also likely to eat faster, consuming more air, which can cause bloating and overeating. This is because it takes 20 minutes for your brain to fire the “I’m full!” signal.

So instead…

Parasympathetic

To ensure you properly digest the food you are taking, you need to enact your parasympathetic nervous system.

The parasympathetic nervous system is your “rest and digest” system. It is the time when your body is relaxed. When you are in this state, your body goes through these changes:

• Increased saliva in your mouth

• Increased mucus in your nose

• Increase the rate of blood to your digestive tract

• Increases the production and release of insulin

• Decreased breathing rate

• Decreased heart rate

This state is made to help you extract the nutrients in your food. The increased saliva helps your body break down the food in your mouth. The increased mucus enables you to breathe better. The insulin release helps your body break down the food you are consuming.

Three easy steps to help you consume your food

1. Sit down, away from anything that triggers a stress response (best to eat with people you love, see more details here!). This will prevent you from turning on your sympathetic nervous system.

2. Take five deep breaths. This step will help turn on your parasympathetic system.

3. Slowly chew and eat a bite about 30 times before swallowing. This will help your body break down your food more efficiently. It stops you from overeating.

That’s it. When you apply these steps, you truly digest the nutrients you consume.

References:

1. _{Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23266-parasympathetic-nervous-system-psns}

2. _{Well+Good. (2023, May 24). Splurge-worthy kitchen tools you’ll actually use (all available on QVC). Well+Good. https://www.wellandgood.com/splurge-worthy-kitchen-tools-qvc/}

3. _{Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Sympathetic nervous system (SNS): Fight-or-flight. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23262-sympathetic-nervous-system-sns-fight-or-flight}