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Did you know that diabetes can have a profound effect on your digestive system? If your blood sugar levels are left unchecked, they could cause nerve damage, and that includes nerve damage in your stomach and intestines. Suffering from digestive problems such as gas, bloating, reflux, stomach cramps, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease can hinder our daily functioning and make us miserable.
Your gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) acts as your body’s food processor. If it is blocked, overloaded, polluted with toxins such as food additives, pesticides, or preservatives, it will let you know by displaying one of the reactions listed above.
Your GI tract first breaks down your food by the mechanical process of chewing and then by a multitude of complex processes that extract nutrients to feed your system and expel toxins.
One of the best ways to ensure that we are making it easy for our bodies to digest food is to chew. Chewing your food will help your food integrate with your digestive juices so that it can be easily digested and better absorbed for optimal nutrition.
Trust me, as a social services practitioner, I gobbled down my food in my car for years as I traveled from one client appointment to another. Man, I was miserable. Bloating was just the tip of the iceberg, and you know when you feel bloated, your energy levels hit rock bottom. At least they did for me.
Then I discovered chewing. Turns out, my mother was right. Chewing is important. Turns out, she was right.
As it turns out, chewing “helps aid digestion, thereby reducing the likelihood of trapped wind, stomach bloating and gastric discomfort.” Chewing is one of the most important aids to our digestion, and it’s also one we often take for granted. Sometimes swallowing our food whole.
Learning to chew properly up to 30 times per bite, according to some experts, will help you to extract the maximum nutrients from your food and get your digestive juices flowing; this helps to keep your weight down and your belly flat.
How? Because if you eat healthy food packed with nutrients that you chew properly with each bite, you will be able to better recognize when you are full and therefore eat less.
My clients find that learning to chew helps to:
- Sense intuitively when they are full
- Gain more satisfaction from eating
- Develop a healthier relationship with food
How to Chew for Optimal Digestion:
Starting with your next meal, try chewing each bite of your food 30 times. Making sure to put down your spoon or fork between bites. Let the chewing relax you and use it almost as a meditation. This will help you enjoy the whole spectrum of tastes and aroma in your meal and allow your brain time to signal to you that you are full.
Chewing turns, eating into a more enjoyable experience.
Let me know in the comments how your chewing experiment went. You got this!
With Peace and Love,
Renee
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