Digesting September...

Our best kept secret for better digestion...

We all know that suffering from digestive problems such as gas, bloating, reflux, stomach cramps, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease can seriously hinder our daily functioning and make us miserable.  

Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract acts as your body’s food processor and if it’s blocked, overloaded, polluted with toxins such as food additives, pesticides and preservatives, or otherwise irritated, it is going to let you know how it feels by having 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 chemical processes that extract nutrients to feed your system and expel toxins.  

The best way to ensure that we are helping make it easy for our bodies to digest our food is to chew A LOT so that our food mixes with our digestive juices so it can easily be digested and better absorbed for optimal nutrition.    So what is our  best kept secret to better digestion?   CHEWING! 

Believe it or not chewing is one of the most important aids to our digestion and it’s also one we often take for granted so much so that we sometimes just swallow our food whole, forgetting to grind our teeth altogether! Learning how to chew your food properly (up to 30 times per bite) will help you extract the maximum nutrients from your food and get your digestive juices flowing right AND help keep your weight down and your tummy flat.  
 
 How? Because if you eat healthy foods packed with nutrients that you chew properly with each bite, you will be able to recognize once you feel full and you will therefore eat less!  

Our clients find that learning how-to chew helps to:   ● Sense intuitively when you are full ● Gain way more satisfaction from eating ● Develop a healthier relationship with food  

In order to get optimal digestion AND to get in the habit of chewing, try chewing each bite of food at the beginning of your next meal 30 times. (Putting your fork down and breathing between bites will help.)  

Even if you only have 5 minutes for a meal, let the chewing relax you and use it almost as a meditation. That way you’ll enjoy the whole spectrum of tastes and aromas that make up the meal, trigger cephalic phase digestion, and your body and brain will be satisfied even with a quickie. 

You've got this and we are here to help!
-Jamie Carrier & Heidi Hills: Kaha Tahi Coaching-