Meal-Breaks

There are things to be learned from previous generations about proper food habits and practices. For one, meals break the level of toxins in food back then was virtually negligible. There were no pesticides, insecticides or weird processing techniques that contaminated food or sucked the nutrients out of it. Food back then provided much more nutritional value and much less toxins.

Of course, our life expectancy has risen since then, but so has the prevalence of certain illnesses that were quite rare in generations past. Things like heart disease, cancer and weird nervous system disorders like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, autism and ADHD were quite uncommon. Most people who survived childhood ended up dying of bacteria, viruses or “old age” — which is usually when an organ just stops working correctly because of natural aging damage to cells. We’ve dealt with bacteria and many viruses, but few people die from “old age” nowadays.

One way in which many people before us practiced good food habits is eating slowly. Their lives would have been very demanding, but not as fast-paced. They probably would have relaxed around a table and chewed their food slowly. This is very important because the more our food is broken down, the easier it is on our digestive system and the more able we are to draw nutrients from it. For example, our saliva actually contains digestive enzymes that start to break down food before it even enters the stomach. When we take our time, the process gets a head start before it even enters the stomach. Chewing the food so much that it practically becomes a liquid is the best course of action.

Also, the rate at which you eat food is important. When you eat food slowly, your stomach is better able to manage it. If you’re late to go somewhere and you down a bunch of food. It’s kind of like piling a bunch of papers on someone’s desk to read through. The stomach becomes overwhelmed and the job isn’t done as effectively. Furthermore, we actually break down food more efficiently when we’re relaxed. If you’re anxious or nervous about something and trying to “wolf it down”, your stomach will not be performing at its best.

You also want to relax after eating a meal. It’s a slightly demanding task to break down food and if you run off to perform heavy physical activity, then you’re sort of making your muscles and your digestive system compete for blood and other resources. The result will be a decrease in efficiency of both your physical output and your digestion.

Some people believe that eating liquids with meals disturbs the digestion process. The argument is that it interferes with the enzyme activity in your saliva, dilutes stomach acid and takes up too much space in the digestive system. This could result in poor break down of food and poor nutrient absorption. The recommendation is to wait at least an hour after eating a meal before drinking a glass of water.

By line: Mark 

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