Chew On This!

The average person’s digestive system handles about 65 tons of food a lifetime. In order to effectively process and absorb the nutrients in our food, a healthy digestive system is required. While most people believe that the stomach is where most the of the digestive process takes place, food entering it is already pre-processed. How well your food is prepared for your tummy in your mouth contributes to the long-term health of your stomach as well.

An unhealthy stomach can result in indigestion, ulcers and more. A healthy stomach means our bodies absorb maximum amount of nutrients from our foods. Imagine only assimilating a small portion of the many healthy foods we eat. This is unfortunately the case for many people. That is why making sure that your stomach remains healthy is part of your overall health!

Digestion, as we were taught in school really begins in the mouth. But most of us habitually rush through our meals as though we had a plane to catch. We also tend to hold our breaths as we eat. This habit encourages incomplete chewing and hasty swallowing, forcing unprepared food into an unprepared stomach. Worse, many of us wash down our food before we even chew it and begin the amylase digestive process.

Drinking too much liquid while we eat makes the entire digestion process less effective as well. Our enzymes are diluted and the stomach must work harder to absorb the water. By diluting the enzymes, we slow down their ability to interact with the food and break them down. This in turn leads to less absorption and longer digestive times as the food passes through the intestines. So really, the occasional sip to rinse the palate is all that is required during meals.

Other ways to improve your chewing is to take some slow easy breaths while chewing; listen to your environment while chewing and talk after swallowing; and again, try not to wash our food down with a drink. Let our saliva and amylase liquefy the food. Swallow it only when it feels like runny mashed potatoes. That is the optimal state we want our food as it enters our stomachs.

Chewing well also makes the entire experience of a meal much more enjoyable. Learn to appreciate the finer things in life; even eating an ordinary meal can then become an extraordinary experience. Chewing properly also allows us to work out our jaw and face muscles. Furthermore, the mouth also contains several important glands, located in the jaw behind the ears. As we chew, these parotid glands are stimulated, producing T-cells into the blood and lymphatic system.

Chewing is really where good health begins, in more ways than one. So keep eating healthily and chew properly!