THE WAY YOU EAT... HOW?

I've always written about "WHAT" do you eat and it is as important: "HOW" do you eat.

I'm sure you know that if you eat fast and you don't chew slowly, you will difficult your digestion. But, why? What does it mean exactly?

First of all, think about the food you ingest. Food is composed by carbohydrates, proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals, fiber, water... in different proportions, compose food; these nutrients are the ones you need to live. Digestion is the process that allows you to absorb these nutrients and to eliminate what your organism doesn't need.

Digestion starts in the mouth... well, not really: it starts before this part. When you smell or you see or you think about food, your body starts to secrete gastric and salivary juice. You know that, I'm sure you feel it... "Makes one's mouth water"... do you know this expression, don't you?

Well, when the organism starts to prepare the process, you feel you are hungry and you look for food. When you put it in the mouth, your teeth grind it to make it more digestible. Saliva has some enzymes that start to act too. These actions have the same aim: to make the food more assimilable. Assimilate means, in this context, to absorb, to let the nutrients go from the digestive tract to the blood, inside our organism (after this, it will use these nutrients for different functions).

Now... think about: if I chew few times, my teeth will not grind the food correctly... and, if I chew fast, the saliva will not mix with food so the enzymes will not act correctly. After that, food will go to the stomach, so it organ will be "busy" because it will do the "job" that saliva and teeth did not do. It makes you feel heavy, in physical discomfort, you can feel flatulence...

It's important, then, that you take your time to eat. And the quality of this time is also important. If you are thinking about what you have to do after eat, if you are thinking about the stress in your job while you are eating... your central nervous system will be activated. Do you know it? This system is the one who makes you be alert. This system reduces our digestive activity (less salivary and gastric juice = bad digestion). 

In summary: eat quietly, try not to think about other stuff and try to feel the food, their aroma, their flavor, and their texture... It makes you chew more and slowly cause you will be aware of it.

I like to think about how I eat and connect it with my way of live, my way assimilating the life. Take a look in the definition of digestion: http://www.wordreference.com/definition/digestion it is also a mental process, can you read it?

I couldn't help but wonder if a person eats slowly it means this person assimilate the life slowly too? He or she needs more time than other to digest life??

How do you eat?? And how are you in mental way??  Is there any relation??