6 eating hygiene tips
Eating hygiene is a way of eating with full awareness. This helps us optimize digestion, absorb nutrients in a more effective way, and communicate accurately with our cells.
Eating hygiene is a way of eating with full awareness. This helps us optimize digestion, absorb nutrients in a more effective way, and communicate accurately with our cells.
It’s important to practice eating hygiene techniques everyday, since it has a huge impact in our health. Not practicing this can cause inflammation, weak absorption of nutrients, constipation, diarrhoea, damage to our intestinal microbiota, among others.
So, here’s 6 tips I can give you to improve your eating hygiene!
1. BREATHE
Oxygen is the key component to the production of celular energy, including the cells of our gastrointestinal tract
2. CHEW PROPERLY
20-100 seconds is the ideal amount of time we should spend chewing each mouthful. It’s very important to chew properly everything we eat, because this way we help our body digest quicker.
This also makes us eat slower and take our time, which allows our breaths to become deeper.
3. DIGESTION STARTS IN THE BRAIN
Make yourself crave it!
Creating a visually attractive meal can send signals to your brain that make you start the digestion process even before you start eating.
When we start craving the food in front of us, our brain sends instructions to our body and our mouth starts watering. This process generates digestive enzymes which will optimize our digestion by breaking the food more efficiently in our body.
4. DON’T DRINK WATER WHILE YOU EAT
We are used to arrive to the dinner table feeling super thirsty and drinking 2-5 glasses of water before, during and after eating. Why is this??
Because we forget to drink more water during the day!
We need to remind ourselves to drink water constantly so that we can eat our meals without it. Drinking water while you eat dilutes your gastric acids (HCL) which disables the ability of our body to break the food efficiently and digest.
This can generate inflammation, feeling bloated and slow digestion.
5. RELAX & ENJOY
Eating should be moments in our day when we are at peace. When we sit down, relax and connect with our friends, family, partner, our with ourselves. At the dinner table, it’s common to encounter conversations that create a negative environment, such as talking about work, the world news, our problems, etc.
Try to avoid difficult or stressful conversations and focus on the positive. This will help your body relax and not only enjoy the delicious food, but also digest in a more efficient way.
6. LEAVE TECHNOLOGY ASIDE
Try to enjoy your meals without technology. If we are fully immerse in something else such as tv or our phones, we detach from what’s in front of us. This will not only help you connect better with the people you’re sharing food with, but it will also enable the receptors in our body that receive signals from our brain.
Being detached and focused on something else, prevents our body from generating sufficient digestive enzymes and also makes us forget about chewing our food properly.
SPANISH VERSION BELOW
Eating hygiene es una forma de comer con conciencia para tener una digestión óptima, absorción de nutrientes y una respuesta adecuada a nuestras células para cada cuerpo único. Es importante practicarlo día con día ya que tiene un gran impacto en nuestra salud. No tener esta higiene al comer puede generar inflamación, mala absorción de nutrientes en el cuerpo, estreñimiento, diarrea, daño a nuestra microbiota intestinal, etc.
Entonces ahí les van 6 tips para tener más higiene al comer:
1. RESPIRA
el oxígeno es un componente clave para la producción de energía celular, incluyendo las células del tracto gastrointestinal.
2. MASTICA
Deberíamos de masticar de 20 a 100 segundos cada bocado. Es muy importante masticar bien todo lo que comemos ya que ayudamos a mejorar la digestión, comemos más lento y respiramos más profundo al comer.
3. LA DIGESTIÓN EMPIEZA EN EL CEREBRO
Haz que se te antoje! Al hacer un platillo atractivo, bien preparado tu cerebro le va a mandar señales a tu cuerpo para empezar salivar, por lo tanto generas enzimas digestivas y tu digestión va a ser mucho más óptima ya que estas enzimas son las que van a ayudar a deshacer mejor el alimento.
4. NO TOMES AGUA DURANTE LAS COMIDAS
Estamos acostumbrados a llegar muertos de sed a comer y tomarnos de 2 a 5 vasos de agua justo durante nuestras comidas. Por qué? Porque no has tomado agua en mucho tiempo! Pero aquí el problema no solo es que estás deshidratado, sino también que diluyes tus ácidos gástricos (HCL) y no se vuelven menos efectivos, por lo tanto no deshacen bien los alimentos y generan inflamación.
5. RELÁJATE
La hora de las comidas es un momento donde debemos de estar en paz, sentados, en una mesa, muchas veces nos reunimos con nuestros amigos, familia, pareja, etc, y sacamos temas de conversación estresantes, hablando de las noticias, de nuestros trabajos, de repente hay peleas, etc. Justo es el momento donde no hay que tener esos temas de conversación y en cambio hablar de temas positivos.
6. DEJA LA TECNOLOGÍA
Procura por esos momentos no ver la tele, usar tu celular, computadoras, etc. Al estar concentrados en otras cosas no generamos las señales que manda nuestro cerebro, por lo tanto no generamos suficientes enzimas digestivas y no masticamos bien.
