Eat simply.
We often measure the wholesomeness of a meal by its extravagance, the number of sides, etc. On Thanksgiving, million, billions of us around the world even...celebrate by preparing a very large, literally stuffy meal. And then what happens? We get drowsy, maybe even fall asleep while the afternoon football game is on.
Enter the concept of Food Combining
One reason why eating that much food can make you tired is just because of the sheer volume of food that you eat all at once and then your body has to work very hard to digest it. (and is still not able to digest it as well as it could if you ate less)
There is diminishing returns when you eat too much at once.
But also, the amount of different combinations that you have going on in a lot of meals is problematic for optimal digestion. There are pH differences, ease of digestibility differences, reactions, some minerals and vitamins inhibit the absorption of each other, etc.
It is important to be aware of what you are putting into your stomach and watch out for anything that might upset the digestion. And keep in mind that the feeling of an "upset stomach" is only the worst case where we are able to notice. A lot goes on with our bodies without us really realizing it. So it's important to learn some principles.
For instance, if you eat too many berries at once, we know that this can cause an upset stomach. What about combining meat with fruit? It might seem benign but meat takes a lot longer to digest than the fruit does and we don't want the fruit to start to ferment or the meat to take any longer than it needs to or it may start rotting, etc.
It is also very important to maintain excellent hydration as well as circulation which depends on our activities. If we sit around all day at a desk or watching TV rather than at least doing some walking, stretches, and simple exercises...then we will have much poorer circulation and increased digestion times as well.
It should be noted that indigestion is a very common thing and lots of people take TUMS or other over the counter or prescription medications in order to fight acid reflux, heartburn, excess gas, etc. And constipation is also way underdiagnosed. So it's not as if the subject of Digestion doesn't need to be addressed in the public consciousness. We need to be educated...including myself. Which is exactly why I'm doing this blog. Because as I research for these blog articles, I'm able to learn even more for myself. And we obviously shouldn't expect to completely change our diets and lifestyles overnight but we can make steady and consistent changes and not be too hard on ourselves for "failing" to maintain our standards. How can we blame ourselves? We live in a society where we are constantly marketed by companies who want to sell us junk! It's OK to fail. We can always learn from our mistakes!!
Colon Cancer, Leaky Gut, Crohn's Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Heartburn, Constipation, and Acid Reflux are just some of the many diseases or symptoms that can be linked to the improper combinations of food. That's not always the main cause. It might be lack of exercise, not enough water consumption, too many spicy foods, the wrong types of foods period, etc.
One surefire solution is of course to eat "Mono-Meals." This is basically exactly what it sounds like. One simply eats one thing as a meal or snack and that's it. You might have grapes and only grapes. Or just three or four oranges. Or two apples. Or a salad with no meat. This is not always practical though because we only have so much time and sometimes it's useful to combine multiple foods.
When Combining Foods, it can be handy to use a food combination chart.
Chart 1 Front
Chart 1 Back
Chart 2
I sincerely hope this information has been valuable to you!
Cheers to Optimization!
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