Being Mindful about Food

A popular subject recently in the blogosphere has been mindfulness. Being mindful has many benefits like improving our ability to focus and even affects the homeostasis in our body. Being mindful focuses our attention in a flexible way that helps us be fully in the present moment and brings clarity and perspective to our flow of thoughts. It “brings us to our senses,” allowing us to take fuller advantage of the wisdom of our consciousness and working with the nature of our body rather than struggling against it.

We can also be intentional and mindful about the foods we eat and prepare for ourselves and our family. It makes sense to have guidelines that define our diet. But we want to avoid being overly-restrictive and robotic in how we decide what to eat. Our body is constantly sending signals between organs and to the brain. Signals go up and down the Vagus nerve and notify our brains about what’s going on in the stomach and digestive tract. If we quickly hurry through most of our meals and eat based upon reflex, we may not be applying as much wisdom as we would like to.

Simply eating slowly and increasing the amount of chewing we do can help our digestive system work better as it will create more salivation. One way we can actually get more nutrients in an easy-to-digest form is by juicing vegetables or fruits into a smoothie. This both helps break down the cell walls of the fruits and vegetables and also allows us to consume it more rapidly.

Our metabolism is something we really want to be mindful of. This means we should pay attention to both what we are eating as well as the timing of when we eat. This actually includes things like hydration, pH, and electrolytes. For example, it’s recommended to drink some amount of pure water before eating or drinking anything else in the morning. Breakfast should probably contain at least some fat and protein. If it does include carbs, it probably shouldn’t be a large amount of carbs. If you consume most of your carbs later in the day, you’ll be practicing Ketosis for part of the day which means you’ll be burning fat. This also means that your cells will be undergoing phagocytosis which is basically a way the cells clean themselves. It’s also advised that we give our digestive system a break for a couple hours prior to going to bed at night.

We really want to be mindful that we avoid sugar rushes with high-carb or high-sugar meals and drinks. Sugary drinks like soda should ideally be completely avoided. Technically, sodas are usually sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup anyway which is metabolized mainly by the Liver and can have its own damaging effects. The Science on Sugar is pretty clear. It increases inflammation and shuts down the Immune System. Sugar consumption can lead to Diabetes and most of the diseases common to aging (and death) are accelerated by eating simple Sugars.

Thankfully there are so many great options for eating healthy that are absolutely full of flavor and nutrition that you won’t even be missing out. Food combining is something we can be mindful about as well. Firstly, foods have different transit times through the gut and so some foods are best eaten before or after other foods. For example, fruit is digested more readily in the gut than meat is. So it’s usually advisable to eat fruits before meat or as a separate meal or snack. Another aspect of food combining is a little more specific and involves specific molecules within the food that either synergistically amplify the effects of each other or hamper the absorption of another nutrient. For instance, in grains (found in bread), there is a chemical called Phytic acid that can bind to minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, and Zinc, making those minerals far less able to be absorbed into the body. There are other reasons to be cautious about the consumption of bread and grains such as the fact that it usually contains Gluten which many people are unknowingly sensitive to. Gluten can be the cause of headaches, digestive trouble, and general health trouble.

There are however many foods which we can combine to our advantage and we will gain synergistic effects. (synergistic means “working together for an enhanced effect”) An example of two foods that work synergistically together are Olive Oil with Tomatoes. The fat in Olive Oil helps the body absorb the Lycopene which Tomatoes are one of the best sources of. You can read about the many benefits of Lycopene at this Life Extension Foundation webpage: http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2012/12/slash-chronic-disease-risk-lycopene/page-01) Additionally, some vitamins are fat-soluble, meaning they absorb much easier when ingested with a fat source. These include Vitamin K, Vitamin A, and Vitamin D, including direct Sunlight. Excellent fat sources include: eggs, Olive oil, grassfed butter, avocados, Coconut oil, and fish.

Once we’ve actually ingested our meal, it’s actually not just our digestive machinery that begins breaking down and shuttling nutrients into our cells. Our guts actually are home to ever-shifting colonies of microbiota (bacteria) which compete in the gut as part of the digestive process. The majority of common gut bacteria are actually highly necessary as part of a healthy human being. The two main ways these bacterial colonies can serve us are by protecting us from truly dangerous bacteria and, secondly, by digesting nutrients from foods and converting them and helping us to make vitamins that our body’s own cells may not be as good at manufacturing. For example, gut bacteria helps make Vitamin K from the food we eat. There’s also a substance called Butyrate which is a fatty acid produced by some gut bacteria and also found in high amounts in butter but only butter which is derived from Grass-fed cows. Butyrate benefits the digestive process, prevents inflammation, and helps strengthen the Immune system.

One of the ways we can encourage our digestive system is through eating plenty of fiber. Grains, beans, vegetables, and fruit are usually good sources of fiber. Fiber actually helps sweep out the waste matter after it’s been digested and its nutrients have been absorbed. Digestion, of course, simply can’t operate well if it’s not also getting sufficient levels of hydration. We want to be careful to get hydration between or before meals but not an excessive amount during or right after eating (on a chronic basis at least) as this can water-down our gastric juices. (hydrochloric acid) Some people may be deficient in hydrochloric acid and if this is the case, they can use Beetroot, cholesterol, B vitamins, and Silymarin for the Liver to stimulate the production of Bile.

The goal is to be mindful but not to agonize or stress about the complexity of nutrition. If you notice something you could do that might help make your meals more nutritious or more digestible, that’s the real purpose of gaining this mastery. Being mindful about what we eat and how we eat is a matter of honoring our own nature as well as the nature of the foods that grow on this planet. We all know certain foods are good sources of certain nutrients but how well do we really know how these foods interact with our body, our organs, and our cognition…? Rather than simply filling our plates and bellies in a disorganized fashion, we can be a little conscious about how our choices interact over the course of days. It takes discipline to notice how something we did 3 days ago or 1 week or 2 weeks ago may be affecting us now. Everyone will have their own way of understanding how their body interacts with the world around them but when we develop systems in our minds for working with our environment and our own nature, we take an evolutionary step in being able to have control over our health and wellness. If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for reading this and Cheers to Optimization!