Eating Hygiene | Mindful Eating | How to Eat More Mindfully

Transcript

[Music] in this video we are going to talk about eating hygiene and four tips to eat more mindfully not just what we eat but how we eat has an impact on our health and how we feel but loads of us are so busy during the day that we might be eating while checking email or being totally distracted or you might not even take a break to eat at all if this sounds like you then go ahead and so you can keep on learning simple ways to improve your mental health and sleep i'm dr nishi bhopal i'm a physician specializing in integrative psychiatry and sleep medicine this channel is all about holistic science-based strategies to optimize your sleep and your mental well-being every video also contains a tip for physicians and health care providers and before we jump into this video if you are a physician i would like to invite you to grab my free clinical sleep mini course for physicians and it's filled with practical tools that you can use in your outpatient practice to help your patients sleep better the link to the free mini course is in the description under this video and you can also find it at intrabalance dot com forward slash doctors you've probably heard about sleep hygiene but what about eating hygiene and when i'm talking about eating hygiene i'm not referring to sanitation or cleanliness rather i'm talking about how you actually approach eating and the way in which you take in your meals the type of food that you eat does have an impact on your health but how you eat that food is also important to consider imagine eating food while you're scrolling through your instagram feed or maybe you're watching something on netflix and then before you know it you look down at your plate and all the food is finished and you barely even tasted it does that ever happen to you eating hygiene is a way to slow down and really pay attention to the food that you're eating so that you can actually digest it better slowing down and practicing eating hygiene does help to improve your digestion so it reduces gas and bloating and other issues that you may experience digestively it also helps you absorb nutrients more effectively and when you slow down it's actually easier to tell if you're actually hungry or if you're full or if you've had enough to eat and it can prevent you from eating to the point of being uncomfortably full which is a feeling that often happens when we're not paying attention to what we're eating or if we're eating too quickly eating more mindfully and practicing eating hygiene also helps regulate your weight and it helps to regulate hormones that are involved in feeling full and feeling hungry things like leptin and ghrelin generally slowing down in what you're doing whether it's eating or other activities is good for your stress levels it helps to calm down your nervous system when you're in a constant state of rushing around that activates the sympathetic nervous system which is involved in the fight flight or freeze response so slowing down when you're eating calms your nervous system the parasympathetic nervous system is the rest and digest aspect of the nervous system and as it says in the phrase rest and digest the parasympathetic nervous system is involved in the process of digestion so you want that to be activated when you're eating slowing down helps to do this this is also better for the health of your gut so a healthy gut and a calm nervous system are also very good for your mental health and your sleep eating is also a great opportunity to practice mindfulness because you can really use all of your senses when you're eating this includes your physical senses but also your emotional senses so let's look at some eating hygiene tips the process of digestion starts before you even put any food into your mouth during the cephalic phase of digestion the smell of food the sight of it even the thought of food even if there's no food there just thinking about it can get the digestive juices flowing and then the first phase in digestion actually starts in the mouth when you start eating you start secreting saliva and enzymes in the saliva start to break down the food that you are consuming saliva also moistens the mouth so that it's easier to chew and easier to swallow your food so this leads us to tip number one which may sound really obvious but it is to chew your food most people when they take a bite chew it only six times on average before swallowing but it's much easier to digest your food if it is well broken down in the mouth before it enters the rest of your gi tract so chew your food really well this means chewing it maybe 20 or 30 times until it is liquefied that is when you want to swallow the food it's going to make it so much easier to digest and it's going to help you slow down now if you're not used to chewing 20 or 30 times it might feel a little bit strange at first but just try it out count it out and notice how it feels then what happens is you swallow the food and it goes into your stomach your stomach is like a mixing bowl so this is where the food is mixed with acid and other digestive enzymes to help break it down so you can imagine if you are eating really fast or if you're taking really bite big bites and you're not chewing it well then it's like having a lot of food in a small little cup so if you're trying to mix let's say like a big bowl of soup or stew in a small coffee cup that is going to overflow and it's not going to get mixed up very well that's what it's like in your stomach when you eat too much too quickly which leads us to tip number two which is to take smaller bites so you want to chew the food really well take smaller bites and then maybe even take a break in between bites you could even put down your spoon or your knife and your fork and just wait a couple seconds before you continue with eating this is going to give your body time to digest and break down the food properly tip number three is to eat slowly eating does not have to be a race so take some time to just notice the food that you're eating notice the colors the flavors the textures notice how it smells and slowing down and noticing the food is actually going to make it feel more enjoyable your meals are going to be more satisfying and you'll also notice that you might even digest it better because you are eating more slowly if these kinds of tips are helpful for you go ahead and let me know by clicking the like button here is your tip for physicians and healthcare practitioners you might remember from digestion 101 that cholecystokinin or cck is released by enteroendocrine cells in the mucosal lining of the small intestine it's also released by neurons in the enteric nervous system cck is released into circulation in response to a meal it helps to inhibit gastric emptying and promotes the release of pancreatic digestive enzymes and by doing so it helps to suppress hunger it takes about 20 minutes for the gut to signal to the brain that you have had enough to eat so if you are gulping down food and eating really fast you're more likely to feel over full and bloated about 20 minutes later so physicians if you are seeing patients that are experiencing indigestion or other digestive related issues you're probably speaking to them about what they're eating but also start asking them about how they are eating in what situations how quickly how well are they chewing their food encourage them to slow down to chew well to eat mindfully you can even show them this video if you wish tip number four is to eat sitting down and then wait a few minutes after your last bite before getting up and this is especially important if you tend to get up while you're still chewing your last bite and now you're over at the sink putting your dishes in the sink just take a few minutes and just wait let your body digest just relax even if it's only for 30 seconds just start practicing waiting a few minutes and you might find that your digestion actually improves sitting down while you're eating helps to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and remember that's the rest and digest aspect of your nervous system so it's going to help calm things down and help you digest better if you're eating on the go really fast maybe you're standing or walking while you're eating you're going to activate your sympathetic nervous system which is again the fight flight or freeze response now your body can't do both at the same time it can't be in sympathetic and perisynthetic mode at the same time so if you really want to activate that parasympathetic nervous system just take a moment to sit down and eat calmly so try eating mindfully at your next meal practice some of the tips that we talked about in this video let me know in the comments below how that goes