You’ve heard the old adage: “You are what you eat.”
While it’s pure fun to picture people as giant, rainbow-sprinkled donuts and dancing hotdogs, the saying just isn’t true.
Well. It’s not ENTIRELY true.
To say you are what you eat negates all the other factors that impact our health and well being. You’re not JUST what you eat.
More accurately you are what you eat and digest and absorb and assimilate. (Tweet it!)
Wha???
If your digestion is wonky than your diet may not be as nutritious as you think it is. You may not be breaking your food down properly to single nutrients, that may not being absorbed into the body from the small intestines.
Sadly digestive function decreases with age and with stress. Gah.
To maximize digestion:
- Don’t drink water around meal times (give it a 45 minute window).
- Chew slowly. Twenty to forty times.
- Eat sitting down at a table (not at your desk or in your car) with no distractions (close ALL devices, books, magazines, TV…etc. YEP! Even your precious fancy phone.)
- Take 5 deep breaths into your belly to redirect blood flow to the digestive organs to get ready for food.
- Try 1 tsp apple cider vinegar before meals. This will help the body produce and release digestive juices and help peristalsis – the movement in the gut that propels food down the food tube.
- Be grateful and bless the food. Intention is powerful and if you believe the food is going to serve you to your highest good it likely will. I usually say, “My intention as I eat this food is to nourish my body, mind and spirit so I may be my best, healthiest self so I can serve the planet by reducing pain and suffering and bringing more love and joy into the world.” But you can use what ever blessing you’d like ;).
- Eat raw and cooked vegetables at each meal to improve digestion. That technique was taught to me by Lyn-Genet Recitas of the Plan.
- Check out my email course, “Fitting Food In” to learn fun, simple food hacks so you can get more nutrition out of your food without spending HOURS in the kitchen or being a gourmet chef. It truly is simple, healthy eating for busy women on the go. You’re welcome.
Also more accurately you are what you eat eats (and digests, and absorbs…etc).
The punk ass** cow eating a non-native diet of GMO corn when it should be eating grass, who gets sick because it’s not eating what it should – that’s what you’re eating too: sick, GMO-dieted cow. Am I the only one who feels super BLEH about that?
The fruits, nuts, and veggies drenched in pesticides? That’s what you’re eating too, and disrupting your hormone system.
The crops spliced with genes to help the plants kill microorganisms by punching a hole in their digestive system? Yep. You’re eating that too.
And your gut is getting hole punched too. Your digestive function just decreased and we’re back where we started… talking about how you are what you eat, digest, absorb and assimilate.
But thankfully I’ve listed some great tips for you above to help you maximize your digestive and HEALTH capacity. Fewph!
So yeah. You’re not just what you eat. You are what you eat, digest, absorb, and assimilate. AND. You are what you eat eats.
Make good food choices today. Tell me all about them in the comments below.
And be a doll and share this article. The more healthy guts, the more healthy people we have out there!
To Your Thriving Digestion and Delightful Life,
** To be clear it is really the farming practices that are punk ass. The poor cows are doing their best with what they are being given.
