Chewing your food may affect your mood!
Have you ever finished a delicious meal and thought ‘did I even chew that food or just inhale it?’ Does it really matter anyway? I mean it all gets mushed up, goes down and comes out the other end, right?
Although the end product of eating food comes out looking pretty similar there are actually a whole heap of processes that go into digesting and absorbing our food. This then influences how well our bodies function, including how much energy we have, how well our muscles work, how our immune system works, and how we feel physically and emotionally.
So, what has this got to do with chewing your food? Well, the mouth is actually one of our first stages of digestion and does a lot more than just chomp up our food. Having a good munch on our meal can:
Start digestion straight away: While we are masticating (uncover your eyes, it’s just a fancy way of saying chewing), we coat and mix our food with saliva saturating it with enzymes that start to break down fats and starches. Talk about efficient!
Better use of energy and resources: Chewing allows us to grind down and mush up our food. The more we chew, the smaller the food particles get in our mouth. The smaller the food particles are when they hit our stomach, the easier it is for the enzymes in our stomach to get in and do their job of breaking down the fats, protein, carbs etc.
Introduce your food to your brain: Chewing our food means that it stays in our mouth longer. This allows all those yummy tastes and flavours to sneak up the back of our nose, known as retro-nasal olfaction. This lets the brain know food is here and gives our brain time to determine what types of nutrients we are eating. Our brains can then send messages out to our pancreas and stomach to get them prepared by activating enzymes and acids to break it all down.
Reduce overeating: As I just mentioned early, chewing properly keeps the food in our mouths for longer. As the brain registers that food and nutrients are coming, it can also determine when enough food has been eaten. If we gobble our food down with only a few quick chews between, our brain does not have time to register before it’s too late and we are well on our way to a food baby. Chewing mindfully also tend to put smaller amounts of food in our mouth at once slowing the process down enough for our brains to catch up.
Chew your way to a good mood: Chewing stimulates pleasurable neurotransmitters (chemical messengers for our nerves). These feel good chemicals leave us feeling happy and content.
Increase your nutrient absorption: The lining of our mouth (the mucous membranes) are able to start absorbing small amounts of nutrients, this is called sublingual absorption. The intestines are another place nutrients are absorbed. Again, the more you chew, the longer the food is in your mouth, the smaller the pieces get, the more you can absorb the good stuff.
Reduce indigestion, food babies and global warming (by reducing your flatulence): As I mentioned earlier as we slow down the eating process to chew our food, we can reduce the amount of food we are consuming at one time. This means our stomachs aren’t overfilled leaving only one way for the excess food to go… up. Overeating can be an easy street to indigestion. The other side is that if we don’t chew down our food, bigger chunks makes their way through our digestive tract. Our digestive system has trouble breaking this down and so as it moves through our system it starts to ferment and become putrid. This leads to bloating and eventually crowd clearing gas.
Who knew chewing could do so much?! We can see that the simple act of chewing can do a lot for our digestion which in turn does a lot for our absorption of nutrients. Nutrients are the key cofactors that go into making sure our bodies work optimally. Not only will we have better energy, and general functioning of our bodies, you will find that foggy head will clear up, and your moods can improve.
Here’s some ways you can get your chew on:
Slow down: You don’t need to take hours to get through a meal because you are chewing like a cow, but allow yourself time to chew, and chew thoroughly.
Take note: I’m not asking you to do a chew journal (although diet diaries can be helpful if things are still getting stanky or if your digestion is still off). It’s more about thinking about chewing your food and feeling the food in your mouth. Is it chopped down into small pieces? Have you tasted and enjoyed your meal?
Make time to eat: If we don’t allow ourselves the time to eat mindfully, we are more likely to shovel it in. Give yourself 10-30mins depending on the size of the meal.
Do one thing at a time: I know at the end of a long day we just want to veg out and that often means eating in front of the tv. The problem with this is that we are so busy watching the show that we don’t concentrate on the food we are eating. This leads to less chewing and more food going down our throat.
Go to the dentist: The best way to chew is to have teeth! If you have missing teeth, painful teeth or poor oral hygiene it not only affects your chewing but can encourage nasty bacteria to have a party in your mouth and other body systems.
Enjoy! Food is for nourishment, but it also plays an important role in our mood from a nutritional and social point of view. Being more mindful and chewing our food means we can help improve our relationship with ourselves, those around us and our food.
How well do you chew your food?
Regina Eylward-Piko BHSc- Naturopathy