Chew Your Food THIS Many Times to Nourish Your Hormones
Chew Your Food 31 Times
Seriously. Besides the fact '31' is a pretty obscure number, so you probably won't forget.
Why? I chew my food..
I'm sure you do, but I'm telling you to EMULSIFY it. A piece of steak will require more chewing than a piece of steamed broccoli, however, counting shifts your focus of the future 1000 tasks you need to complete to focusing on your food with the end goal of making it mush in our mouths. And now we can really pay attention to the fabulous meal you have in front of you.
So why is this important?
Setting aside about 15-20 minutes to thoroughly chew food & finish a meal can:
- Increase nutrient absorption - Want to really use food as medicine? The quality of food is a small fraction of what it was just decades ago, though a healthful diet plus chewing food in a calm state of mind lets us maximize the benefits of healthy choices. Then we can maximize all the nutrient value in our food to make & metabolize hormones in the liver, gut, adrenal glands, and thyroid, and especially balance blood sugar which can seriously disrupt our hormone balance.
- Helps shed extra pounds- Our brain takes time to recognize what we have consumed, and if we 'inhaled' a meal, we may think we're still hungry yet our brain has not yet had time to process. Extra pounds= more estrogen. Yes estrogen can be a beneficial hormone, but in excess it can further contribute to weight gain, contribute to really painful periods, associated with certain cancers, as well as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and ovarian cysts.
- We make more saliva! - Digestion begins as soon as we start to smell food, as our bodies get primed to digest what we are about to consume. The more saliva, the more enzymes, the more our food can get broken down to extract vitamins and minerals. It also helps reduce plaque buildup, and makes it easier for food to travel from our mouth, down our esophagus, into our stomach.
- Less gas! - This is very common. Seriously. Not just to reduce the scent, but so you can button those pants you may have placed in the back of our closet. When food is not digested properly it sits in our digestive tract, which is about 25 feet long, and ferments, and gas is the byproduct of unwanted bacteria.