When it comes to the “how” of eating, most of us gravitate to the age-old “how much?” But you can’t solve every digestive woe through calorie counting. There’s much more to consider when it comes to how we should eat than simple volume, and these other factors can facilitate gut healing, prevent digestive distress, and promote overall wellness.
In fact, eating behaviors, rather than the actual food, can often be the culprit behind a plethora of gut problems. Rather than make radical dietary changes, some experts say you’re better off evaluating how you eat and making changes there, rather than exclusively honing in on what you eat.
“A lot of it is psychological,” said Sachin Patel, a functional medicine practitioner. “We want people to feel good about what they eat.”
Patel and others are on a mission to get back to basics with food and, what he calls, the “lost art of learning how to take care of ourselves.”
It’s never too late to adjust habits, and examining a few choices around eating habits has proven effective.
Patel is a frequent speaker and podcast guest, spreading the message of the “five C’s” of eating well, which mostly encourages maximizing the nervous system’s role in digestion. The five C’s are choose, chew, chill, cherish, and check.
Rather than inviting stress, chaos, and fear to the dinner table, Patel encourages tips he said are commonsense physiology.
We Can Choose
Besides choosing the right food, we can also maximize our health by choosing when we eat, how we eat, and who we eat with.Patel says that it’s best to stop eating two to three hours before bedtime. When we fall asleep in the middle of our body’s digestive process, it doesn’t let our body recover as well.
“When you sleep at night, your brain goes through a car wash process. When our bellies are full, that process becomes somewhat inhibited,” Patel said. “Our body has to prioritize getting food out of our digestive system, as opposed to doing all the other processes that are necessary.”
Precise eating times and caloric timing are individual, he said. For those who are trying to lose weight, intermittent fasting—often eating a full day’s calories in an eight-hour window—might be recommended. No more than three meals is ideal for metabolism.
“The time of day when digestion is strongest is midday,” Patel said. “That’s when we believe people should have their biggest meal of the day.”
Sitting at a table to eat is preferable to dining on the run or while standing. Sitting takes fewer bodily resources, since the muscles and nervous system are relaxed. Choosing good company and conversation also trumps watching the news or getting involved in tasks that raise anxiety.
Of course, it’s best to avoid processed food with artificial ingredients and stick to fresh foods.
“Artificial flavors can be a big problem because it tricks our brain into thinking something’s coming when it isn’t,” Patel said. “Every meal is an opportunity to put raw material into our bodies so [they] can function properly.”
A few other recommendations include avoiding foods cooked in seed oils; gluten and grains; foods sprayed with glyphosate, an herbicide applied to crops; and starches alongside protein. Eat greens with protein instead.
Eating options have proliferated, including natural foods that are accessible fresh from distant countries, thanks to our modern delivery system. And yet, Patel says, it’s the first time in history that people have complained about how hard it is to eat healthily.
Chew Your Food
The mechanics behind chewing involve a fascinating cascade of processes that can either make us feel better or worse after eating. Digestion truly begins inside the mouth.A habit of longer, slower chewing increases saliva production, which does two things. First, it sends a signal to the brain to activate the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for our “rest-and-digest” state. This is why it’s so important to take on a relaxing posture while eating, since any form of stress will interrupt digestion.
Foods that have a larger surface area and require more chewing to break them down, such as leafy greens and celery, facilitate saliva production. This usually means chewing a bite of food 30 to 45 times. When you do, metabolism improves.
The second effect of having more saliva is that it increases stomach acid. Patel said that many people struggle with low stomach acid. Stress, infections, nutritional deficiencies, lack of hydration, and medications can cause hypochlorhydria, or low stomach acid.
Stomach acid is important for digestion but also vital to a healthy immune system. Having the correct pH in the stomach balances enzymes and acids in the stomach, including pepsinogen, which helps digest proteins, and hydrochloric acid, which kills bacteria and pathogens in food and breaks down proteins into smaller, digestible molecules. If proteins aren’t digested completely, small particles can cause food sensitivities.
The proper pH level also sends chemical signals to the pancreas and gallbladder to activate their role in the digestive process, Patel said.
Slowing down, sitting down, and enjoying a meal are really relevant to a healthy lifestyle, Patel said. Yet, that isn’t the norm in a hurried world.
“Most people don’t chew their food. Food is an inconvenience for them,” he said, pointing out moms who are often so busy taking care of everyone else’s needs that they speed eat. “The only thing our digestive system asks of us is to chew. We have to slow down; that’s going to make a big difference.”
Chill Out
Meal time can be a wonderful opportunity to relax and balance out a hectic day and life. Gathering around a table is an opportunity to chill out and laugh, both associated with stimulating the vagus nerve.The vagus nerve is a two-way communication system between the brain and organs involved in digestion, and many experts believe that “toning” the vagus nerve can improve gut function.
Meals can become an opportunity to intentionally divert the nervous system away from the sympathetic side, which is the part that’s activated by stress to fight, flee, or freeze. If circulation, heart rate, and breathing are increased due to anxiety, the body doesn’t properly dedicate itself to the role of digestion. That’s why it’s good to know how to enter a state of calm as you sit down to eat.
As good ways to calm down, Patel advises taking a few deep breaths, getting in some good belly laughs, or connecting with loved ones by asking how things are going.
“Just speaking itself activates the vagus nerve, and activating the vagus nerve creates that communication to the brain that we’re safe and we’re in a relaxed state,” he said.
Cherish Meals
Practicing gratitude is another area of study that’s showing potential benefits for overall physical health. Prayer and other acts of mindful gratitude are meaningful and significant.“Really having gratitude for all the hands that touched that food even before it was brought into our home, acknowledging the hundreds of people who may have been involved in getting that food into your home, and, of course, the person who prepared the meal,” Patel said.
Check It Out
The first four C’s are all about putting better habits into place around mealtime, but the last “C” is about checking to see if digestion is improving. The only way to know is to monitor your stool.Patel recommends doing an annual stool function test, too, which can identify pathogens, parasites, and bacterial imbalances.
“Bacteria is only a problem when it is where it doesn’t belong. A lot of [irritable bowel syndrome] is caused by bacteria making its way into the small intestine that shouldn’t be there,” Patel said. “Believe it or not, a lot of people, especially in the Western world, use the bathroom wrong. Most people literally fight their anatomy when they go to the restroom.”
Patel is an advocate of wellness education, disease prevention, and decentralizing health care. Rather than wait until people are unhealthy, he wants to empower a generation of children and families to become mindful of what their bodies are capable of.
“I wish more people knew they had possession of such a remarkable, highly intelligent piece of machinery at their disposal,” he said. “If they just learn how to use it more effectively, it can have such a huge impact in all areas of their life.”