On The Menu Today: Stressful Eating

Generally speaking, most of us can make healthy choices when it comes to choosing our meals. But what we all tend to forget is the importance of how we eat our tasty cuisines. Eating when we are stressed has a BIG impact on digestion, and our digestive system, is of critical importance when it comes to maintaining our health.

I’m sure we have all turned to a bowl of ice cream, a bag of chips or a giant chocolate bar in a time of emotional upset. Or maybe it’s more common for you to grab lunch on the go. Either way, eating when we are under stress or emotionally upset will have a negative impact on how our cells absorb the nutrients in our meals. Even what time of day, how often and the amount we eat can play a part on how our food digests.

Fortunately for us, we do not to have to fight for our dinner these days. However, our body still functions with the “fight or flight” response that is designed to help us survive as if we are still “on the hunt”. When we are stressed out, the blood in our body rushes to our skeletal muscles so that we can either fight off our attacker, or run like hell. Because of the withdrawal of blood, our digestive system goes into game off mode. This makes our body think that digestion isn’t a priority at that time. Then guess what? That turkey dinner you just ate, sits in your digestive tract, decomposes, causing physical pain and then provides a dinner for the microbes in your belly, that release their waste, producing gas. Mmmmm.... ready for dessert??

What we really need to do is take the time to relax and enjoy the food we eat. Obviously, this can’t always be the case but those who suffer from digestive issues should really give it a try. If we eat when we’re relaxed, our bodies will be better prepared to process and absorb the wonderful nutrients in our food. The body also functions best if we give ourselves a daily fasting period. A 12 - 14 hour period without food will let our digestive system rest and repair itself. ( The cells in our digestive tract renews themselves every 1 - 3 days! ) When we have late dinner or midnight snack, our body has to work when it really should be resting. Breakfast is the very important time to.... wait for it..... “break the fast”!

Another important tip for good digestion is to eat smaller, more frequent meals. Eating small frequent meals, helps us to avoid over eating and is also easier for our system to digest. In a perfect world, we should be eating three meals and two snacks daily and we shouldn't go longer than five hours between meals ( unless it is your overnight fast ). Going without food for too long can cause our blood sugar to drop, which will make us want to seek comfort in that chocolate bar or salty bag of chips for that quick fix.

Here’s another tip: think of your digestive system, like the engine of a car. If the car is running (digesting food) you wouldn’t pour a bucket of ice cold water onto the engine. When we drink cold liquids with our meals, it shocks our heated digestive system, which can cause cramping and gas pains. So, if you suffer from digestive woes and love to drink ice cold beverages when eating, try switching to something that is room temperature with your meals and you should notice a BIG difference.

These are just a FEW tips that are easy to incorporate into your eating routine. I promise that by treating your body with this care, not only will your meals be more enjoyable, you will suffer from less digestive issues. You may even loose a couple unwanted pounds from the smaller meal choices! So relax, enjoy your meal time and put the “OM” back in ST-OM-ACH! ;) Bon appetite!

( If you consistently suffer serious digestive issues, always seek the help of your trusted Physician, Nutritionist or Naturopath.)