Hi, I'm a Nutritional Therapist who saw Carl give a talk on Slowness this week. I felt inspired after the talk to put down a few things in this section and in the medicine section.
My mother always said chew your food and eat slowly – well there is good reason! If we eat slowly and chew our food, the sugars from carbohydrates hit our bloodstream more slowly and evenly. Eating too quickly causes a spike in blood sugar which can result in more of our food going to fat rather than energy.
Eating slowly allows enzymes in the mouth to start breaking down food and puts less of a load on the rest of digestion.
Eating too quickly keeps us in a stressful state. Digestion only works properly when we are relaxed. The parasympathetic nervous system that drives digestion is suppressed during stress. Appreciating the colour, aroma, taste and texture of food is an important part of stimulating digestion. Only by taking time can we appeciate these qualities and improve our digestion.....and eating becomes more enjoyable too!
MSG as a food additive speeds up our taste buds and makes us think something tastes good. Chinese food and crisps are a common source. Aspartic acid in aspartame and nutra sweet is an excitotoxin and can speed up brain cells so quickly that they die from a lack of energy.
