Eat Right at Your Table
Author: Adhi Hartono
There’s more to eating than the food you put into your body. The digestive process is truly holistic. You might be surprised about the elements that have a practical impact on the way your body utilizes foods. To make the most of your meal, heed the following:
1. Don’t Drink With Your Meal
It has been discovered many years ago that consuming liquids with food dilutes the digestive juice. You may include beverages with the blood type menus. However, try to drink them separately from the meal itself. For example, have a glass of wine a half hour before dinner and drink your tea or coffee a half hour after dinner.
2. Leave Your Tension at the Door
According to Roman proverb, the secret of healing is ‘Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Happy’. If you eat when you’re nervous or tense, your stress hormones produce too many digestive juices, which leads to heartburn and and acid stomach. The dinner hour is not the time to discuss your child’s school report failures.
3. Stop Talking
In addition to the obvious connection between talking and stress, there’s a very practical reason why meals should be silent. When you talk, you tend to swallow large amounts of air, and that causes gas. Talking also interferes with the chewing process, and food must be well chewed in order to be digested properly. The old parental reminder ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full’ is good rule to follow and not just for reasons of etiquette.
4. Chew Your Food
People who bolt their food down as if they’re in some kind of contest deprive themselves of one of life’s greatest pleasures – eating and enjoying the flavors, aromas, colors, and textures of food. The importance of mastication – using your teeth, lips, gum and mouth to thoroughly chew and break down whatever it is that you’re eating – can’t be emphasized enough. Because the secretion of the gastric juices is initiated by the sense of taste, chewing thoroughly and keeping food in your mouth long enough to fully extract its full flavor helps prepare the stomach for proper digestion. This is also why foods should be eaten in their natural state. Digestive enzymes react only on the surface of food particles, not on their interior, so your rate of digestion depends upon the total surface area exposed to gastric and intestinal secretions. The more you chew food, the greater the surface area that is exposed and the more effective digestion is throughout the gastrointestinal tract. This, in turn, increases the ease with which food is passed from the stomach to the small intestines and other areas of the body, thereby placing less strain on the digestive system.
If your diet includes meats and seafood, you must take the time to thoroughly chew them, even up to 30 times per bite. Because starches such as bread, potatoes, and fruit begin the process of digestion in the mouth, they need to be thoroughly chewed to facilitate the breakdown. In addition to expediting proper digestion, thorough chewing also ceases elimination because it warms the food, and this accelerates the catalyctic activities of the enzymes. Swallowing cold foods whole slows the digestive process by inhibiting the proper secretion of enzymes.
Vary your daily menus according to Blood Type Diet’s guidance that have been developed to reinforce the philosophy that eating well is a restorative, energizing, and almost mystical experience. Let’s all eat in happiness and good health.
Reference:
- Live Right for Your Type, Dr. Peter Dadamo & Catherine Whitney, G.P. Putnam & Sons, NY, 2001
