Mindful Eating: Simple Hacks for Optimal Digestion

How, when, and what to eat for your best health

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Your mindset and attitude around eating may be more important than what you actually eat.

Real, whole foods such as fruits and vegetables are the healthiest options to reach for. But unhealthy foods such as fast food and sugary snacks can seem more appealing because they taste good and are quick, convenient, and easy to get.

However, knowing that every bite of food can naturally heal and fuel your body helps you to make healthier food choices. You can create easy hacks and plan ahead to help achieve this goal.

Five Steps to Improve Your Diet, Digestion and Health

Follow these five steps to improving your diet, digestion and health:

Step 1: Remove the junk food from your house

If junk food is there, you will eat it! Don’t buy things that no longer serve you in a healthy way. Don’t even allow them in your home.

Step 2: Add in the good stuff

Shop from the perimeter (outside edge) of the grocery store for more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods.

Step 3: Buy local or organic

Local and organic foods have fewer pesticides and chemicals than non-organic options. Increase the nutritional value of your food and decrease your toxic load by buying local or organic foods. [1] [2]

Step 4: Realize the importance of HOW and WHEN you eat

You don’t have to follow a bunch of RULES to be healthy. The goal is not to create more stress for yourself but to make you feel better and healthier.

HOW to eat:

• Take the time to sit and eat. Don’t rush through your meals. If you feel stressed and rush through eating, your gastrointestinal (GI) tract will not digest your food well. Slow down, sit, and make sure you breathe while you eat. Don’t just inhale your food.
• Use all your senses. Take time before you eat to look at your food, and smell it. Fully chew and taste your food before you swallow it. This will help stimulate your digestive enzymes and prepare your digestive system to do its job. [3] [4]
• Give thanks. Be grateful and appreciate what’s in front of you. Pray over and bless your food and the nourishment it will give your body. This sends the message to your brain and body that your food is safe to consume and is good for you.

WHEN to eat:

• The latest recommendation is to shorten your eating window during the day and extend your fasting window at night. 12–15 hours is the recommended window for overnight fasting. For example, if you eat from 8 am to 5 pm, your fasting window would be 15 hours, which is very generous and gives your body a lot of time to rest and heal overnight. [5]
• Each person’s window of eating and fasting will look different because we all have different bodies and needs. No rule applies to everyone. Experiment to find out what works best with your body chemistry! Children, the elderly, pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as people with certain health conditions, should not fast.

Step 5: Try these helpful hacks for better digestion

• Blood sugar hacks: Look into the herbs or supplements of cinnamon, berberine, and chromium, which help to regulate blood sugar. [6]
• Stomach acid and reflux hacks: Squeeze a bit of lemon juice or vinegar on your food before eating to stimulate the digestive enzymes and help your body digest better.
• Microbiome hacks: Take a good prebiotic or probiotic with meals to help inoculate the gut with more of the ‘good guys.’ Vegetables are the best prebiotics. They provide the digestive tract with lots of fiber and improve the flora of the gut.
• Essential oils for digestive health: Thyme, rose, cardamom, peppermint, tea tree, oregano, fennel, and tarragon have many benefits and healing properties for the digestive tract. For example, tarragon can help with constipation, peppermint with nausea, use fennel for gas, cardamom for nausea, etc. These oils can be diluted and rubbed on the belly in a circular motion or put on the wrists, collarbone, or behind the ears as aromatherapy. [6]
• Gut-healing herbs: Herbs can be used as a tea, infusion, or added around meals to help the gut. Gut-healing herbs include chamomile, peppermint, calendula, plantain, marshmallow, licorice, fennel, aloe vera, slippery elm, and Essiac tea. [6]

Take Away

Whenever and whatever you eat, know that you are making the best choices for yourself when you choose healthy foods that help your body heal. Take time to enjoy and appreciate the food in front of you and be grateful that your body knows how to correctly process and use food for your best health.

Happy eating!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” ~Matthew 6:25–27 (NIV)

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” ~Romans 14:17 (NIV)

Resources

[1] “What Does Organic Do for Your Health?” Farm2Mountain, accessed September 2, 2022, https://farm2mountain.com/what-does-organic-do-for-your-health/

[2] Walter J. Crinnion, “Organic foods contain higher levels of certain nutrients, lower levels of pesticides, and may provide health benefits for the consumer,” Alternative Medicine Review 15, no. 1 (2010): 4–12, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20359265/

[3] “Why is it so important to chew your food?,” Intestinal Labs, accessed September 2, 2022, https://www.intestinal.com.au/chewing-food

[4] Staci Whitman, “Your Oral Microbiome Is Crucial For Overall Health — Here’s How To Support It,” MindBodyGreen, September 3, 2021, https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/oral-microbiome

[5] “Time- restricted eating,” Found My Fitness, accessed September 1, 2022, https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/time-restricted-eating

[6] Clark, D., Heart of Herbs Herbal School, Certified Herbalist Education Program, Book One & Book Two

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