Four practices improve digestion: pause for gratitude before eating, engage all your senses without screens, chew thoroughly to activate digestive enzymes, and stop when you're 80% full. How you eat matters as much as what you eat.
Here are four practices that we keep in mind when we eat. The first is simply honoring the food. Before we eat, we simply close our eyes and thank all the hands involved in making that meal possible: the farmer, the transporter, the person who cooked the food. The simple act of gratitude makes us relish the meal much more. The second is engaging all our senses while eating. Often people eat on autopilot, choking down a meal while their attention is on a screen. But we try our best to remove distractions and notice the taste, the beauty, the aromas, the Texture of the food, and we love eating with our hands. Third habit is chewing. For me, this is the hardest to remember, but when food is thoroughly chewed, the mouth releases saliva, which means more digestive enzymes, which means better digestion. And the last habit we practice is being mindful of portions. Realizing that it's tempting to sit and keep eating, we try to get up from the table when the stomach is 80% full. How we eat is as important as what we eat.
