Don’t Forget to Chew your Food!

Chewing your food – a key part of proper digestion !

I attended a health seminar sponsored by the Certified Natural Health Practitioners in Tampa last year. Its’ focus was on the body systems. Not anatomy but more of the physiology or the way our systems work together. While much of it was just review for me, I was totally in my glory! I just love to sit and learn from respected naturopaths and take in knowledge from the other participants in the class. This class was taught by Dr. Philip Frichey, a master herbalist and Naturopathic Doctor.

I will try to share some of the nuggets that I gained during that weekend. One of the main themes emphasized through out the class was the importance of proper digestion. This was not new to me – Dr. Jordan Rubin, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Colbert and countless others strongly emphasize the importance of proper digestion.

An easy and cheap “take away” from the class was to remember to chew our food – A LOT. The body’s digestion process begins in the mouth – with mastication . Did you know that our sense of smell and saliva are the first steps our body uses to start breaking down the foods we eat ? It can then send out messengers to our digestive system to let it know what kind of food to expect and get ready to break it down.

We need to chew our food – a lot – even thin or liquidated foods – so that our bodies have time to get the correct enzyme actions prepared. Our saliva is especially a key part to our breaking down and digestion of carbohydrates. So, the next time you sit down for a meal – don’t forget to slow down, relax and take the time to really chew each bite you take. So many times we just swallow large chunks of our meals and hope our stomach can do the digesting. Those “chunks” can cause more harm than good. Often times those “chunks” are never digested and just putrefy in our gut – yuck !

Many illnesses have improved just by slowing down the eating process and chewing their food until is it mush ! Reflux, indigestion, IBS and allergies – just to name a few can all be helped by really chewing your food 20 times or more. Go ahead give it a try – less talking and more chewing during your next meal !