Tag Archives: food

Chew on This: Letting Your Hormones Work in Your Favor

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How many times have you heard or read this:  Your grandmother was right, you should chew each bite of food 32 times (or some number close to that).   Back when you first heard it, you were probably thinking she was saying it so that you wouldn’t choke on your food.  Well, that’s always a good reason to thoroughly chew.  In fact, my dad choked on a bite of food when he was young and the experience frightened him enough that he became one of the best chewers I’ve ever met.  To this day, he’s always the last one at the table to finish his meal.

But it turns out that there are lots of not only good, but great reasons to give your teeth a workout every time you eat.  Here are some of them:

  • It starts the digestive process and increases the surface area of the food so that stomach acids and digestive enzymes can better access it. I’ve never known my dad to have digestive problems.  He has a ‘cast iron’ stomach, so to speak…
  • It enables you to absorb more nutrients because the food is better digested
  • It helps lower the risk of autoimmune disorders – poorly digested proteins (i.e., long polypeptides) are more likely to ‘react’ with the immune system andmore likely to resemble a protein present in the body.  If the immune system decides it doesn’t like the looks of the food you just ate, it’s now on alert to attack and destroy anything similar, even if it’s part of your thyroid, or pancreas, or nervous system, etc.

And if you’re trying to lose weight, here is one that you’ll be very interested in.  An eating study published in the Am J Clin Nutr (2011; 94:709-16) with obese and lean Chinese men found that the obese men ingested more food and chewed less than the lean men, although their bite sizes were similar.  No big surprise.

However, they then had both groups of men eat a 2,200 calorie meal on two different occasions.  At one sitting, they had the men chew each bite (10g of food/bite) 15 times and for the second meal, the men were instructed to chew each bite 40 times.

At thirty minute intervals following the meals, the levels of three gut hormones were measured from plasma samples:

  1. Ghrelin, aka, “the hunger hormone,” is a neuropeptide that works on the hypothalamus to increase hunger and prepare the stomach for food when it is empty and it’s secretion stops when the stomach is full.
  2. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) stimulates a decrease in blood glucose and slows rate of absorption of nutrients into blood by reducing gastric emptying.
  3. Cholecystokinin (CCK) is released after a meal into circulation from small intestine and reduces food intake

The results showed that the levels of ghrelin were lower after 40 compared to 15 chews and the levels of GLP-1 and CCK were both higher after 40 versus 15 chews—in both lean and obese men.   In addition, both the lean and obese groups ate about 12% less when they chewed 40 times, compared to 15.

They chewed more, yet ate less.  It also stands to reason, then, that besides consuming less calories, they burned more calories chewing.  If you’re trying to lose weight, this seems like the perfect weight loss tip that doesn’t involve long workouts at the gym or deprivation—burn calories while you eat—giving your hormones a chance to work in your favor with increased satiety. It seems like a win-win to me.  So the next time you sit down to a meal, chew on that!

A ‘no excuses’ approach to eating healthy while traveling

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dallas foodI’m in Dallas for the rest of the week at the Institute for Functional Medicine’s annual conference.  This year’s conference is all about energy.  We’ll be hearing about mitochondria – the little organelles in our cells that make energy and the food that keeps our cells healthy enough to make energy.   We’ll listen to talks about brain, heart, and gut health, tissue repair and athletic performance.  EMF radiation and how it impacts us, to the therapeutic, healing energies of compassion, intention, and connection.    I’m sure my brain will be full when I get home!

Of course, for me, having the ability to keep up with all this will take energy too and so when I travel for something this intense, I make sure I arrive prepared with some foods that I know will get my mornings going on the right foot and keep my energy up throughout the day.

More and more, I’m packing food when I travel and eating out less and I prefer it this way.   It saves me time and money, and it gives me greater control over what I’m eating.   It also helps me handle and recover from a trip more quickly and reduce my chances of getting sick.  Even this morning, on my early flight, my breakfast was leftover chickpea salad that I threw together last night for dinner.  “Chickpea salad for breakfast?” you may be wondering.  Yes, it worked for me!

As I was unpacking here at the hotel, I laughed because it seemed like I had more food than clothing in my suitcase.  And as I piled it on the desk, I decided I would share with you what I brought so that you could see that it is possible to travel and eat healthy.  I carried a couple of the items myself, but the rest were stowed away with the cargo.

In the picture above, there’s whole oats, hemp seeds and a protein/green powder mix in recycled glass jars, almond milk, wild Alaskan salmon, walnuts, avocados, green apples, lemons, cucumbers, and some teas.   For the most part, it’s a relatively simple combination of foods.  I’ll be eating some meals out too, but there’s plenty of great options here to begin my day and to keep me full, keep my brain working, and keep me energized.

Here’s the thing.  There will always be an excuse to start eating healthy ‘tomorrow’.  There will be that vacation, or wedding, or birthday dinner, or barbecue, or conference.   Yet, it is possible to eat healthy and enjoy life.  It doesn’t have to be a one or the other, and I’d like to suggest that life will be more enjoyable when eating in a way that works for your body, mind, and spirit, becomes your way of life.

The Food Revolution Summit

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If you watched the documentary Escape Fire a few weeks ago, then you found out that in the United States, we’re spending over $2.7 trillion/year on healthcare, yet in terms of life expectancy our country ranks 50th. Even more sobering is that regardless of life expectancy, the quality of life for many people starts to decline well before their life is over. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way.

It makes so little sense to me that the bulk of our time, money, energy, and other resources is spent trying to fix sickness. Imagine if we could take all that money, manpower, time, and creativity and devote it instead to other things, like creating a world more beautiful than we’ve even imagined yet. Imagine how our creativity would soar if as a population, we were healthier and happier! This is something I think about all the time; it’s my vision. Call me a dreamer : )

If there is one thing I’m very passionate about, it’s our food supply and eating a diet that’s as clean as possible is one of the most effective ways to to gain and maintain health. Yet for many people, they’re simply unaware of where their food comes from, what’s actually in it, or exactly how it’s impacting their health.

That’s why I wanted to let you know about an upcoming event called the Food Revolution Summit. From April 27-May 5, bestselling author John Robbins is personally interviewing 24 of the world’s top experts in movements for healthy, sustainable, humanely-raised food.

These are some of the most educated, brilliant and inspiring voices in the world today. And you can get it all online, from anywhere in the world, for no charge. You can check out some of the speakers here.

When you register, you’ll have the opportunity to listen in on each interview and if you can’t make the time, you’ll be given access to the recording for 24 hours. This is a great opportunity to get a wealth of information about the real issues we face today with our food supply and going forward, you’ll be better equipped to make informed choices for you and your family to improve the quality of your lives, increase your longevity, and save the life of our planet for generations to come.

I hope you’ll take the opportunity to listen in.