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What happens when
we eat fast?
Our body stores food as fat!! Yikes!!
Do you feel like you are rushing through meals more than you used to?
Do you find yourself eating lunch in the car, eating a sugary “healthy bar”, or standing up in the kitchen while scrolling through social media?
How often do you eat at work while opening stressful emails or texts at your desk?
Are your family dinners longer than the sad statistic of 15 minutes?
Today I am going to share with you just one of the many harmful things that happens to our body when we eat fast.
The sympathetic nervous system, causes the body to release stress response hormones such as cortisol. It is similar to pushing the gas pedal in a car.The sympathetic system is activated when we feel heightened stress. It causes your heart rate to quicken, your lung tubes to widen, your muscles to contract, your pupils to dilate and it switches off digestion. Yes, you heard that right, it switches off digestion. In other words, when we eat quickly, when our cortisol is high, when stressed... It diverts energy away from digestion. Why? When we live in that high cortisol state, our body responds with "Hmmm, he/she must be stressed, rushed, perhaps under attack ~ I think I'll store that food he/she is eating right now as fat since he/she may need it later to survive."
It releases energy from our muscles and lowers immune system function. In the short term this helps us deal with stress, but if activated long term this response can become problematic.
The parasympathetic nervous system is the rest and relaxation state. It is similar to pushing the brake in a car. It works at a much slower rate than the sympathetic branch. When it is activated our saliva production increases, digestive enzymes are released, our heart rate drops and our muscles relax. It allows us to digest food properly, distress and sleep soundly. Isn't that what we all want?
Solution:
Eat mindfully and slooooowly, perhaps read a good book, and disengage from anything that causes you to be distracted. The benefits will be high as you will be better able to digest your food, engage the parasympathetic nervous system, and enjoy the company of another person or a good book.
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