Let Us Be Your Chew-rus

In honor of our nation’s upcoming holiday of indulgence, we dedicated this week’s class to our body’s magical but oft-forgotten (and abused) digestive system.

We pay little attention to our digestive tract unless it acts up, which sometimes seems like all the time. When we are less mindful of what we put in our bodies, those annoying gurgles and gas pains are telling us something. We usually focus on the food item as the culprit…”too many onions,” “gluten sensitivity,” or “dairy intolerance.” These are all valid reasons, and yoga helps us develop our intuition and awareness to make wiser food choices.

However, regardless of what we eat, we can all benefit from chewing our food more thoroughly. Chewing helps us our digestion in so many ways, and it requires nothing from us but patience and mindfulness.

Digestion Begins In Your Mouth!

If you think about it, we almost never give our digestion a break because we’re constantly consuming food or drinks — for energy, for entertainment, and just because it’s sitting right in front of us. This is why a lot of people do cleanses and go on fasts. But you don’t have to stop eating to lessen the stress on your stomach. Just chew your food.

Chew each mouthful of food at least 50-100 times, especially when eating grains and vegetables, which are complex carbohydrates.

You’ve heard the old saying that there are no teeth in our stomach. When we chew, our mouth secretes an enzyme in our saliva called ptyalin, which must be mixed well with our food. This can only happen in our mouth. Ptyalin breaks down starch into a complex, soluble sugar that our bodies can use for fuel.

Note that thoroughly chewing brown rice releases glucose into your system, which provides longer-lasting fuel for your body without the highs and lows that you get from refined sugars.

Chewing breaks down food so it can be more easily digested.

Chewing crushes food into tiny pieces, breaking down the molecular structure and releasing all the energy, nutrients, vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

Uncrushed food takes longer to digest, and usually causes stomach pain and bloat, burping and farting — not to mention dead weight that your body must expend energy to either store or flush out. So, not only are you not getting the benefits of the food, but you’re sapping your physical strength to deal with it.

Chewing also alkalizes your food because it mixes with your saliva, which is alkaline. We want to keep our blood slightly alkaline, rather than acidic, especially if our diet is heavily tilted toward acidic foods. Alkalizing your food means less work for your stomach.

Chewing prevents you from overeating, and eating too quickly.

It’s very easy and all to common to stuff as much down our gullet as if it were our last meal — especially if we’re really hungry. Chewing 50-100 times forces us to slow down and take the time to appreciate our food, and guess what — we eat less! It takes our bodies roughly 20 minutes to send a signal to our brain that we are full, regardless of how much we’ve actually consumed. Chewing our food means we eat less while getting the maximum benefit of our food during that time.

Chewing can be a meditation.

It’s easier to practice chewing thoroughly when eating alone, otherwise you won’t be a very good dinner conversationalist. Approach mealtimes like they’re meditations.

First, make sure you are in a quiet place and you do not feel rushed to finish eating by a specific time.

Take a good look at your plate of food, noting its color, texture, and smell.

Set an intention to absorb all the wonderful, healthful things your food is offering. Say a small prayer of gratitude, if you wish.

Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and then take your first bite. Chew. Chew some more.

Start gradually.

Try chewing every other or every third mouthful about 25-30 times. Eventually increase it to 50 times, and then when you’re feeling cocky, go for the gold standard of 100 per mouthful.

Obviously, some foods will require more chomping, like rice (preferably brown) and vegetables (preferably raw or lightly cooked). After a little practice, you’ll intuitively know when it’s time to keep chewing, and when to stop.