Really, there is a physiological connection. Think about your favorite meal. Visualize, for a second, that meal: Close your eyes and see its color, its shape. Smell it when you take a breath. It may be a Thanksgiving dinner, or a favorite lasagna, maybe it’s a burger fresh off the grill in your backyard. Think of something that just makes your heart full and a smile wash over your entire self.
If you were able to really visualize this meal you might actually be salivating-a bit 😉
That is where digestion starts. In our ancestral living we didn’t pick-up take out, or arrive at a meal to just inhale some food. We worked for food and there was thoughtful preparation, a lot of it. Our bodies function in much the same way now as they did 200 years ago. When our mind thinks about nourishment, it prepares the body in a few ways. This preparation permits digestion and absorption of nutrients and energy from the food.
If you did the meal visualization you experienced one of them; your body released salivary amalayse and a few other enzymes so that you could breakdown the food you were imagining. Without you knowing, your body also prepared its first release of insulin so it was ready to uptake the energy from your meal and feed your cells.
By appreciating our food we allow the body to get the most out of it. This is the first step to healthy eating. It is also the first step to health. Unfortunately, if we do not prepare the body for food and allow complete breakdown of what we eat, we are setting ourselves up for internal distress.
There will be more on that later. For now, I challenge you to take a minute and appreciate your next meal.
-Lisa
