BASIC FOOD HYGIENE?

Yes- you heard that right, food hygiene! But before we get into what this is all about, we hope everyone had a great first month of 2021. It’s hard to believe it’s already come to a close, but hopefully you were able to enjoy some better sleep after putting some new better sleep habits in place. And even if your sleep was not idyllic, remember that there are still many months ahead to try out new things to enhance your sleep. At Resilient Body, we are about the slow and steady road rather than the one that leaves your head spinning.

Food HYGIENE, though?

We won’t be discussing the cleaning or preparation of food items as it may sound (though that is also important- hold the E. coli), but rather the practices around eating that food that promote better health. We are talking about how slowly or quickly you eat, where you are and what else you may be doing while you eat, paying attention to hunger and satiety cues, etc.

We think about other types of hygiene like dental, sleep, etc.; but we seldom think of how that concept can relate to food. Again, the word itself does not mean to simply clean though we may associate it that way. Hygiene can be applied to any practice that helps promote health and stave off diseased states.

Digestion and assimilation of nutrients, hunger and satiety, hydration, and both weight loss and gain are just some processes heavily influenced by food hygiene. Our relationship with food as nourishment or fuel; and what and how we choose to eat is very important. In fact, it can last beyond just that meal and even the roughly 48 hours to 5 day work week it takes to digest it too since many of the behaviors we will discuss around eating are just that…learned behaviors that perpetuate.

It’s a long journey through the roughly 30 feet of your gastrointestinal tract and many systems and processes are involved in whether what you eat and the nutrients it is comprised of become a part of you. Hence the adage, “you are what you eat” holding true, BUT also HOW YOU EAT. This is even more reason to not only assure what you eat is worthwhile and nourishing, but also the state of how/when/where you eat being extremely important to that process.

Ok- Great, but can better food hygiene actually help with?

While eating slowly may not be a magical cure to all that ails you, it actually can help with quite a few things such as :

• Weight loss and maintenance

• Better BMI and lesser likelihood of obesity

• Ability to stop food binges

• Improved digestion and absorption of nutrients

• Being better in touch with signs of hunger and satiety

• Improved hydration status

• Better parasympathetic engagement

The Golden Rule: Eat SLOWLY!

SLOWLY and mindfully is the key to food hygiene, but it has some component parts and best practices.  Taking time to focus on the many sensations of food such as how your food looks (visual), how it sounds when you’re cooking it (auditory), how it smells (olfactory), and of course how it tastes (gustatory) is a start and big part of it all. These can all aid in the process of slow eating and enjoying your food more. When you take the time to slow down to actually experience your food rather than a screen or whatever else may be going on away from your food, you will also have a greater likelihood of practicing some other food hygiene practices that go along with this first part of slowing down.  

Let your body prepare.

When we slow down to eat, we give our body time to prepare. Things like saliva that contain enzymes to break down food get flowing, your stomach secrets more acid, your small intestine prepares for small wave-like contractions that keep food moving along, and many other process happen that signal the body to shifts its energies to a state of resting to digest. If we rush this, we put our body and GI tract through strain.

Chew, chew, chew some more…

Perhaps one of the best ways to slow down when actually eating is to CHEW…A LOT, and likely more than you are right now. Essentially you want to chew completely until your food is a paste. Why? For many reasons we will highlight.

In a study involving the mastication (chewing) of nuts three different chewing conditions were tested (10, 25, and 40 chews). The group that chewed 40 times (versus 25 and 10) had hunger suppressed longer and felt fuller longer (even after 2 hours). Also, GLP-1, an intestinal hormone that effects glucose dependent insulin secretion and satiety was also significantly higher in the 40 chews groups than the 25 (and 10). Furthermore, far less fat and energy were lost in feces. Basically, that group didn’t lose the energy and nutrients in their stool… Chew more, digest better, absorb more, stay fuller longer.

This chewing benefit for better digestion and absorption with less hunger and more satiety can be applied to other foods that we eat as well like carbohydrates and proteins. For carbohydrates we have specific salivary enzymes, like amylase (the most important one), that breaks down complex carbs into simple sugars so they are digested more easily. This may also have the added benefit of signaling satiety in your brain more easily.  Interestingly, some folks have more copies of the AMY1 gene (the one that makes amylase) due to copy number variations (CNVs). It is thought that up to 12% of our DNA has CNVs.

Regarding AMY1, some of this may be due to regions where starch is/was more prevalent historically. Nevertheless, it appears that those with greater than 9 copies may not only make way more salivary amylase, but also have lower BMI, be 8X less likely to be obese (than someone with 4 or fewer copies) and may feel more satisfied with less food.  Basically, these folks are more “carb tolerant”, but even more benefit was derived.

HOWEVER, this doesn’t mean that without more copies of AMY1 you’re doomed, as it seems like eating slowly and chewing more gives the amylase you do have more time to do its thing and may also similarly explain feeling more satisfied as noted above. The take home, again: Eat slow.

What about multitasking or if I’m in a hurry?

It can be a cruel world of distraction making it more difficult to stay in touch with these internal cues we may be trying to rely on and growing evidence you may sometimes experience yourself, points to just how unhealthy mindless eating can be.

In a well-known University of Rhode Island, normal-weight women were given the opportunity to eat a pasta meal to comfortable fullness in a slow vs fast eating scenario both. The slow condition asked the women to put down their utensils between bites.

Later when the researchers compared the number of calories consumed, over 10% fewer calories were consumed in the slow group in just that one meal for about 67 calories. Over time (3+ meals) that will add up!

Additionally, the women who ate more quickly were hungrier an hour later than they were when they ate slow.

Bonus: In this very same study the slow eating condition led to more consumption of fluid and better hydration status.

Numerous other clinical trials so far support that moving from quick, mindless/habitual eating to more mindful strategies help with quit a few things. Slow and more mindful eating allows us to better self-regulate, prepare our bodies, promote not only weight maintenance but weight loss within a wide range of individuals, better satisfaction, better absorption of nutrients, and better hydration. In other words, doing less and focusing on your meal while going slow can have a tremendous impact on composition and health status.

For the month of February, just as in January, we will be focusing on slow eating and general food hygiene practices. We will be updating our social channels with interesting food hygiene facts and tips and trying to give out as much helpful information as usual. One of the grand goals we have at Resilient Body is to educate and help as many as we can without financial or other barriers.

If you are struggling with your nutrition or any other component to a healthier lifestyle, we are here to help.

Whether you are a culinary and food hygiene master or just trying to figure out how not to eat in your car, please print out and post the list below on your fridge or office, or simply use some of the tips below during this month and beyond and see if you are able to make any noticeable changes for the better.