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At Eat at Ease, we believe that nutritional facts alone don’t change lives. The traditional “eat this, don’t eat that” approach often leads to boredom, disengagement, and frustration, which you could’ve experienced in the past when trying to make changes in your eating habits. Instead, I want to emphasize that nutrition is both a science and an art, intricately linked to our environment and, like ourselves, constantly evolving.
Nutrition: More Than Macronutrients
On one hand, nutrition is about understanding the nutritional value of food. It’s about the macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) that food contains and how these nutrients contribute to your body’s needs. The scientific approach looks at food to understand its components and how the body breaks down, absorbs, and utilizes these nutrients for various bodily functions. This involves complex processes where enzymes and digestive juices work to extract and assimilate the nutrients that our cells need to function optimally. However, this is just one aspect of nutrition.
On the other hand, nutrition transcends the mere nutrient content of food. When you judge food solely by its ingredients, it's be like trying to evaluate a masterpiece by only analysing the pigments used in the painting—you’d miss the bigger picture. This is where Mind Body Nutrition comes in, grounding the reality that our mind, emotions, and lifestyle significantly influence our nutritional metabolism. Mind Body Nutrition, a concept coined by Marc David, emphasizes that your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, stress levels, and overall lifestyle makes a profound impact on how you digest and metabolise food. While the food’s nutritional value matters, who you are as an eater is equally important.
The Mind-Body Connection in Nutrition
It’s very important to acknowledge that our minds and bodies exist on a continuum. Mind and body are in a constant state of evolution as we change and mature. So should be our diets, to meet our current needs, at this point in our lives. Putting so much effort into eating ‘the healthiest meals’ is pointless if you're not in a state to digest and assimilate it properly. Therefore, it's crucial to consider various dimensions of Mind Body Nutrition, such as stressed vs. relaxed eating, eating speed, eating rhythm, nutritional beliefs, pleasure, nourishment, embodiment, macronutrient balance, food quality, food allergies & sensitivities, and powerful substances.
1. Stressed vs. Relaxed Eating
Eating while stressed can significantly impair digestion, nutrient absorption, calorie burning, and natural appetite regulation. The body is hardwired to perform its digestive and metabolic functions in relaxation state, also known as parasympathetic nervous system dominance. When you’re relaxed, your body digests and metabolizes food more efficiently, while stress triggers fight-or-flight response, negatively impacting these processes. If you’re looking for more mindful eating experience, monitoring closely your stress levels around the meals can be helpful.
2. Eating Speed
When you’re eating quickly, your body may perceive this as stressful. In the cephalic phase of digestion (or ‘head phase of digestion’) we experience some of the sensory elements of eating, like taste, aroma, how the food looks like visually (we sometimes say that we ‘eat with our eyes’), and how it sounds when we munch. This part of digestion accounts for 40-60% of your body’s digestive power and rushing through meals can disrupt this phase, which may lead to overeating (as one of the factors) as the brain doesn’t register satiety in time. Slowing down and savouring each bite may enhance digestion and your satisfaction with the meal.
3. Eating Rhythm
Bio-circadian nutrition emphasizes that when we eat can play a role in our health and wellbeing. Humans are not nocturnal beings, which means that we’re designed to do our hunting, gathering etc. essentially during the daytime, and guess when our optimal digestion and metabolism are happening – yes, also during the day. Consistency in meal timing can support better metabolic health, digestion and nutrient absorption, while disrupted and irregular eating patterns can lead to digestive problems like indigestion, bloating, constipation; metabolic disruption caused by fluctuations in blood sugar levels increasing i.e. risk of insulin resistance; nutrient deficiencies caused by skipping meals; increased stress and poor appetite regulation, as inconsistent meal timing can disrupt your body’s natural hunger cues.
4. Toxic Nutritional Beliefs
Toxic nutritional beliefs can negatively impact your relationship with food and body. These beliefs shape our food choice, whether we diet or not, and how we treat our bodies. The thoughts we have about food and nutrition directly influence our body’s biochemical environment. Imaging having a little app running in the back of your mind, always draining your energy and focus – that’s what it may feel like when we constantly thinking stressful thoughts, especially about food. Now imagine that app is constantly triggering a low-level stress response. For many people, this stress response increases whenever they get hungry and are about to eat. If you hold a belief that food is your enemy in some way, thoughts about it can cause the stress to spike right before meals, creating a biochemical shift in the body. This shift can negatively impact digestion, nutrient assimilation, calorie burning, and overall metabolic health. When your body is in a constant state of stress, it doesn’t digest and process food efficiently, leading to issues like bloating, indigestion, nutrient deficiencies, and more. The chronic stress can contribute to eating behaviours such as binge eating, emotional eating, and overeating. When you view food as a threat or stressor, it disrupts your natural hunger and fullness cues, making it harder to maintain a healthy eating pattern. This can create a vicious cycle where stress leads to unhealthy eating, which then causes more stress and negative emotions about food. To break this cycle it’s crucial to address and reframe these toxic nutritional beliefs. Start by recognizing and challenging negative thoughts about food and your body. Practice mindful eating, focusing on the positive aspects of nourishing your body. Seek support from professionals who can help you develop a healthier relationship with food and nutrition.
5. Pleasure
Pleasure plays a big role in boosting our metabolism and overall well-being. It’s an important psychophysiological motivator in human life. It drives various biological and psychological processes, promoting well-being and survival. It’s not just about the food itself, but also the enjoyment we get from eating. In many ways, the pursuit of pleasurable experiences influences our behaviour, decision making, and overall health. Pleasure can actually help our bodies function better and make us feel happier and healthier overall. When thinking about your relationship with food, you’ll also need to consider your relationship with pleasure.
6. Nourishment
Do you have a nourishing relationship with food and your body? When you feel truly nourished, both physically and emotionally, you are more relaxed. This state of relaxation promotes optimal digestion and nutrient absorption, as it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Achieving this balance is essential for overall wellbeing, allowing your body to function at its best and supporting your journey towards health and healing.
7. Embodiment.
Being in tune and present in our bodies—embodiment—plays a significant role in how we process food. Many people are disconnected from their bodies, and that can lead to a lack of awareness of their physical signals and making decisions on autopilot. When that happens, it’s so much more difficult to attend to and fulfil our body’s needs. Practicing embodiment can improve how we eat, move, and care for our bodies, ultimately enhancing our metabolic health.
8. Macronutrient balance
Macronutrients include protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and while technically water is also considered one, our focus here will be on the first three. Among many other benefits that each macronutrient provides for the body, here’s just few examples. Protein helps you build and repair tissues, fats provide long-term energy and support cell growth, and carbohydrates supply quick energy for daily activities. Each plays a vital role in maintaining overall health, supporting functions like muscle strength, brain function, and energy levels, so thinking about how to balance these more in your daily life is a better idea than cutting a whole food groups from your diet (unless it’s medically prescribed).
9. Food Quality
For optimal long-term health, reduced symptoms, and better appetite regulation, it’s important to consume the highest quality food available to you. It’s also important to recognise here that access to high quality food will depend on your financial situation, where you live, on the market prices and local economy. Eating high quality food (among other factors) can contribute to reduced symptoms of overeating, binge eating, and emotional eating. The quality of food is not only about its nutrient content but also about how it was grown, produced and prepared. Doesn’t a sandwich usually taste better when someone who loves you prepared it for you?
*Sidenote: not everyone has an option to grow their own food or access high quality foods (i.e. fresh fruit), as they tend to be expensive, and therefore judging someone based on their symptoms which could be linked to not as nutritious diet it’s not helpful and can contribute to the stress levels this person may be already experiencing.
10. Food allergies and sensitivities
Modern food processing has introduced new substances into our diets, which our bodies may react to in a form of allergy or sensitivity. The wheat we eat now is genetically different from what we had 100 years ago and processed with different chemicals, which may make gluten more allergenic. Similarly, while milk can be beneficial, some people can’t digest it, and some cultures don’t include it in their diets. Interestingly, we’re often drawn to foods we’re allergic to because they trigger a mild stress response in our body, which can give us a temporary energy boost. This can lead to attachment to foods or habits that don’t truly serve our health.
11. Powerful substances.
We need more awareness around specific ways and degree to which some substances can influence our metabolism and relationship with food. Here’s just few examples of the profound effects that prescription drugs, recreational drugs, caffeine, and alcohol can have on our metabolism and relationship with food - caffeine stimulates acid production, potentially causing heartburn and indigestion; alcohol interferes with nutrient absorption and can lead to liver damage, affecting metabolic processes and digestion; some prescription drugs and recreational drugs can alter our appetite, cause digestive discomfort and change how the body processes food. Ingesting these substances, depending on the dose, can contribute to creating a cycle of unhealthy eating habits and metabolic issues, making it difficult to maintain a balanced diet and healthy relationship with food.
Transforming your relationship with food goes beyond understanding its nutritional value. It includes embracing the art and science of Mind Body Nutrition, recognizing the profound impact of your thoughts, emotions, and lifestyle on your metabolic health. In your healing journey, it’s important to embrace acceptance and let go of perfectionism. Every individual is unique, and accepting where you are right now can be helpful in making gradual, sustainable changes. At Eat at Ease, we support you through this process with guidance and compassion, helping you transform your relationship with food.
Visit Eat at Ease (http://www.eatatease.ie) for more insights and personalized support.
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