Slow eating: Don’t shovel, savour.

We’ve all been there. The drudgery of the workday rolls on, and you count down the minutes until your lunch break. Thirty minutes on the dot, and not a second more. You plan your route, how to quickly grab your lunch, sit in the break room, and open the box. It’s only thirty minutes, so you shovel bite after bite into your mouth, masticate rapidly, and swallow it down. You try not to choke, and you try to fill yourself with enough physical mass to feel full. You also have to work in a toilet break as well so all the more reason to rush. 

An hour or two later, you feel bloated and tired. It isn’t sitting well. You know that you shouldn’t have rushed your meal like that, but you really had no choice. How else could you manage to finish your food and gain the necessary energy to get through the day?

Truth be told, it’s not just at work that we have this habit of rushing through a meal. Often, we scroll on our phones, we get distracted, we eat while walking or driving, we find ways to purportedly maximise our productivity while still getting calories. But what happens when we do this may be counterproductive. 

Digestion starts in the mouth, with what’s known as chemical digestion. As we chew, digestive enzymes in saliva begin to chemically break down the nutrients. This works in tandem with mechanical digestion, which deconstructs the food into smaller pieces, making it easier to swallow. 

The taste sensation that we experience during this action does more than just give us enjoyment. Firstly, the gustatory system (taste sensation) tells us about whether this food is something appealing, something we’re craving, or something dangerous. Secondly, this sense has an extremely valuable purpose. The tongue is working as a sort of translator for the gut brain connection. That which you taste becomes associated with the valuable nutrients it provides. Essentially, helping the gut-brain connection understand what we need and crave. (source)

The gut-brain connection is a rapidly growing area of research and there are many specific examples of how tasting our food improves digestion. According to “The International Journal of Molecular Sciences”, “bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) have been demonstrated to play a functional role in proton secretion as a key mechanism of gastric acid secretion (GAS) and the cellular uptake of the zinc metal ion.” (source) Essentially, when zinc-rich, bitter foods are tasted, those taste receptors signal gastric acid secretion to better metabolise the zinc. Amazing!

On a slightly simpler note, you may have heard of the Cephalic response. This is the phenomenon by which our entire digestive system becomes stimulated by the sight, smell and taste of food. You may have experienced this without even realising it. 

Say you’ve had a busy morning, you barely had time for a coffee and a piece of toast. You had to rush to make sure everything was ready for the weekend barbecue lunch at the in-laws. You spent the whole morning packing things up, making sure you and the kids are presentable, and driving through weekend traffic to get there. 

By the time you turn up at your destination, you’re famished. But you can’t start eating just yet. You still have to go through the niceties of saying hello to everyone, making sure the children are settled, and asking if there’s anything you can do to help. By now, your stomach is growling. 

Stepping into the back garden, you’re overwhelmed with the delightful smell of marinated chicken, sausages, pineapple and capsicums roasting over the charcoal. The colourful food and the rising smoke tantalizes your senses. You suddenly feel the urge to dash over to the fire and grab a sausage right off the heat with your bare hands. You’re absolutely starving!

This overwhelming sensation happens because your entire digestive system has been stimulated. You’re salivating, your vagus nerve has told your gut to expect food, your stomach is starting to move. (source) The sensory experience is priming your system for the incoming nutrients. It is all a wonderful and functional design.

So the next time you are on your lunch break, try to change your habits a bit. Take a moment to sit and look at your food, give it a good smell. Take a moment to appreciate where it came from and the person who created it. Take normal sized bites, feel the flavours explode in your mouth. Chew slowly and feel it being mashed into an even paste. Don’t even scoop up your next mouthful before you swallow the last.

This may be challenging, especially on a lunch break where you feel rushed. This isn’t your fault. We have been repeatedly conditioned to live a lifestyle that betrays our nature. We are made to rush and feel like our individual needs are unimportant. Instead, we should take our place as a cog in the great machine and work.

It can take some time to change any habit, but starting now, you can bet that you’ll be on your way to a better eating experience and better health. Digestion begins with taste, so don’t skip it. Take back this sensual moment for yourself. You may find that it helps with issues such as indigestion, bloating and gas. 

There is a whole movement worldwide for slowness. Many of us are recognising that this fast-paced world keeps us disconnected from our very humanity. We are destroying our bodies and minds for the sake of an economy that only benefits the rich. Is it really worth it to miss out on a daily ritual that could greatly improve your overall health and wellness? This is a simple way of taking your power back. So taste that lunch, and enjoy it. Your body will love you for it.