Inside Health Magazine: A Better You Starts With What's Inside May. 2016 | Page 9

Energy
&
Brainpower

Tune up the

By Woodson Merrell, MD
INSIDE HEALTH Science Advisor

Digestive Symphony
Your body is a factory fueled by food, and its chief product is energy and brainpower.
Making the factory run right begins with a fascinating process called digestion.
Everything starts with the mere thought of eating. This is when you
have the power to make a decision that will either be toxic (a burger
with chips and beer?) or healing (Wild Arctic Char and Roasted
Radicchio and a Hot Tomato Juice?). As soon as you think about
food, your body starts to generate salivary enzymes and digestive
hormones. The digestive process begins with the mere thought of a
good meal.
The next step in the process is pure aromatherapy. Unlike all the
other nerves in your body, which have multiple checkpoints that
slow messages down, the smell receptors in your nose are hardwired
straight to the brain—no filter. You smell the food, you feel hungry (or
react to foods in some pre-patterned—both positive and occasionally
negative—ways). A cascade of digestive enzymes and hormones is
unleashed—not just in the mouth, but throughout the body. Your
body recognizes that dinner is coming and in its infinite intelligence
is getting itself ready to receive the food—not just to enjoy the
experience, but also to use it for all it’s worth. Don’t bypass this crucial
step of digestion—stop, look, and smell before you dig in.

Chew, Chew, Chew
Take the time to chew. First and most obviously, this is where a lot of
the sensory enjoyment of food happens. But even more important,
chewing kick-starts the chemical and physical processes of digestion.
The teeth grind and pulverize the food—a critical step, as food should
never leave the mouth in anything chunkier than a gruel consistency.
The jaw provides brute force that will be hard for the body to make up
for later. Chewing a good 20 or 30 times makes sense—maybe 12 if
you’re in a hurry or the food is soft. But three or five bites won’t cut it,
and could wreak havoc later. . . as you will see.
As you chew, the salivary glands release key enzymes to help break
down the food into even smaller chunks. Chewing your food,
obviously, exposes them to these enzymes longer, allowing them
time to do their work. It’s also a good reason to chew everything,
even if you don’t think you need to. If there is nutrition in it, the act
of chewing will help your body unlock that nutrition. It is worth the
extra 10 seconds of work—you might even be surprised to find that
during the process of chewing these kinds of liquids, you discover a

INSIDE HEALTH  •  9