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Chew Your Food! (& Put Your Fork Down)

Yum

December 15, 2018 By Laura Ligos, MBA, RD, CSSD Leave a Comment

This might sound ridiculous but you need to chew your food. If that’s all you get from this post, then you are golden. I, myself, need this reminder at least a few times per year, if not monthly, or heck weekly. It’s easy to get busy or distracted and not realize we are scarfing our food down BUT it needs to stop, for your health that is.

While, you could take my word for it (and you should), let’s dig a bit deeper into WHY you need to chew your food. 

The Start of Your Digestion

If I asked you where your digestion started, what would you say? 

Stomach? No. 

Gut? No. 

Throat? Nope. 

Mouth? No.

Your digestion starts before you even get food in your pie hole. That’s right, digestion starts OUT of the body. Shocking, I know.  Your digestion starts in your brain and if it doesn’t we are already behind the eight ball and asking more of our digestive system than is necessary.

Let’s take a step back. 

When I say Bacon or Chocolate Chip Cookie or *enter your favorite food ever* do you start salivating? I, no joke, am sitting on a plane where it’s dry as a desert and I started salivating the second I typed Bacon. Your brain is the gateway to your digestion. 

Not to mention with the help of your eyes, nose, ears, etc. you start the process even more. I mean who can resist the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies? I dare you to tell me you don’t start salivating immediately.

Why does this happen?

Well, your body is preparing for the food in more ways than just a pool of spit in your mouth. That pool of spit has ENZYMES in it that help to break down food. That’s right, your spit has these enzymes called amylase & lipase both of which are enzymes that are needed to break down carbohydrates & fats (proteins get a little help as well). 

So, really I should’ve started this article with THINK ABOUT YOUR FOOD before you CHEW YOUR FOOD. This thought process allows us to start digesting before food is even eaten. 

Chew, Chew, Chew Your Food

Once you form that little pool of spit (sounds gross, sorry I keep saying it) then you can start eating. Things are off to a great start! 1-2-SWALLOW. Shoot, we just swallowed an entire wad of food and OH NO, HERE COMES THE NEXT BITE. 

I can guarantee that over 50% of you reading this (even if only 2 people are out there reading) do not chew your food enough. We should be chewing our food upwards of 10-20 times before we swallow. Go ahead, count it, I’ll wait.

We need to chew our food to help the digestion process work optimally. There is literally an order of operations and while we can power through hiccups in said process, eventually it starts to backfire.

Backfire?

Yes, by not chewing our food we ask MORE of our bodies. The food wad (or bolus) travels down the esophagus to the doorway (sphincter) to our stomach. At this point, the food should have been chewed WELL and formed into something more manageable for the stomach. If we salivate appropriately and we chew appropriately, we set our stomach (and the rest of the system) up for success. 

If we don’t, we can start experiencing symptoms like:

  • Heartburn
  • Indigestion
  • Bloat
  • Gas
  • Stomachaches
  • Diarrhea/Constipation
  • And more

Chew(se) Wisely

Do you experience any of those symptoms? Have you EVER slowed down to see how much you are chewing? Start there. 

No joke, many digestive woes can be fixed by simple slowing down and chewing your food. We are not meant to be eating on the move. Our body wants to be in a state of “rest and digest” when eating. That means we need to sit down, slow down, and chew our food THOROUGHLY.

Put Your Fork Down 

Not to mention, we shove food in the second we swallow again OR we are still chewing.  Put your fork down, and take a breather. Once you realize how much you are not chewing, you may also realize how you NEVER put your fork down until you’re done.

Putting the fork (or spoon/knife/handheld item) down will not only allow you the time to chew but also slow you down in general. Have you ever eaten a full meal and not realized how uncomfortably full you were until it’s too late?! Put your fork down and chew more and you’ll be surprised at how your body responds. Save the leftovers for tomorrow 😉

So, if nothing else today, chew your food like you mean it, chew, chew, chew away! 

I challenge you to count how many times you chew your food today, and see if you are actually chewing, or just scarfing your food down. 

xoxo,

Sassy

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@thesassydietitian

We’ve made it over a week together and it feels We’ve made it over a week together and it feels like it’s always been this way.

Motherhood is a wild ride & it’s only getting started. I have never been so tired & simultaneously so fulfilled in my life. That’s not to say it’s not filled with tears, worries and doubts but what fun would it be if it were all sunshine and roses anyway?

Going into this all I have felt so supported by friends going through this with me BUT I felt so unsupported by the general public. It seems like we want to fear and shame moms because misery loves company, right?!

The focus quickly shifts from mom to baby (still shocked that I only have an appointment at 6 weeks even though my body went through the biggest event of its life) and there also seems to be this shift from joy to shame & guilt.

Here’s some of what I heard from people:

😕Sleep when baby sleeps. You’ll never sleep again.
😕Don’t let baby sleep in a car seat, or a bouncer, or anywhere but their crib EVER. 
😕You’ll never have time to shower again, enjoy it now. 
😕Cry it out is cruel and harmful to the baby. 
😕Get baby on a schedule/never put baby on a schedule.

These are all things I heard and that truly led me to believe I was going to lose all sense of who I was and my life as I knew it.

What I wish people had said instead were:

🥰Your heart will grow bigger than you could imagine.
🥰You’ll cry the happiest tears you’ve ever cried.
🥰You’ll feel like a giant hole was filled that you didn’t even know was there.
🥰You won’t feel guilty about cleaning your house, it just won’t matter anymore.
🥰Babies pooping will make you laugh so hard you will feel like a kid again.
🥰You will have time to eat and shower and you don’t have to neglect yourself.

We need to do a better job of building each other up, supporting one another and our decisions while refraining from offering unsolicited advice and opinions. 

So for all you future mamas and new mamas out there, I see you, I’m proud of you and I cannot wait to share our stories with one another and the world.

Let’s stop fear mongering (just like the diet world) and start building one another up.

Xoxo,
Sassy & lil sassy man
🌈Some things truly are worth the wait. It’s b 🌈Some things truly are worth the wait. It’s been a long year of loss, unknowns and worry but it’s all been worth it to get to meet my lil man🥰
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Now time to introduce this sassy human who is already so well loved to the world...
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Introducing 

💙 Connor James Ligos 💙
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After an almost 24 hour labor, Connor joined us over a week past his due date on 2/12/21 at a whopping 9lb2oz & 22.5 inches long with a full head of hair and lungs to scream hello to us with.
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We are so in love already and cannot wait to share him with the world. Thank you for all the love and support from friends and family and to all those that helped us in the hospital. Holy cow labor & delivery teams are truly magical and I cannot imagine doing it without all of their support.
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Now back to snuggling this human of mine and trying not to cry at every last thing he does 🥰 
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Mom, Dad & Bode are all doing well!
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#babyboy #pregnancyafterloss #rainbowbaby #birthdayboy #birthannouncement
I get it, we all eat so we all then want to talk t I get it, we all eat so we all then want to talk to others about what worked for us. That's great!
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What's not great is when we push our nutrition and eating behaviors onto others ESPECIALLY when we are not qualified to do so.
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So often when people meet me for the first time they are worried to eat around me and/or buy groceries around me. My friends can attest I am not judgemental around food and will gladly eat that cake, queso dip or sip on that glass of wine right alongside of you. I am not the food police and do not offer unsolicited nutrition advice unless it's a client who is paying for my help OR on Instagram and other social media platforms where my goal is to educate.
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Why do I share this? 
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Because I see far too many people diving down diet rabbit holes, finding success & then claiming to be nutrition experts purely because something worked for them. 
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I've also seen this alot being pregnant, everyone wants to tell you what worked for them. IF you use that stipulation of "this worked for me" then fine, share away but if you start doleing out advice please pause, take a breath and think about NOT doing it.
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People are OVERWHELMED by diet culture and some so badly want to change but YOUR way is not the only way and it most likely is not what will work for your friend/coworker/cousin/neighbor so please, stop trying to be an expert in something you aren't.
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Got it!?! 
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Ok, carry on.
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xoxo,
Sassy
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#nutrition #nutritiontips #nutritionist #dietitianapproved #rdapproved #rdchat #dietitiansofinstagram #dietitian #dietitiansofig #albanyny #albanynutrition #albanynutrition
Your nutrition does NOT need to be all or nothing. Your nutrition does NOT need to be all or nothing. I'm not saying you have to find perfect balance (does that even exist?) but I am saying that we shouldn't feel like either we have to eat perfectly or that we might as well give up.
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Instead we should look to the grey area in between for our nutrition guidance. 
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What do I mean?
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I mean that we need to realize that we can still eat cookies but we probably should throw some veggies in there. 
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We can have a glass or 2 of wine but we should probably also drink some water. 
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We can take rest days but we should also find ways to move our bodies regularly.
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And the list goes on.
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It's not about all or nothing it's about doing something daily to help your health and nutrition without it feeling like a set of rules or a free for all.
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How do we find that grey area in between?
👉🏻 stop hopping on and off fad diets
👉🏻listen and trust your self, not your coworkers and cousins 
👉🏻focus on the simple things (ie drinking water instead of worrying about supplements)
👉🏻work to remove guilt and shame around food & body
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Where do you currently fall Right now?!
🤪 all
👍🏻in between 
🙅🏻‍♀️ nothing 
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Xoxo,
Sassy
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#dietitian #dietitiansofig #dietitiansofinstagram #nutrition #nutritionist #nutritiontips #thesassydietitian #rdchat #realtalk

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