How do I eat on the run?
You would be better off not eating than eating on the run.
When you eat on the run, your body is in hyperdrive, and your sympathetic nervous system is active. This is the system that decreases gastric acid and pancreatic enzyme production, and inhibits the gall bladder from contracting to release bile to assist in fat digestion.
While you’re eating on the run, the intestinal tract is also slowed down. When the food and bile from the gall bladder stays longer in the GI tract, more toxins are reabsorbed.
When you relax and take time to enjoy each bite, even if only a few bites, then the parasympathetic nervous system is more active and assists the GI tract at all levels of food breakdown and absorption.
If food is worth eating, take the time to prepare it, sit down, and enjoy it. If you’re out and about when it’s time to eat, perhaps you can plan ahead and take a healthy picnic lunch with you. Stop at a beautiful place and relax while you enjoy your meal.
My doctor says I can get all the vitamins and minerals I need from my food. What is your opinion on this?
I used to say the same thing to my patients, back in the days before I studied healthy alternatives. It is the party line of allopathic medicine, although that is starting to change. Here's the bottom line, and I'll follow up with some info on what allopaths are now doing:
3 responses so far ↓
1 Angela // Aug 13, 2010 at 9:28 am
I was very interested to read why eating on the run is not good for you - apart from the obvious that its usually fast food. Understanding what goes on in the body when we eat on the run was enlightening. Thank you
2 Susan Cropper // Aug 13, 2010 at 12:52 pm
SO true! I find myself swallowing before I have chewed anything sufficiently = NOT good. Better not to eat than eat - like that! But I do carry things like dried fruit, almonds, edamame, etc., just a pinch at a time, for protein and to stave off eating too fast when the time comes. Because of health concerns, my husband and I do not eat the same things, nor do we have the same likes now. Even eating times and preferred places have changed. Weird, I know, but better to do what I think is right for my body, as he does - he is diabetic; I cannot take statins & have other “suggested restrictions”. I have to decide — and am trying to!
SC
3 Dr. Stan Gardner // Aug 22, 2010 at 8:09 am
Angela, Susan, Thank you for your kind comments. Keep up the good work.
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