Your Body Preparing For Food
Digestion begins before food reaches your mouth.
When you see food, smell food, or think about food, your brain sends signals along a nerve that runs to your mouth and to your stomach. Those signals tell your mouth and your stomach that food is coming.
Your mouth produces a small amount of saliva all day and all night. When your brain signals that food is coming, your mouth produces much more saliva.
Saliva moistens food so food is easier to chew and swallow. Saliva also contains an enzyme. An enzyme is a substance that causes a change to happen. Carbohydrates are chains of sugars linked together, and the enzyme in your saliva breaks some of those links apart. This is the change the enzyme causes. It is why a piece of bread starts to taste sweet if you chew the bread long enough. You are releasing the sugars while the bread is still in your mouth.
Your stomach also begins preparing for digestion by producing acid and enzymes before any food arrives. And the muscles of your stomach begin moving.
The acid is required to break down protein in the food. When acid is produced before you swallow, the work of digesting in your stomach can begin the moment food arrives, and the muscle movement mixes the food and the acid together.
Chewing continues the preparation for digestion. A whole piece of food (such as a nut) has only its outer surface exposed. Chewing food (such as a nut) into small pieces exposes much more of its surface. Then the acid and enzymes can reach more of the food at once.
Chewing also sends more signals along that same nerve to your mouth and stomach to produce more saliva, more acid, and more movement.
All the preparation is why eating more slowly and with attention is different from eating in a rush. When you are hurried or distracted, your body has less time to prepare for digestion, and food arrives before your body is ready. But when you are more aware and slow down your process of eating, your body is ready when the food arrives.
You are welcome to give your body time to prepare for digesting food.
Stacy 🌺
Information about how the body works in this post comes from my learning and research.
https://youtube.com/shorts/AukajsjO4hw?feature=share
I share my experiences and my perspective. Eating and healing look different for everyone. If you are struggling with food or your relationship with your body, please find support. You don’t have to do this alone.