“Drink your food and eat your drinks.” This strange but ancient saying has some truth in it as far as our digestive system is concerned.
Why is chewing so important?
As children, most of us were told from time to time to chew our food and, unlike many other things we were told when we were young, this one had some truth to it. Food should arrive in our stomach in pieces which are as small as possible. The food particles should be well ground down by our teeth before we swallow.
Saliva too, acts on the food in our mouth so that it enters the stomach in the right condition. If that doesn’t happen, the stomach will have a hard time digesting properly and the subsequent digestive actions which take place in the intestine won’t work properly either. Digestion actually starts in the mouth.
Drink your food and eat your drink
Hence the strange saying that you should actually be able to drink your food. Food in the mouth must already be chewed and mixed with saliva so well that it is practically liquid.
Strangely, the reverse is true for most drinks. You should keep them in your mouth for as long as food so that the saliva can get to work on them properly.
Smoothies are good, but don’t gulp!
Some people go to a lot of trouble to make good smoothies and then gulp them down in one sitting. You’d be better off saving the effort of making them in the first place. Gulping them down is hard on the digestion and only leads to bad consequences. All drinks that are supposed to have a healthy effect on the body, such as vegetable and fruit juices, still need to be very well ‘lathered’. Chew them a bit and let them circulate in the mouth.
Take the time to eat and drink
So, take your time to eat and drink. Be part of the trend of ‘slowing down’, it will lead to a kind of mindfulness that your body will be very grateful for. And it won’t even cost anything!