The key to starting your digestion off on the right note isn’t the latest and greatest superfood or supplement. It is chewing, also known as mastication, and it’s the first and maybe the most important step in the digestive process. The way you chew and how long your chew, can significantly impact your digestion and your health in general.
Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in the human body and the amino acids that make it up are essential building blocks in supporting the integrity and structure of our skin, bones, tendons, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, and teeth as well as the entire gastrointestinal tract lining. As we age, our body gradually produces less. It is pretty different for everyone, but genetics, stress level, diet, smoking, age, and sun exposure may all influence how much we are producing.
Ideally, we should have a fairly steady blood sugar ride throughout the day with balanced meals of fat, protein and carbs to satiate us until our next meal. We should not constantly rely on food for a quick hit of energy. This is not to say that eating regularly or snacking is bad, but giving your body a minimum of 3-4 hours between eating can provide the digestion cascade with the rest it needs and be very beneficial to the body.
Diet culture is something that is all around us yet most of us don’t think about it specifically or even know what it is. It feels normal to us even though it is anything but. Diet culture exists because our society values the number on the scale over health and longevity. It sends the message that restrictive eating through calorie deficits and the elimination of food groups, or whatever fad diet is in favor will help us to lose weight and therefore make us happier and healthier. It also tells us that the more we work out and the harder we work out, the more likely we are to have six pack abs. It reinforces the belief that if you are thin and or appear fit that you are a happier person. Diet culture is black and white – putting foods into buckets labeled good or bad with the aim of creating shame in our minds so that we continue purchase products and services that will give us that “bikini body”, help us get our body back after having a baby, or give us the energy of our youth.
This culture wants us to be in the cycle of wanting to lose weight and trying to keep it off, hating our bodies and shaming ourselves, it wants us to feel like a failure or worthless when a “diet” isn’t working. They want us to spend more money on the next diet, supplement or workout program. We can choose not to engage in this cycle, but it is dificult because it is so engrained in our society today. We deserve better.
Here are some strategies to help you reframe your thoughts and allow you to take charge of your mindset around health, while allowing you to stop feeding into, and thereby supporting diet culture:
1. Instead of labeling foods as good or bad or eliminating certain foods just because you believe they are too high in fat, carbs or calories, try to think about all foods as neutral and really pay attention to how they make you feel. Are these foods working for you, nourishing you and making you feel good? Stop reading labels for recommendations on how much you should be eating and eat what feels right to you, when it feels right and the amount that will nourish and sustain you. Aim to push out the guilt and anxiety associated with former “bad” foods. So long as the bulk of your meals are based on whole foods with lots of organic greens and vegetables (fiber), high quality proteins and healthy fats and you are feeling well generally, you can still enjoy some of the foods that our diet culture associates with guilt, shame or whatever else they have come up with to manipulate our thinking.
2. Stop exercising for punishment or to negate something that you ate and consider how exercise makes you feel. Contrary to popular belief, you can’t negate something you ate with running ten miles or taking two hours of spin class. We have very little control over our actual metabolic rate. While our food intake accounts for 100 percent of the energy that we take into our bodies, exercise burns off only somewhere between ten and thirty percent depending on a variety of factors at that time. It is pretty hard to erase your diet with hours on the treadmill and it isn’t worth the time or the hardship to your body. More exercise isn’t always better. In fact, most of the time it introduces more stress to your body. Over time the behavior of using exercise as punishment for poor dietary decisions can be extremely detrimental to your heath and your mindset. Exercise should be something that brings you joy and should be used as a tool to make you feel strong in your body, have more energy and confidence and add to your health and well being. So seek out the forms of exercise that you enjoy and do them because you care about your body
3. Let go of the idea that the number on the scale or your clothing size determines your worth, capabilities, health or happiness. Diet culture will tell you time and time again to follow a specific plan and you will lose weight and therefore be a happier person. There are unhappy people at all sizes and your worth and capabilities in any capacity are not tied to your weight or how you look in a bathing suit. This is a big one, especially with postpartum women. As new moms we often feel like we have to get our bodies back and in short order. Why? Because in diet culture, we are made to feel that we are not ourselves until we can successfully fit into our old clothes and have the same body that we had before having children. When you really think about it, is that even rational? Pregnant or not, our bodies change over time depending on our lifestyles, stress levels and seasons of life. A mother’s body should be celebrated for having the strength and amazing ability to carry a life, give birth and nourish that life. It is normal to not look the same afterwards because let’s face it, we are not the same afterwards. Your body never goes away it just changes with your experience, just like it does with other life experiences.
When you stop spending so much time stressing about your weight and focus on living your life – spending time with your children, nourishing yourself with foods that make you feel good, move your body as we are designed to, and do things for yourself that bring you joy and peace, you may just find that you are happier. You may never again fall into the trap of dieting and over-exercising only to fail and feel bad enough about yourself to do it again and again.
There are so many other ways that diet culture infiltrates the messaging we see all around us. I could go on about this forever so I picked a few of the common themes I see. I hope this post helps you to think about how diet culture has influenced you over the years, what you can do minimize its harmful effects and move forward in a more positive way that can help your own health and mindset. Hopefully over time the power that diet culture has over our society will diminish or even go away completely.
Let’s make it happen!
Our bodies process thousands of toxins and environmental stressors on a daily basis. There is a direct link between how many toxins we are exposing ourselves to and our ability to achieve optimal health and well-being. Some of these exposures are avoidable by changing what we put on in our bodies, on our bodies and what we do in our homes. These stressors are often hard to understand because they are not something that you can see or feel.
EMFs are electromagnetic fields and are all around us via electronic devices like our cell phones, Wi-Fi, electric wiring and lighting in our homes and even refrigerator motors. These EMFs pass through our bodies constantly, disrupting out bodies own unique electromagnetic energy field and potentially harming our cells by changing how our cells communicate with one another. While there is a huge amount of uncertainty over how harmful EMFs are to human health, there is a common theme that chronic EMF exposure may be related to ailments such as chronic fatigue, sleep issues, neurological and behavioral problems and even cancer.
High levels of constant EMF pollution are most problematic, particularly for a subset of the population particularly susceptible to adverse symptoms from excessive exposure. Children also appear to be more vulnerable to EMFs than adults. Reducing exposure to on a daily basis can be helpful in achieving better health for you and your family. A great place to start is in our homes – where we can control the level of EMFs we are exposed to.
Here are some of the easiest and most economical ways I have found to reduce exposure:
Change out the light bulbs in your homes from fluorescent or CFLs to incandescent. I know, it seems this is moving backward, but these newer bulbs give off radiofrequency radiation in addition to UV radiation and dirty electricity. The old-school incandescent light bulbs give off much less of these by-products (though they do use more electricity). Energy-efficient LED light bulbs don’t contain radiofrequency radiation or UV radiation, but they still produce dirty electricity.
Reduce your exposure when you don’t need it – while you sleep. Start by putting your Wi-Fi on a timer in order to turn it off a night (cutting your exposure in half). You can also remove high EMF sources from your bedroom by putting your cell phone in airplane mode, turning it off, or keeping it out of your room entirely. If you need to access your phone at night, keep it across the room from where you are sleeping to reduce your exposure to cell phone radiation. You can also purchase a battery-operated analog or LCD alarm clock. Keep other EMF emitting things like laptops, televisions, DVD players, etc., out of your bedroom as these electronic devices are constantly emitting an EMF that affects you while you sleep and may even affect your sleep experience itself.
Reduce your usage of cell phones and other devices including wearables like an Apple Watch or FitBit. Turn your Bluetooth off, and keep your phone in airplane mode whenever possible. If your kids play games or use apps on your phone or their phones, ensure they are playing in airplane mode. While the evidence on this isn’t totally clear, there may be a link between certain cancers (including the brain) as well as infertility to high levels of exposure to cell phones. Having your phone (or wearing it) close to your body is exposing you to constant radiation and EMF exposure.
Take regular Epsom salt baths to reset and recharge your body. For a great detox bath and a way to reduce the body’s toxic burden from chemicals and radiation, mix one cup of Epsom salt with a half cup of baking soda. Add 2-4 drops each of frankincense, lavender, and/or juniper berry essential oils directly to the mix, then pour under running water. Do this as often as possible, at least once a week.
For more information on reducing your EMF exposure in and out of the home, here are a few books and other sources below.
Sources:
Pineault, N. (2017). The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs: How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology.
Milham, S. (2010). Dirty electricity: electrification and the diseases of civilization.
http://www.parentsforsafetechnology.org/worldwide-countries-taking-action.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412014001354
