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Post Disclaimer
The information on this website is designed to offer self-care tips and recommendations based on evidence-based research and literature from professionals in each field. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition. Please consult with your healthcare provider before making any health-related decisions.
Taking time to warm up the digestive system before consuming a meal enables more energy and increases your physical and mental well-being. Failing to do so leads to pain and discomfort in the gut, triggering a stress response and greatly reducing the digestion process, disrupting the central nervous system.
Pre-workout warm-up and post-workout cooldowns are crucial to preventing injury and ensuring you achieve the most significant growth possible from each physical work out. Warming up the digestive engine before eating provides similar benefits by enabling the body to efficiently digest the food about to be processed in the digestive system. This enables the digestive system to pull the most nutrients possible from the food you consume before the foods break down into waste.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; close to 70% of Americans are Obese. Alabama leads the pack with Wyoming having the least amount of obese Americans.
CDC ObeSity statics by state
Receptors in the tongue will detect the type of food being consumed, sending electrical impulses via the vagus nerve to the stomach, giving the digestive system a fair warning to prepare to digest. Failing to warm up the digestive engine puts the digestive process into react mode, resulting in stomach and intestinal cramps. This rush of consumption is manifested through cramps, diarrhea, stress, and fatigue. Warming up the digestive system for healthy digestion is an easy 2-5 minute task.
The Central Nervous System and Digestion
The enteric system is responsible for the digestive processes in the body. Different types of food sensed in the tongue will trigger different signals to the stomach as certain nutrients must support certain parts of the body and require the release of specific neurotransmitters supporting digestion. The enteric system is a member of the central nervous system and is influenced by the Parasympathetic Nervous system (PSN). The PSN is part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), consisting of both the PSN and Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS).
PSN is your rest and digest and influences digestion. The SNS serves as the fight or flight and reduces digestive capabilities when activated. When any physical or emotional threat triggers the SNS, hormones are released, preparing the body for the threat. Such as a simple threat of pain in the stomach from eating too fast or failing to eat at all. A threat, either physical or emotional, signals the stomach to halt its digestive process. Imagine having a belly full of food showing up to the stomach party and digestion is placed on hold pending the resolution of the threat caused by physical or emotional pain. This will amplify the pain.
The multiple connections between the trillions of neurons throughout the body can cause discomfort in the digestive system from a variety of variables. From morning sickness to seasickness to nausea caused by different medications, different neural pathways influenced by these variables can trigger problems in the gut. Many medical providers will attempt to focus only on the symptoms in the stomach when addressing digestive problems when in reality it could be various other problems in the body triggering gut issues.
Tips for Success
Warm up the Digestive System Before Eating. Just as you warm up your car in the winter before driving it or warm up your muscles before a workout, you should help your body prepare the digestive system for what is about to be digested. We can turn on the PNS and prepare the body for digestion through mediation, mindfulness, or diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Before consuming your meal, take 2 to 3 minutes and breathe slowly and focus and meditate and your body will be ready to digest the meal properly. Doing this will also provide you more energy. This allows the stomach to properly break down what you’ve eaten and pushed it into the small intestine to allow it to further break down the food into the nutrients needed to provide you the energy. This leads to properly digested food moving into the small intestine and then be pushed out of his waste.
Mindfulness Eating Mindfulness is the act of placing all your mind and energies on one variable. During mindfulness eating, all of your focus is on the food you are eating. Don’t watch TV, leave your mobile phone alone. Focus all your mind on the flavor of the food, its texture, and the sensations of chewing the food. This does three things. Increases the electrical impulses to the brain’s frontal lobes leading to improved decision making, gives the digestive system plenty of time to prepare for digestion, and ensures what’s being consumed is efficiently broken down before entering the stomach. Learn to live in the moment. When eating, give all your attention to eating, just for that brief moment. Everything else can wait! So many times, I have eaten lunch standing in front of my computer, dropping crumbs all over my keyboard. Man, this was wrong. My ability to efficiently work would greatly increase had I paused and focused on the act of eating mindfully and gave work a few minute breaks.
Also, eat with chop sticks! This will slow your consumption, reduce your portions and serve as a way to focus on trying to eat that food with two sticks!
Follow a Schedule. Attempt to follow the same eating schedule on a daily. Skipping a meal can begin to irritate the stomach. Our brains are wired for routine and can sense when we are about to consume food based on the senses’ historical variables. Failing to eat when planned causes cognitive fog and irritation in the gut. The brain is wired to receive needed food for survival, and when consumption doesn’t occur, a slight fight for flight is triggered, influencing the body to fight for the food it’s missing at the moment. This leads to stomach discomfort, providing more influence to the SNS, leading to more pain in the gut.
Stop Eating Toxic Food. I call it toxic food because our body these types of food create inflammation. Inflammation is a signal via receptors of the peripheral nervous system warning us of a threat. The body was designed to consume certain types of food to maintain a normal functioning body. When we choose to eat toxic foods, inflammations are the trigger that something is wrong. This triggers the fight or flight response. Hyper-palpable foods and inflammatory foods irritate the receptors in the stomach sending a pain signal to the brain. The types of foods are sugars, processed foods, trans fats, and refined carbs. Click here to read in more detail the effects of these types of foods, food addiction, and actions you can take now to improve what you eat.
Change Your Life Now
You can choose to completely turn your life around, remove unwanted gut pain by following these simple steps. I have dealt with constant digestive complications. From ulcers, IBS, a parasite from living in a third world country, and surgery in 2006 repairing damaged caused by GERD. Following these steps greatly reduced my gut pain, improved my energy and mental focus.
Suppose you are living with stress, anxiety, or PTSD. Taking control of the way you eat is key to improving your lifestyle as the SNS is on overdrive when dealing with those emotional problems. It will require additional focus to ensure the body is in the right state for digestion. It will be a vicious cycle, as you rush to eat, causing pain in the gut, the digestive system will weaken as the fight for flight is triggered due to the pain response. Mental strain can influence the body to reach for hyper-palatable foods to reduce the mental pain. Relaxation and mediation will strengthen executive functioning and empower one to avoid these foods that are further exacerbating digestion. Taking control of your emotions and perceptions, with a focus on eating will prevent this from happening
Stop Food Addiction and Eliminate Inflammatory Foods. Read More
Please try and prove me wrong I challenge you to follow the steps for 30 days. Download a habit app and begin to follow these tips. I promise you any digestive problems that you are currently living with will drastically change. I promise you this. Research proves this and I have put it to the test. I have greatly improved my digestive problems after suffering with all kinds of issues over the past 30 years. If severe chronic abdominal pain still exist after 30 days of changing your food consumption habits and getting control of your stressors, then I highly recommend you seek medical attention as there may be and underlining Disease within your digestive system influencing your inflammation.
