November 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Struggling with indigestion, reflux, or bloating? It might not just be what you eat - it’s how you eat. In this episode of the Wellness Connection Podcast, Fiona Kane explains the importance of eating mindfully and how activating your body’s rest and digest mode can transform your digestion and overall health.
Learn practical strategies to:
Reduce reflux and digestive discomfort
Use the 4-7 breathing technique to calm your body before meals
Slow down your eating and chew properly
Make more conscious food choices for better nutrient absorption
Apply lessons from longevity “Blue Zones” to your daily routine
Whether you’re eating on the go or want to improve your gut health naturally, these tips can help you feel lighter, more energized, and improve digestion without drastic diet changes.
📌 Listen to the full podcast for more insights and tips
💬 Share your experiences in the comments: how does eating mindfully affect your digestion?
Outro: Music by Musinova from Pixabay
Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/
Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/
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Credit for the music used in this podcast:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fiona Kane (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection
podcast.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane.
Today I'm going to berevisiting a topic I have talked
about before, but something Isee so commonly that it's worth
talking about again.
And it's in regards todigestion.
So a lot of people have refluxand indigestion and all sorts of
digestive issues.
(00:22):
And they're always looking forthe thing to fix it, whether it
be is it probiotics or is itprebiotics or is it this food,
that food, FODMAPS diet, orwhatever.
And while all of those thingsmay have their place, sometimes
it's you know bring things,bring it back to basics and talk
to people about not just whatthey eat or what they consume,
(00:42):
but actually how you eat.
And a lot of people just do notrealize that that is just as
important as what you eat, howyou eat.
So that's what I'm going to befocusing on today: the
strategies that you can use toreally support your digestion,
and you might find it reallyreduces that reflux, uh,
indigestion, or any of thosekinds of symptoms you might be
(01:04):
having.
So it's important to understandthat, and I've talked about
this in lots of differentcontexts before in regards to
the nervous system, but there'stwo main modes of the nervous
system.
So there's fight or flight orrest and digest.
When we're in the fight orflight mode, which a lot of
people would recognize and knowas the stress mode, when we're
(01:25):
in that mode, what happens isbecause your body is preparing
you to deal with a threat, soit, you know, it you might have
to perform or you might have torun and you know, fight the bear
or run away from the bear,whatever it is.
If your body thinks you'regoing to become lunch, it does
not care if you digest lunch.
So another way of saying thatis your body will stop making
(01:49):
digestive enzymes and stop doingits digestion.
So it it's because it it'sthat's why you will feel quite
sick sometimes if you have ashock or if something upsets you
if you're if you're kind ofgoing to that stress mode,
you'll feel quite sick becausethere's just no circulation
going to your digestive systemand you're not making digestive
enzymes.
And so when we eat when we'rein stress mode, we often can't
(02:12):
digest that food.
So you're not making theenzymes, the food sits in your
stomach for way, way too long.
And then what happens is itstarts coming back up again, so
you might have reflux anddigestion symptoms, uh and or it
just sits for so long thatyou're uncomfortable, and um,
and really you just end up withthis really sluggish digestive
(02:34):
system, or on the other hand,maybe your body just pushes it
straight through because it justcan't deal with it, so it might
be the opposite of that whereyou're running to the bathroom.
So it's important to understandthat many people we eat when
we're in this stress mode.
And the problem is that in ourmodern society is a stress mode
is really, really easy andcommon to be in because we rush,
(02:56):
rush, rush, rush, our lives areso busy, and we're often eating
in on the run, in the car,whatever it is.
And um, so we're eating whenwe're in this stress mode where
we should be in rest and digestmode.
So when we're in um when we'rein rest and digest mode, so I
think I did I say before it wasfight or flight mode?
The stress mode is fight orflight mode.
(03:16):
Hopefully I said that.
Sorry, I'm really tired, so Idon't know.
Now I kind of remember exactlywhat I said.
But the mode I was just talkingabout where you're not making
digestive enzymes, that is fightor flight mode.
And fight or flight mode iswhen your body is preparing you
to fight or perform or whatever,and you're not making the
digestive enzymes and digestingproperly when you're in fight or
flight mode.
(03:36):
To eat a meal uh and then to beable to digest it well, we need
to be in rest and digest mode.
And when you're in rest anddigest mode, sort of the name
gives it away, but when you'rein that mode, you're getting
circulation to your digestdigestive system, you can make
digestive enzymes, you can soyou can break the food down
fairly, you know, simply andeasily in the stomach so it
(03:58):
doesn't sit there for too long.
And what you can also do is umis you can use those nutrients,
absorb those nutrients, usethose calories, use the food the
way you're meant to.
So when you eat when you're inrest and digest mode, you can do
all of those things.
But uh, when you eat whenyou're in fight or flight mode,
you cannot do those things, uh,and or you do them very poorly,
(04:20):
right?
So it's important to understandthat we do need to eat when
we're in rest and digest mode.
And an example I've usedbefore, uh, my mentor uh uh sort
of taught me this is um is uhand he's from uh it's Mark from
the Psychology of EatingInstitute.
What's his um I might justhaving a sorry I'm just probably
(04:43):
a bit too tired to be recordingthis, but anyway, he's he's the
person who told me about thisstory.
So he was working with uh aclient, and that client was a
GP.
And the GP used to eat macasfor lunch every day, and he
would get in the car, drive toMaccas, eat the maccas in the
car on the way back to see hisnext patient, and he was getting
(05:05):
a really, really badindigestion or reflux.
And he said, I don't want tostop eating the macas, it's too
convenient, just sort of, youknow, but I want you to help me
fix this.
And so my mentor said to saidto him, um, it's Mark David,
Mark David from the PsychologyInstitute of Eating in Colorado.
Anyway, he he said, All right,what I want you to do then,
(05:28):
don't change what you're eating,fine.
But what I want you to do isstop in the car park for 10
minutes at Maccas and just eatslowly.
So just focus on your food, eatslowly, give yourself 10
minutes to eat the food anddigest the food before you go
back to work.
So he started doing that andhis digestion issues resolved
(05:49):
straight away.
And so, you know, even thoughI'd like to, you know, in some
ways as a nutritionist, I'd liketo say, no, it's a it's about
the food.
And I'm not saying it's neverabout the food, the food uh
obviously can have a really bigeffect on our health, and it
does just because it didn't givein digestion doesn't mean it
wasn't having other effects.
However, just from a you know,as as an example of how powerful
(06:13):
the way you eat is, even justby spending that 10 minutes in
the car rather than um sittingin the car park rather than in
the traffic, that was enough forhis body to calm down enough to
sort of eat that food anddigest that food.
And um, funnily enough,apparently a few weeks later he
came back and said he'd stoppedeating the macas.
And he said, Why?
It's because he said when heslowed down, didn't enjoy it so
(06:35):
much.
So that's that's a that's kindof another part of this topic,
really, but it's eating, uheating consciously.
Because when you eatconsciously, we rarely throw
down garbage down our throat allthe time, you know, and and in
large amounts when we're reallyconscious when we're eating.
When you're really consciouswhen you're eating, when you're
(06:55):
savouring those bites andreally, really chewing well and
all that sort of stuff, you donotice what you're eating more,
and sometimes you don't enjoythings that you thought that you
enjoyed.
We think we enjoy somethingbecause it's sort of the
mouthfeel, that that taste thatwe enjoy for a moment, uh, and
um and we don't always associateit with how we feel later.
But often when we slow down,you don't enjoy it as much as
(07:17):
you thought you did, and weoften stop having that food,
having that thing.
You know, so what so what we doknow is when when we look at
places what that are called bluezones, which is the places in
the world where people havelongevity, they live till
they're in their hundreds, andthey don't have things like
dementia and and all those kindsof things.
There's lots of differentfactors, and I've talked about
(07:39):
them on this podcast quite a fewtimes, so I'm not going to go
all over all of them today.
But one of those factors isthat they uh usually eat slowly,
they usually eat intentionally.
So these are places where they,you know, in the middle of the
day, so it a lot of them are inparts of Europe, so it might be
places where they kind of havethat siester time throughout the
(08:01):
middle of the day where youknow they in the hottest part of
the day, the family all getstogether, they they cook, you
know, they make fresh, uh,healthy meal that they, you
know, so it's a slow eatingthing, right?
And so it's all fresh, it'slocally grown, and uh stuff that
they've been growing forcenturies in that dis in that
area, all of that sort of stuff.
(08:21):
It's not it's not Uber Eats,it's not stuff that's come in
from flown around from acrossthe other side of the world and
been in refrigeration for fiveyears, it's none of that, it's
actually just real food, andthey eat slowly and they and
they connect, they spend timewith family and or family or
friends, and so that's a kind ofa common theme with people who
(08:45):
have longevity is that one ofthe things is they eat real
food, they eat as a real localkind of the same diet that
they've had for centuries uh forfor that uh that person at
those that um tribe or thatvillage or whoever they are in
that place, and um, and alsothey usually eat in a relaxed,
(09:06):
calm way.
So they're not eating in thetraffic, they're not eating
while they're you know readingthe scrolling through social
media or watching the news orreplying to all of their emails
or doing the banking or whateverthey're doing.
They're actually just eating,they're either eating just
quietly, just themselves orquietly with whoever they're
(09:26):
whoever they're eating with, um,or you know, having
conversations, whatever, butit's in a relaxed way.
So it's really, reallyimportant that we learn how to
eat in a relaxed way and that wewe see uh many of us see,
excuse me, many of us see foodas kind of something, oh, it's
oh I don't have time for that.
(09:47):
It gets in the way and I'lljust quickly do it.
Oh, you know, I'm not gonnatake a full lunch break.
What I'll do is at the end ofmy lunch break, uh, I will bring
back whatever it is I get and Iwill throw it down uh as I walk
back into the office or the theworkshop or wherever you happen
to work.
A lot of us seafood this thisway, we don't make time for it.
(10:08):
We don't see, we we don'tunderstand that digestion and
what an important role it playsbecause it's where you get all
your nutrition, and yournutrition is what powers your
energies, what powers you togrow new cells, powers you do
detoxification to work in yourbody, and all of the many, many
things that your nutrition doesfor you.
Uh well, it happens through thefood that you eat, and but it's
(10:32):
not just the food you eat, youhave to not only eat the
nutrition, the food that's gotthe nutrition in it, but you
have to actually be able todigest it and absorb it, right?
And so um digestion is reallyimportant for that, and eating
is really important for that.
But I just don't think I thinkin our society we kind of it's
like the 50 millionth thing onour minds, and we're kind of
(10:52):
like, oh no, I've got to dothis, I've got to get that done,
and we're running from onething to the next, and we just
don't understand how importanteating not just what we eat is
but how we eat it.
So we have to think of ways ofum slowing down when we eat.
Now, ideally, you sit down withyour family every night and eat
a home-cooked meal.
Obviously, that's the ideal,and you're connecting with those
(11:15):
people.
But even if that can't work, ifyou can sit and be quiet for 10
minutes while you're eatingwherever you happen to be, if
you can just make sure you'renot putting the news on while
you're eating, because that'sjust going to be reduced one
stress because it's, you know,what is it if it bleeds it leads
kind of thing, you know, thenews is can be quite graphic and
quite stressful.
(11:35):
So can scrolling, um,scrolling, because scrolling is
the same thing these days,because whether you absorb your
news from YouTube or from the TVor from Facebook or wherever
you news is news, right?
And and and so often you cansee things that are quite
distressing or quite stressful,finding out about what's going
on in the world or possible warsor all that, all those sorts of
(11:56):
things aren't conducive toabsorbing your nutrients well,
digesting well.
And one of the ways that youcan um change your body from
that fight or flight mode intothe rest and digest mode, and I
have talked about this before aswell, is but it's a breathing
technique where for one minuteyou breathe in for four seconds
(12:17):
and out for seven seconds.
So it's in for four, out forseven.
And when you do that for oneminute, which is six breaths,
what you will find is it takesyour body out of that fight or
flight mode and puts it into arest and digest mode.
So that's kind of a usefultrick to learn to do to kind of
(12:38):
slow yourself down and get yourbody prepared to eat.
So even by doing that, justthat one thing alone, like if
you learn one thing, spendingone minute just preparing your
body, letting your body know itneeds to be in rest and digest
mode before you eat, that couldmake a huge difference to your
health, to your digestion,reduce digestive symptoms, allow
(13:01):
you to absorb your nutrientsand use your nutrients and your
calories properly.
So just that one thing, even ifthat's the only thing you
change after listening orwatching this, is that you slow
your body down, you do thatbreathing technique four seconds
in, seven seconds out for oneminute, it's just six breaths.
So if you just practice thatfor six breaths, you're
(13:23):
preparing your body for uhputting your body in rest and
digest mode and preparing yourbody to eat, digest, and absorb.
So just that simple, one simplething can make a huge amount of
difference.
I would encourage you though,like I said, you can do that one
simple thing, that all thatalone will be very helpful.
But yes, I would encourage youto think of other ways of uh of
(13:46):
eating in a relaxed and calmway.
So anything that you canchange, it might be the
slightest thing that you canchange.
So it might even be when you'reat work or used to eating over
your computer, uh, when you'rein your lunch break, and you
know, instead of doing that, goand sit in the park or go and
sit.
If you have to go and sit inyour car in the car park to get
(14:06):
a quiet place, go and do that,or go and sit in the park or in
the lunchroom or somewhere justaway from uh your office space
if you're the sort of personthat sits over your computer
while you're eating.
Because you know, it it's funnybecause I can't I saw this
change happening, you know,should I show my age, but I was
(14:27):
working in offices in um the 80sand 90s and uh and onwards.
And in that time I noticed thatbosses started a lot of um some
companies started providinglunch for their employees.
I thought, oh, how generousthat is! And then I realized
what they were doing.
They thought, well, if we spendin those days it was 10 bucks.
(14:48):
So if we spend 10 bucks perperson on lunch, then they won't
leave their desk and they'llfeel like they owe us and
they'll stay at their desk andwork harder and get work done.
And you know, I I I think thatultimately when they kind of did
look at it and measure thatover time, I think they realized
that it was a false economy inthat people might have stayed at
(15:11):
their desk and they might havethought they got through more
work, but it actually wore themout faster.
And they, you know, people gottired and they didn't have a
break and they didn't theydidn't clear their mind and you
know, all of the things.
And so, and probably also theyweren't digesting very well.
So a combination of all ofthose things I think probably
meant that people's physical andmental health probably was
less, and they so thereforetheir performance in the
(15:33):
beginning, their performancemight have been more.
But I suspect, you know, Idon't have the evidence of this.
I just remember hearing aboutit at the time, so like I
haven't looked this up, but Isuspect over time the um the
benefit would have waned, andover time they would have found
that those people theirperformance would have reduced
because they're just not gettingany kind of a physical or
mental break or slowing downenough to let their body know
(15:55):
that they can digest their food,you know.
It's really important to beable to uh rest and digest.
So uh yeah, uh that's a falseeconomy, but I've noticed that a
lot of workplaces do that thesedays, and a lot of my clients
tell me that their bosses expectthem to stay at the desk.
And and anyway, and if if youdo stay at your desk, I would
advise that you stay at stay atyour desk, but you move away
(16:18):
from your computer and you sitand eat, or if you're on a desk
where you've always got thepublic coming in, whatever, then
you can't do that.
You need to actually get awayfrom that desk so that you can
have some quiet time and eatyour food.
So it is really important thatwe understand that uh and I have
seen this with my clients somany times that as soon as they
start eating in a really calmway, their digestion gets much
(16:41):
better, they have a lot lesssymptoms, and um and then, like
I said, they might start morebecause you're slowing down when
you eat, you're more consciouswhen you eat, and when you're
more conscious when you eat, younotice what you're doing.
So when we eat consciouslyversus unconsciously, like that
doctor in the car on the wayback to the surgery, that was
(17:03):
eating unconsciously, right?
You're eating unconsciously,and essentially what you're
doing is it's just like you'reyou're not paying attention at
all, you're just throwing itdown.
And when you're doing that,you're not really paying
attention to what you're eating,um, either physically or
psychologically.
So you're not physicallynoticing it, you're not noticing
(17:23):
how you're feeling, how it'saffecting you, how you're
getting tired, those sorts ofthings.
But you're also not reallyclocking it psychologically, or
I don't know, so psychologicallythe word, but um mentally,
you're not uh noticing it,you're not noticing what you're
eating.
So you could very easily remisreport what you're eating
because you don't really noticewhat you're eating.
Because when we eat in anunconscious way, whether it's
(17:45):
like what you eat when you'resitting at the movies and you're
unconsciously just eating, orwhen you're in the car on the
way home, or you do it you'resitting at your computer in that
bag of chips or whatever thatis, we often don't count those
kinds of foods.
We don't notice it because wedon't clock that we've done it,
because we didn't do itconsciously.
When we slow down and we gointo that rest and digest mode
to eat, we notice what we eat.
(18:06):
So we clock it consciously asin we know that we've done it,
we know what we're doing.
So that there that also thencomes into our choices and our,
you know, it kind of runs runsacross our, you know, the part
of our brain, the part of ourmind that's making choices about
is this a good idea or is thiswhat I want to eat or is this
good for me, or whatever thosequestions that you ask yourself.
(18:29):
If you eat unconsciously,you're not asking yourself those
questions at all.
If you eat consciously, youstart to ask yourself some of
those questions.
And one of those questions Iencourage my clients to ask
themselves is is this nourishingme?
So it's not like is it good orbad, or am I supposed to, or
whatever, but it's like, is thisnourishing me?
And the food that nourishessomeone might not be the same
thing that nourishes you.
(18:50):
So it's not even a question ofnecessarily good or bad foods,
although that sort of matters,but it's a question of is this
nourishing me?
And if you're getting reallybad indigestion, straight after
you eat it, maybe not.
And you've either got to lookat what's going on with her
digestive stem digestive system,why is that happening?
Or maybe the food you're eatingis just isn't, you know, like
um potato chips give meindigestion.
(19:11):
And I sort of the way I see itis well, that's because say junk
food, right?
So I just should do that less,which I do because I don't like
having indigestion like that.
But I notice it, uh, so when wenotice it, we tend to make
different choices, or we make achoice, but we we know that
we've done it, so we just takeresponsibility for it.
But also when you start really,really noticing your food, how
(19:33):
it tastes, whether you know,whether you feel uh energized
after it or whether you feelsick or whatever it is, you
start making different choices.
The more conscious you are,then the more you can actually
make conscious choices.
And um, so eating unconsciouslydoesn't help with that.
But when you eat in rest anddigest, you've got to calm
yourself down to a point whereyou're conscious, and that can
(19:54):
be a really good thing to uh andand not even just from a point
of view of eating, but when wedo that, that will be three
times a day that we've calmedour minds down, three times a
day that we've been a little bitpresent for a few minutes.
So, even just from that pointof view, without even thinking
about digestion, there's a lotof benefits just to that.
(20:15):
So, um, so you know, I wouldreally like to encourage you to
start thinking about how youeat.
What you eat matters, but startby thinking about how you eat,
start by actively putting yourbody into rest and digest mode
and really uh really getting toknow you know what that feels
like and how you know howdifferent foods make you feel,
(20:37):
and um, and being reallyconscious about the choices you
make in regards to food, becauseyou might find that uh just
being present and being in restand digest digest mode makes a
big difference to your digestivesymptoms and how you feel
overall.
And I'd love to hear back frompeople as well as what what
their experiences are, how thatmakes you feel.
(20:57):
You're welcome to, you know,wherever you uh see this video
or hear this podcast, there'sall sorts of different places,
whether it be on social media oron Buzzsprout or on Spotify or
wherever it is, YouTube, toreply and just let me know how
you know these sorts of foodsmake you feel, or like not just
foods, but how it feels whenyou're more conscious when
(21:18):
you're eating, uh how it feelswhen you're active actively
putting your body into rest anddigest when you eat.
So uh I'd really love to hearyour feedback of how that works
for you and the experiences thatyou have.
It really is important.
Like I said, it's not just whatyou eat, it's how you eat.
And um, and you know, knife andfork, sit down, eat slowly, put
(21:40):
your knife and fork downbetween bites, you don't have to
throw it down.
You know, a lot of peoplewho've been in, say, like the
army or in boarding school orbig families, they throw their
food down and don't chew, itdoesn't hit the sides, you know.
So obviously that's not greatfor your digestion.
So you've really got to, youknow, be in rest and digest
mode.
Sit down with your knife andfork and put it, put it down
(22:03):
between each sir each uhmouthful and chew.
Remember to chew.
So many of us don't chew, or wehave three chews and then
swallow it whole, and then wewonder why we have a sore
stomach or why it's like ourit's not going down, you know.
So uh pay attention to thesethings and learn how to eat in
(22:23):
rest and digest mode and seewhat a difference that makes for
your life.
So uh sorry I was a bit tiredand hope I made sense and wasn't
rambling too much.
And um anyway, I hope you umI'm pleased that you know if you
got benefit from this, ifyou've learned something in this
episode, please uh like,subscribe, share, give me
feedback, uh, send the episodeto uh family or friends and um
(22:45):
and or work, you know, workcolleagues and uh and you know,
rate and all of those things,rate and review.
I'd really appreciate that toget this podcast out there more.
Hope you have a wonderful week.
And uh, this is where I havereal conversations about things
that matter, and talk to youagain soon.
Thanks.
Bye bye.
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection
podcast.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane.
Today I'm going to berevisiting a topic I have talked
about before, but something Isee so commonly that it's worth
talking about again.
And it's in regards todigestion.
So a lot of people have refluxand indigestion and all sorts of
digestive issues.
(00:22):
And they're always looking forthe thing to fix it, whether it
be is it probiotics or is itprebiotics or is it this food,
that food, FODMAPS diet, orwhatever.
And while all of those thingsmay have their place, sometimes
it's you know bring things,bring it back to basics and talk
to people about not just whatthey eat or what they consume,
(00:42):
but actually how you eat.
And a lot of people just do notrealize that that is just as
important as what you eat, howyou eat.
So that's what I'm going to befocusing on today: the
strategies that you can use toreally support your digestion,
and you might find it reallyreduces that reflux, uh,
indigestion, or any of thosekinds of symptoms you might be
(01:04):
having.
So it's important to understandthat, and I've talked about
this in lots of differentcontexts before in regards to
the nervous system, but there'stwo main modes of the nervous
system.
So there's fight or flight orrest and digest.
When we're in the fight orflight mode, which a lot of
people would recognize and knowas the stress mode, when we're
(01:25):
in that mode, what happens isbecause your body is preparing
you to deal with a threat, soit, you know, it you might have
to perform or you might have torun and you know, fight the bear
or run away from the bear,whatever it is.
If your body thinks you'regoing to become lunch, it does
not care if you digest lunch.
So another way of saying thatis your body will stop making
(01:49):
digestive enzymes and stop doingits digestion.
So it it's because it it'sthat's why you will feel quite
sick sometimes if you have ashock or if something upsets you
if you're if you're kind ofgoing to that stress mode,
you'll feel quite sick becausethere's just no circulation
going to your digestive systemand you're not making digestive
enzymes.
And so when we eat when we'rein stress mode, we often can't
(02:12):
digest that food.
So you're not making theenzymes, the food sits in your
stomach for way, way too long.
And then what happens is itstarts coming back up again, so
you might have reflux anddigestion symptoms, uh and or it
just sits for so long thatyou're uncomfortable, and um,
and really you just end up withthis really sluggish digestive
(02:34):
system, or on the other hand,maybe your body just pushes it
straight through because it justcan't deal with it, so it might
be the opposite of that whereyou're running to the bathroom.
So it's important to understandthat many people we eat when
we're in this stress mode.
And the problem is that in ourmodern society is a stress mode
is really, really easy andcommon to be in because we rush,
(02:56):
rush, rush, rush, our lives areso busy, and we're often eating
in on the run, in the car,whatever it is.
And um, so we're eating whenwe're in this stress mode where
we should be in rest and digestmode.
So when we're in um when we'rein rest and digest mode, so I
think I did I say before it wasfight or flight mode?
The stress mode is fight orflight mode.
(03:16):
Hopefully I said that.
Sorry, I'm really tired, so Idon't know.
Now I kind of remember exactlywhat I said.
But the mode I was just talkingabout where you're not making
digestive enzymes, that is fightor flight mode.
And fight or flight mode iswhen your body is preparing you
to fight or perform or whatever,and you're not making the
digestive enzymes and digestingproperly when you're in fight or
flight mode.
(03:36):
To eat a meal uh and then to beable to digest it well, we need
to be in rest and digest mode.
And when you're in rest anddigest mode, sort of the name
gives it away, but when you'rein that mode, you're getting
circulation to your digestdigestive system, you can make
digestive enzymes, you can soyou can break the food down
fairly, you know, simply andeasily in the stomach so it
(03:58):
doesn't sit there for too long.
And what you can also do is umis you can use those nutrients,
absorb those nutrients, usethose calories, use the food the
way you're meant to.
So when you eat when you're inrest and digest mode, you can do
all of those things.
But uh, when you eat whenyou're in fight or flight mode,
you cannot do those things, uh,and or you do them very poorly,
(04:20):
right?
So it's important to understandthat we do need to eat when
we're in rest and digest mode.
And an example I've usedbefore, uh, my mentor uh uh sort
of taught me this is um is uhand he's from uh it's Mark from
the Psychology of EatingInstitute.
What's his um I might justhaving a sorry I'm just probably
(04:43):
a bit too tired to be recordingthis, but anyway, he's he's the
person who told me about thisstory.
So he was working with uh aclient, and that client was a
GP.
And the GP used to eat macasfor lunch every day, and he
would get in the car, drive toMaccas, eat the maccas in the
car on the way back to see hisnext patient, and he was getting
(05:05):
a really, really badindigestion or reflux.
And he said, I don't want tostop eating the macas, it's too
convenient, just sort of, youknow, but I want you to help me
fix this.
And so my mentor said to saidto him, um, it's Mark David,
Mark David from the PsychologyInstitute of Eating in Colorado.
Anyway, he he said, All right,what I want you to do then,
(05:28):
don't change what you're eating,fine.
But what I want you to do isstop in the car park for 10
minutes at Maccas and just eatslowly.
So just focus on your food, eatslowly, give yourself 10
minutes to eat the food anddigest the food before you go
back to work.
So he started doing that andhis digestion issues resolved
(05:49):
straight away.
And so, you know, even thoughI'd like to, you know, in some
ways as a nutritionist, I'd liketo say, no, it's a it's about
the food.
And I'm not saying it's neverabout the food, the food uh
obviously can have a really bigeffect on our health, and it
does just because it didn't givein digestion doesn't mean it
wasn't having other effects.
However, just from a you know,as as an example of how powerful
(06:13):
the way you eat is, even justby spending that 10 minutes in
the car rather than um sittingin the car park rather than in
the traffic, that was enough forhis body to calm down enough to
sort of eat that food anddigest that food.
And um, funnily enough,apparently a few weeks later he
came back and said he'd stoppedeating the macas.
And he said, Why?
It's because he said when heslowed down, didn't enjoy it so
(06:35):
much.
So that's that's a that's kindof another part of this topic,
really, but it's eating, uheating consciously.
Because when you eatconsciously, we rarely throw
down garbage down our throat allthe time, you know, and and in
large amounts when we're reallyconscious when we're eating.
When you're really consciouswhen you're eating, when you're
(06:55):
savouring those bites andreally, really chewing well and
all that sort of stuff, you donotice what you're eating more,
and sometimes you don't enjoythings that you thought that you
enjoyed.
We think we enjoy somethingbecause it's sort of the
mouthfeel, that that taste thatwe enjoy for a moment, uh, and
um and we don't always associateit with how we feel later.
But often when we slow down,you don't enjoy it as much as
(07:17):
you thought you did, and weoften stop having that food,
having that thing.
You know, so what so what we doknow is when when we look at
places what that are called bluezones, which is the places in
the world where people havelongevity, they live till
they're in their hundreds, andthey don't have things like
dementia and and all those kindsof things.
There's lots of differentfactors, and I've talked about
(07:39):
them on this podcast quite a fewtimes, so I'm not going to go
all over all of them today.
But one of those factors isthat they uh usually eat slowly,
they usually eat intentionally.
So these are places where they,you know, in the middle of the
day, so it a lot of them are inparts of Europe, so it might be
places where they kind of havethat siester time throughout the
(08:01):
middle of the day where youknow they in the hottest part of
the day, the family all getstogether, they they cook, you
know, they make fresh, uh,healthy meal that they, you
know, so it's a slow eatingthing, right?
And so it's all fresh, it'slocally grown, and uh stuff that
they've been growing forcenturies in that dis in that
area, all of that sort of stuff.
(08:21):
It's not it's not Uber Eats,it's not stuff that's come in
from flown around from acrossthe other side of the world and
been in refrigeration for fiveyears, it's none of that, it's
actually just real food, andthey eat slowly and they and
they connect, they spend timewith family and or family or
friends, and so that's a kind ofa common theme with people who
(08:45):
have longevity is that one ofthe things is they eat real
food, they eat as a real localkind of the same diet that
they've had for centuries uh forfor that uh that person at
those that um tribe or thatvillage or whoever they are in
that place, and um, and alsothey usually eat in a relaxed,
(09:06):
calm way.
So they're not eating in thetraffic, they're not eating
while they're you know readingthe scrolling through social
media or watching the news orreplying to all of their emails
or doing the banking or whateverthey're doing.
They're actually just eating,they're either eating just
quietly, just themselves orquietly with whoever they're
(09:26):
whoever they're eating with, um,or you know, having
conversations, whatever, butit's in a relaxed way.
So it's really, reallyimportant that we learn how to
eat in a relaxed way and that wewe see uh many of us see,
excuse me, many of us see foodas kind of something, oh, it's
oh I don't have time for that.
(09:47):
It gets in the way and I'lljust quickly do it.
Oh, you know, I'm not gonnatake a full lunch break.
What I'll do is at the end ofmy lunch break, uh, I will bring
back whatever it is I get and Iwill throw it down uh as I walk
back into the office or the theworkshop or wherever you happen
to work.
A lot of us seafood this thisway, we don't make time for it.
(10:08):
We don't see, we we don'tunderstand that digestion and
what an important role it playsbecause it's where you get all
your nutrition, and yournutrition is what powers your
energies, what powers you togrow new cells, powers you do
detoxification to work in yourbody, and all of the many, many
things that your nutrition doesfor you.
Uh well, it happens through thefood that you eat, and but it's
(10:32):
not just the food you eat, youhave to not only eat the
nutrition, the food that's gotthe nutrition in it, but you
have to actually be able todigest it and absorb it, right?
And so um digestion is reallyimportant for that, and eating
is really important for that.
But I just don't think I thinkin our society we kind of it's
like the 50 millionth thing onour minds, and we're kind of
(10:52):
like, oh no, I've got to dothis, I've got to get that done,
and we're running from onething to the next, and we just
don't understand how importanteating not just what we eat is
but how we eat it.
So we have to think of ways ofum slowing down when we eat.
Now, ideally, you sit down withyour family every night and eat
a home-cooked meal.
Obviously, that's the ideal,and you're connecting with those
(11:15):
people.
But even if that can't work, ifyou can sit and be quiet for 10
minutes while you're eatingwherever you happen to be, if
you can just make sure you'renot putting the news on while
you're eating, because that'sjust going to be reduced one
stress because it's, you know,what is it if it bleeds it leads
kind of thing, you know, thenews is can be quite graphic and
quite stressful.
(11:35):
So can scrolling, um,scrolling, because scrolling is
the same thing these days,because whether you absorb your
news from YouTube or from the TVor from Facebook or wherever
you news is news, right?
And and and so often you cansee things that are quite
distressing or quite stressful,finding out about what's going
on in the world or possible warsor all that, all those sorts of
(11:56):
things aren't conducive toabsorbing your nutrients well,
digesting well.
And one of the ways that youcan um change your body from
that fight or flight mode intothe rest and digest mode, and I
have talked about this before aswell, is but it's a breathing
technique where for one minuteyou breathe in for four seconds
(12:17):
and out for seven seconds.
So it's in for four, out forseven.
And when you do that for oneminute, which is six breaths,
what you will find is it takesyour body out of that fight or
flight mode and puts it into arest and digest mode.
So that's kind of a usefultrick to learn to do to kind of
(12:38):
slow yourself down and get yourbody prepared to eat.
So even by doing that, justthat one thing alone, like if
you learn one thing, spendingone minute just preparing your
body, letting your body know itneeds to be in rest and digest
mode before you eat, that couldmake a huge difference to your
health, to your digestion,reduce digestive symptoms, allow
(13:01):
you to absorb your nutrientsand use your nutrients and your
calories properly.
So just that one thing, even ifthat's the only thing you
change after listening orwatching this, is that you slow
your body down, you do thatbreathing technique four seconds
in, seven seconds out for oneminute, it's just six breaths.
So if you just practice thatfor six breaths, you're
(13:23):
preparing your body for uhputting your body in rest and
digest mode and preparing yourbody to eat, digest, and absorb.
So just that simple, one simplething can make a huge amount of
difference.
I would encourage you though,like I said, you can do that one
simple thing, that all thatalone will be very helpful.
But yes, I would encourage youto think of other ways of uh of
(13:46):
eating in a relaxed and calmway.
So anything that you canchange, it might be the
slightest thing that you canchange.
So it might even be when you'reat work or used to eating over
your computer, uh, when you'rein your lunch break, and you
know, instead of doing that, goand sit in the park or go and
sit.
If you have to go and sit inyour car in the car park to get
(14:06):
a quiet place, go and do that,or go and sit in the park or in
the lunchroom or somewhere justaway from uh your office space
if you're the sort of personthat sits over your computer
while you're eating.
Because you know, it it's funnybecause I can't I saw this
change happening, you know,should I show my age, but I was
(14:27):
working in offices in um the 80sand 90s and uh and onwards.
And in that time I noticed thatbosses started a lot of um some
companies started providinglunch for their employees.
I thought, oh, how generousthat is! And then I realized
what they were doing.
They thought, well, if we spendin those days it was 10 bucks.
(14:48):
So if we spend 10 bucks perperson on lunch, then they won't
leave their desk and they'llfeel like they owe us and
they'll stay at their desk andwork harder and get work done.
And you know, I I I think thatultimately when they kind of did
look at it and measure thatover time, I think they realized
that it was a false economy inthat people might have stayed at
(15:11):
their desk and they might havethought they got through more
work, but it actually wore themout faster.
And they, you know, people gottired and they didn't have a
break and they didn't theydidn't clear their mind and you
know, all of the things.
And so, and probably also theyweren't digesting very well.
So a combination of all ofthose things I think probably
meant that people's physical andmental health probably was
less, and they so thereforetheir performance in the
(15:33):
beginning, their performancemight have been more.
But I suspect, you know, Idon't have the evidence of this.
I just remember hearing aboutit at the time, so like I
haven't looked this up, but Isuspect over time the um the
benefit would have waned, andover time they would have found
that those people theirperformance would have reduced
because they're just not gettingany kind of a physical or
mental break or slowing downenough to let their body know
(15:55):
that they can digest their food,you know.
It's really important to beable to uh rest and digest.
So uh yeah, uh that's a falseeconomy, but I've noticed that a
lot of workplaces do that thesedays, and a lot of my clients
tell me that their bosses expectthem to stay at the desk.
And and anyway, and if if youdo stay at your desk, I would
advise that you stay at stay atyour desk, but you move away
(16:18):
from your computer and you sitand eat, or if you're on a desk
where you've always got thepublic coming in, whatever, then
you can't do that.
You need to actually get awayfrom that desk so that you can
have some quiet time and eatyour food.
So it is really important thatwe understand that uh and I have
seen this with my clients somany times that as soon as they
start eating in a really calmway, their digestion gets much
(16:41):
better, they have a lot lesssymptoms, and um and then, like
I said, they might start morebecause you're slowing down when
you eat, you're more consciouswhen you eat, and when you're
more conscious when you eat, younotice what you're doing.
So when we eat consciouslyversus unconsciously, like that
doctor in the car on the wayback to the surgery, that was
(17:03):
eating unconsciously, right?
You're eating unconsciously,and essentially what you're
doing is it's just like you'reyou're not paying attention at
all, you're just throwing itdown.
And when you're doing that,you're not really paying
attention to what you're eating,um, either physically or
psychologically.
So you're not physicallynoticing it, you're not noticing
(17:23):
how you're feeling, how it'saffecting you, how you're
getting tired, those sorts ofthings.
But you're also not reallyclocking it psychologically, or
I don't know, so psychologicallythe word, but um mentally,
you're not uh noticing it,you're not noticing what you're
eating.
So you could very easily remisreport what you're eating
because you don't really noticewhat you're eating.
Because when we eat in anunconscious way, whether it's
(17:45):
like what you eat when you'resitting at the movies and you're
unconsciously just eating, orwhen you're in the car on the
way home, or you do it you'resitting at your computer in that
bag of chips or whatever thatis, we often don't count those
kinds of foods.
We don't notice it because wedon't clock that we've done it,
because we didn't do itconsciously.
When we slow down and we gointo that rest and digest mode
to eat, we notice what we eat.
(18:06):
So we clock it consciously asin we know that we've done it,
we know what we're doing.
So that there that also thencomes into our choices and our,
you know, it kind of runs runsacross our, you know, the part
of our brain, the part of ourmind that's making choices about
is this a good idea or is thiswhat I want to eat or is this
good for me, or whatever thosequestions that you ask yourself.
(18:29):
If you eat unconsciously,you're not asking yourself those
questions at all.
If you eat consciously, youstart to ask yourself some of
those questions.
And one of those questions Iencourage my clients to ask
themselves is is this nourishingme?
So it's not like is it good orbad, or am I supposed to, or
whatever, but it's like, is thisnourishing me?
And the food that nourishessomeone might not be the same
thing that nourishes you.
(18:50):
So it's not even a question ofnecessarily good or bad foods,
although that sort of matters,but it's a question of is this
nourishing me?
And if you're getting reallybad indigestion, straight after
you eat it, maybe not.
And you've either got to lookat what's going on with her
digestive stem digestive system,why is that happening?
Or maybe the food you're eatingis just isn't, you know, like
um potato chips give meindigestion.
(19:11):
And I sort of the way I see itis well, that's because say junk
food, right?
So I just should do that less,which I do because I don't like
having indigestion like that.
But I notice it, uh, so when wenotice it, we tend to make
different choices, or we make achoice, but we we know that
we've done it, so we just takeresponsibility for it.
But also when you start really,really noticing your food, how
(19:33):
it tastes, whether you know,whether you feel uh energized
after it or whether you feelsick or whatever it is, you
start making different choices.
The more conscious you are,then the more you can actually
make conscious choices.
And um, so eating unconsciouslydoesn't help with that.
But when you eat in rest anddigest, you've got to calm
yourself down to a point whereyou're conscious, and that can
(19:54):
be a really good thing to uh andand not even just from a point
of view of eating, but when wedo that, that will be three
times a day that we've calmedour minds down, three times a
day that we've been a little bitpresent for a few minutes.
So, even just from that pointof view, without even thinking
about digestion, there's a lotof benefits just to that.
(20:15):
So, um, so you know, I wouldreally like to encourage you to
start thinking about how youeat.
What you eat matters, but startby thinking about how you eat,
start by actively putting yourbody into rest and digest mode
and really uh really getting toknow you know what that feels
like and how you know howdifferent foods make you feel,
(20:37):
and um, and being reallyconscious about the choices you
make in regards to food, becauseyou might find that uh just
being present and being in restand digest digest mode makes a
big difference to your digestivesymptoms and how you feel
overall.
And I'd love to hear back frompeople as well as what what
their experiences are, how thatmakes you feel.
(20:57):
You're welcome to, you know,wherever you uh see this video
or hear this podcast, there'sall sorts of different places,
whether it be on social media oron Buzzsprout or on Spotify or
wherever it is, YouTube, toreply and just let me know how
you know these sorts of foodsmake you feel, or like not just
foods, but how it feels whenyou're more conscious when
(21:18):
you're eating, uh how it feelswhen you're active actively
putting your body into rest anddigest when you eat.
So uh I'd really love to hearyour feedback of how that works
for you and the experiences thatyou have.
It really is important.
Like I said, it's not just whatyou eat, it's how you eat.
And um, and you know, knife andfork, sit down, eat slowly, put
(21:40):
your knife and fork downbetween bites, you don't have to
throw it down.
You know, a lot of peoplewho've been in, say, like the
army or in boarding school orbig families, they throw their
food down and don't chew, itdoesn't hit the sides, you know.
So obviously that's not greatfor your digestion.
So you've really got to, youknow, be in rest and digest
mode.
Sit down with your knife andfork and put it, put it down
(22:03):
between each sir each uhmouthful and chew.
Remember to chew.
So many of us don't chew, or wehave three chews and then
swallow it whole, and then wewonder why we have a sore
stomach or why it's like ourit's not going down, you know.
So uh pay attention to thesethings and learn how to eat in
(22:23):
rest and digest mode and seewhat a difference that makes for
your life.
So uh sorry I was a bit tiredand hope I made sense and wasn't
rambling too much.
And um anyway, I hope you umI'm pleased that you know if you
got benefit from this, ifyou've learned something in this
episode, please uh like,subscribe, share, give me
feedback, uh, send the episodeto uh family or friends and um
(22:45):
and or work, you know, workcolleagues and uh and you know,
rate and all of those things,rate and review.
I'd really appreciate that toget this podcast out there more.
Hope you have a wonderful week.
And uh, this is where I havereal conversations about things
that matter, and talk to youagain soon.
Thanks.
Bye bye.
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