Each week this column presents a single, simple idea or activity that has the potential to make a profound difference in your health and wellbeing.
Choose the ideas that fit your needs and stay with them until they become a habit.
Look for the column each week in the Thursday edition of The Murfreesboro Post, or find the archives at www.DrKestner.com under the 52 Healthy Habits tab.
Week 41
Drink less with your meals
Benefits:
This simple habit can contribute to weight loss, help resolve heartburn and indigestion, and save up to $1,300 in one year.
Wow! How can a simple change like this affect your life in such a profound way?
When people eat, many often consume a large drink or have frequent refills at a restaurant or at home.
If we are drinking a lot with our meals that may mean that we are chewing too little, or hurrying too much.
This also means we greatly increase the fluid volume in our stomachs, and that decreases the efficiency of our digestion.
Think about the following important facts related to digestion.
Thoroughly chewing food prepares the food for digestion in at least three important ways.
By completely pulverizing the food, the food is broken down into smaller particles which are more easily digested than large pieces of food.
Thorough chewing liquefies the food and allows for easier mixing with digestive enzymes and stomach acids.
Thorough chewing also stimulates secretion of digestive enzymes in the mouth by the salivary glands. These important enzymes contribute a great amount to overall digestion.
If we are not thorough enough in our chewing, we need to drink more fluids during a meal to “wash the food down”.
Thorough chewing liquefies and breaks down food sufficiently to eliminate the need to drink as much.
By drinking more than we need during a meal, we inadvertently dilute the digestive enzymes and stomach acids that are secreted.
That means that the digestive process will be very inefficient. Indigestion often results from drinking too much during meals.
Drinking with our meals slows overall digestion, leading to several digestive complaints.
The most prominent of which may be reflux or heartburn.
Intentionally chewing to the point of liquefaction and avoiding drinking with meals will often completely relieve these symptoms.
How can you lose weight by eating more slowly and chewing more?
For one thing, you are less likely to be consuming a drink with 100-300 unnecessary calories during your meal. Another benefit is that by eating more slowly, you will be more satisfied with a smaller amount of food.
The monetary savings comes partially from not ordering as many costly drinks when dining out.
The example of $1,300 would result from eliminating 10 drinks per week at $2.50 per drink.
How much money you actually save will depend on how many actual drinks you are buying right now.
It’s no secret that restaurants earn significant profits from the drinks ordered with the meals.
If you are intentionally not drinking with a meal, there is no reason to order one in the first place.
To sum it all up, by adopting this single simple habit for the next year, even if you didn’t change another thing, you could lose up to 20 pounds; have several hundred dollars more in your bank account; and possibly feel better than ever.
To see the previous 52 Healthy Habits, click the tab at DrKestner.com. |
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