Читать книгу The Healthy Gut Cookbook: How to Keep in Excellent Digestive Health with 60 Recipes and Nutrition Advice - Marguerite Patten - Страница 13

How you eat your food helps determine whether or not you have a healthy gut.

Modern lifestyles – TV dinners, dependence on takeaway food, and a different social schedule for everyone in a household – work against healthy eating habits. We live in a rush-rush world where consuming food has become a necessity, rather than a source of pleasure and relaxation. Gulping down half-chewed food, overeating, washing everything down with fizzy drinks, and failing to relax during a meal can lead to indigestion, bloating and uncertain bowels. Can we doubt that bad eating habits contribute to the epidemic of gastric and bowel conditions plaguing most of Western society?

What is the basic rule of good gut health? Meals should be eaten slowly at a table in a peaceful environment, taking time to enjoy both the food and the company of others. This may seem simplistic, but the belief that how you eat is as important as what you eat has been taught for thousands of years. Wise men advised us not to think only about how we eat, but also how the food is prepared. The ancient Indian healing practice of Ayurveda tells us to prepare food while in a peaceful state of mind. It claims that the cook’s mood enters the food, which in turn influences the mood of those who eat it. In other words, if you are tense and nervy when you poach the fish or season the Bolognese, those you feed will soon become tense and nervy, too.

There is some sense to this. Here is a case in point: sometimes Mum in the kitchen after a hard day’s work is not a pretty sight. Perhaps the food she prepares is not really affected by her mood, but you can be sure that her exhaustion, or frustration, from a day in the office can charge the air with tension, destroying any chance of easy conversation and giving everyone at least a touch of indigestion! Food is a beautiful part of life. Enjoy cooking it and eating it. (See the Glossary for more information about Ayurveda.)

Adopting the Golden Rules of Eating, listed overleaf, is a good first step towards maintaining a healthier digestive system. Try applying this strategy to at least one meal each day. You can begin with breakfast, lunch or dinner – it does not matter. Over time, the ‘practice’ of relaxing during this one daily meal will help you develop healthier habits every time you eat. You might be pleasantly surprised by the speedy disappearance of belching, heartburn and flatulence you suffered in the past.