Chewing food

I was going to comment back to Anonymous's comment on the saliva post in a comment, but it's getting a bit long, so here's another post....

Dear Anonymous,
It is really important, I don't know if I'd ever get anything done if I chewed 100 times, but hey, what works works.

I've read some about digestion times varying depending on the kind of food you have just ingested. But that becomes like a complicated rule book that's much too long to describe here.

From what I understand, people recommend not drinking anything (or less than 4-6 oz) during a meal because it dilutes the digestive enzymes in your stomach. I would add that if you are using liquid to help soften the food before you swallow, you probably haven't chewed your food enough to mix the enzymes that come from your saliva into your food.

Another thing to think about is that if you skip that first step, of chewing your food well, once the food reaches your stomach, the enzymes that came from your saliva are deactivated by the hydrochloric acid, and the other gastric digestive enzymes. So you are essentially making your body work much harder, and raising the chances that your food will not be properly digested. Or only partially digested. If that happens, not only could you become gassy and bloated, but you aren't receiving the vital nutrients you need from the food you just ate. (Of course I'm assuming that you are eating healthy whole foods that contain vital nutrients...)

But back to the question, should we drink tea immediately after eating? They say ginger is good for digestion, so maybe ginger tea would be the exception. The Weston A. Price foundation has a lot of great information about food and they recommend not drinking liquid 20-30 min before or after meals. You can read their seven tips to enhance digestion here.

I think it's probably a good idea to wait a little. But the best thing is to listen to your body. Every body is different, and will probably let you know if things aren't digesting so well!