Growing up I never really thought about the importance of chewing my food. It was always "Every Man for Himself" when we sat down for dinner. With three brothers and a mom that only let us snack on veggies and fruit, we were "starving" by the time dinner rolled around. Dinner at our house was fast and furious, so if you wanted your fair share you had to chew fast! Of course, when I was young, I had no idea that chewing my food inadequately could set me up for a lifetime of abdominal bloating and discomfort.
We learned in my last post what part the brain plays in digestion, let's move on to the mouth. The main function of the mouth is chewing and liquefying food. Our salivary glands, located under the tongue, produce saliva, which softens food, begins dissolving soluble components, and helps keep the mouth and teeth clean. Our saliva contains amylase, an enzyme for splitting carbs, and lipase, a fat-digesting enzyme. Just a small amount of starches are digested by the amylase in your mouth, but they continue to do their job for about another hour until the stomach acid inactivates the enzymes. Now, the lipase become activated once they reach the stomach, and they begin the process of fat digestion. Saliva has clotting factors, it helps to buffer acids, protects our teeth, allows us to swallow, and also protects our oral mucosa and esophagus. If you think that's it, there's even more! Our saliva also reabsorbs nitrates from our foods, primarily green leafy veggies and beets. The nitrates are converted into nitrites by bacteria on our tongues, concentrating this a thousand times higher than those found in plasma! When our nitrite-rich saliva gets swallowed into acidic stomach juices, it converts into nitric oxide, and reduces inflammation in our bodies.
Chewing also stimulates the thymus to produce T-cells, which are the main part of the protective immune system.
Healthy gums and teeth are extremely important for proper digestion. As a young girl I would eat too fast, barely chewing my food at all and then wash it down with a glass of water. This means that my stomach was receiving chunks of food rather than mush. My stomach was having to do the job my mouth was intended to do. If I were to have low stomach acid naturally, this would cause digestive problems at an early age. The function of our teeth is to increase the surface area of the food.
Oftentimes people who don't chew properly complain of gas and indigestion. There's a story about three men who survived a concentration camp during WW11 by chewing their food really well, while the others in the camp perished. Chewing our food is so simple and can greatly enhance digestion and get rid of unwanted bloating.
Encourage your kids to chew 20-30 times. This may eliminate digestive problems now and as they mature.
Check out my last post on "Digestion and the Brain"- https://www.naturallifetherapist.com/blog/digestion-starts-in-our-brain
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