Many of my patients experience gas and bloating after eating. One of the reasons for this may be that you are not effectively shifting your body into a parasympathetic state when you are eating.
We live is a high stress society. We are typically always eating on the go, so our body stays in the sympathetic state, the stress state as we eat.
We have a part of our nervous system called the autonomic nervous system. It is the part of the nervous system that runs in the background, we do not consciously control it. There is two parts of this nervous system, there is the sympathetic state, the stress state and then there is the parasympathetic state, the rest, digest and repair part of the nervous system.
When we are eating, we need to shift our body from that sympathetic state, the stress state, into our parasympathetic state, in order for us to properly digest our food.
When we are eating on the go, eating on the run, eating at our desk while we are working, if we are trying to take care of the kids as we eat, these are activities that will keep us in that sympathetic state and doesn’t effectively shift us into our parasympathetic state.
This is what we really need to be conscious of when we eat. In order for us to properly digest our food and properly metabolize the foods that we are eating, so that we don’t have gas and bloating. Gas and bloating is an indication that we are not properly breaking down the foods that we are eating.
If we are experiencing this, then we have to learn to shift our body into parasympathetic state when we are eating. This is what some people will call mindful eating. This means we need to focus on shifting our body into parasympathetic state when we are eating. We need to be relaxed when we are eating. We need to think about the foods we are eating and this will help us to properly digest the foods we are eating. We are going to think about how our food smells, take the time to think about how our food is tasting, take the time to chew our food, enjoy each bite, how good the food tastes and how the flavours mix together and enjoying that moment. You want to be looking out at nature or enjoy the time with your family, as opposed to being distracted by the TV or our phones or doing work while we are eating. We want to focus completely on eating.
This is a way to decrease gas and bloating that we may be experiencing after eating. And this can also help us to properly metabolize and breakdown the foods we are eating, so that we can properly absorb the nutrients, which will overall help you to be healthier.
