Gut Knowing Eating
Our bodies are brilliant and wise. They read the room to tell us if we are safe. They know what foods we should eat and when we should exercise. They are attracted to what is healthy for us and repulsed by what is dangerous. Our bodies are brilliant and wise. If only we would listen.
We humans have been hijacked by our frontal cortex. This isn’t all bad. Our brains are very useful and they have invented many useful things, like computers and the internet. We lead comfortable lives because of the innovations of our frontal cortex. They keep us occupied and entertained. But they have taken over the show and we’ve lost connection to our deeper knowing. We’ve lost our connection to our gut.
Sit in a public place sometime and watch the way people walk and move in the world. Most of us literally walk head first into the world. When our head leads our bodies, i.e. head physically-positioned forward of our torsos, the whole body must be engaged to hold the head upright. We’ve sacrificed our bodies to our heads.
Our frontal cortex enjoys dopamine fixes, the short term pleasure response stimulated by food, alcohol, drugs and a host of other process and substance addictions. When the mind makes the food choices, we often choose to feed the pleasure system rather than feed nutritional needs of the body. My mind will choose fatty sweet salty crunchy over healthy most any day.
I’ve been practicing mindful eating: my goal is to pay attention and feed my body what it calls for. Maybe I should call it gut-wisdom eating instead of mindful eating. I slow down and listen to my gut before and during meals. I turn my mind, my awareness, and my distractible frontal lobe, to the wisdom of my body. What does my gut want? What does my body need? Protein, veggies, fruit or grain? Those are the basic nutritional elements. Once I’ve made an assessment of what my body needs, then I can think about the foods that are at hand. How do I fill my body’s need? What will satisfy my gut rather than satisfy my mind. During my meal I stop often and ask my gut again: are you satisfied? Have you gotten what you need? Are we finished or do we need more?
I’m surprised to find that my body only wants about half as much food as my mind wants. I have to get over my ‘clean plate club’ mentality. The uneaten food won’t go to waste. My eating this food will not save a starving child in China. This morning I put half my breakfast of fruit and yogurt back into the fridge. I’ll come back and eat it later as a snack, or I’ll compost it or give it to the dog. It would be a bigger violence to force it into my stomach than to recycle it back to the earth.
There is a deep sense of physical ease when your body is well nourished. It is a different sensation than the mental relief that comes by feeding an addictive craving. As I nurture my body, the physical response to food is satisfying and sensual. I feel satiated when I’m though. I feel more present in my body rather than less present.
Listen to your body. It is very wise.
