Simple tips and tricks can transform poor eating habits that impact digestion into practices that make the dining experience fun and relaxing.
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A vacation mindset could help year-round digestion
Bringing the joy of eating on vacation to your home dining room
Vacation Eating Informs Some on Better Eating Habits
Eating Style Could Be Causing Problematic Gastrointestinal Symptoms
Tummy Troubles May be Alleviated with a ‘Vacation Mindset’
Transforming Eating Styles at Home Can Foster Good Gut Health
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Early in her career as a gut health dietitian, Ashley Oswald learned a helpful lesson about how vacations can sometimes be healing for chronic, complex conditions.
While working with a client who had symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Oswald found that dietary changes were not reducing her complaints. However, after taking a four-day trip over the Thanksgiving holiday, the client returned feeling 95 percent better.
Some people experience tummy troubles during travels—often driven by a change in diet and/or bowel habits or exposure to different gut bugs—but others can feel surprisingly unburdened of common gastrointestinal complaints.
“At first it was hard to believe, but it was great for her to see how many of her symptoms were connected to emotions,” Oswald told The Epoch Times. “Then I could kind of work backwards and help her see how she could create that environment in her day-to-day life when she’s not on vacation.”
Owner of Oswald Digestive Clinic, Oswald has since noticed symptom improvement on vacation is a common experience for those with stress-related gastrointestinal symptoms. The reasons revolve around a more relaxed nervous system.
- Relieved of the burden of shopping for, planning, and cooking meals.
- Sitting down at each meal and enjoying the food.
- Sharing meals with others.
- Experiencing overall relaxation.
- Making better food choices to avoid being bloated or gassy for hours.
The good news is that maintaining a vacation mindset when you come home is a free and simple way to potentially offset problematic digestion year-round.
For all the focus on what we eat and how to control symptoms, the way we eat—sometimes mindlessly and quickly—may be an overlooked factor that drives uncomfortable GI symptoms like bloating, gas, and acid reflux.
Diverting Resources
Our sympathetic nervous system is prone to staying on alert when we squeeze meals into narrow timeframes of hectic schedules—and when we multitask—particularly when we eat while simultaneously working on stress-inducing activities, Oswald said. Such activity keeps our heart rate high and breathing fast, stealing resources that should be diverted to our GI organs.
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)—called “rest and digest”—is responsible for slowing down the heart rate, stimulating relaxed breathing, and assisting in digestive contractions through a network of enteric nerves housed throughout the GI tract.
“There’s no test to determine if, say 80 percent of your chronic gut issues are because of your stress,” she added.
“These findings are in agreement with the autonomic control of GI motility: the activation of parasympathetic activity enhances GI motility, whereas the activation of sympathetic activity inhibits GI motility,” the review stated.
Eating Too Quickly
Additional research shows that eating fast can impact our health—including biomarkers beyond the GI tract.
Reallocating Time
Those who find themselves rushing may need to focus on releasing perfectionism and reprioritizing their time, Oswald said.
Practically speaking, she said that could mean using a service that delivers healthy prepared meals or even eliminating the trip to the grocery store by shopping online and having food delivered. Other ideas are batch cooking or starting a cooking co-op with neighbors or friends. Having food prepared in advance could help mimic vacation-style meals that you can sit down to enjoy with less effort involved in day-to-day preparation.
It’s also important to prioritize movement-related stress-reduction activities in your daily schedule, identifying something effective and interesting enough to retain as a habit, Oswald said.
Eating healthy and physical exercise could require a reallocation of time. She suggested minimizing activities and clearing some of the clutter in your environment. “Decreasing clutter in your life means you’re not spending so much time on those things.”
Aesthetics can help as well. Oswald suggested creating ambiance in your cooking and eating areas. A simple candle or two and some soft dinner music can invoke the parasympathetic response required for healthy digestion. Oswald said to think of the things you enjoy most while dining on vacation.
Mindful Eating
You may also try reimagining your sensory experience around cooking and eating. Personal chef James Barry structures his suggestions around a “food pyramid” he created that diverts attention away from “dieting.” The base—or largest part of the pyramid—is mindful eating.
His passion is helping others reconnect with the sensory experience of food—something he says people are far more apt to do when traveling.
“What they’re probably also doing is they’re mindfully eating—they’re on vacation, they’re relaxed, they’re feeling connected to this sensorial experience of the food because they’re eating foods they don’t normally eat or they’re eating in a way they don’t normally get it,” he told The Epoch Times.
In the middle of his pyramid are nutrient-dense foods, or real foods, and at the top are “ancestral flavors.” Along with mindful eating, all three parts of his pyramid are aimed at restoring a healthy relationship with food. Ancestral flavors—as opposed to synthetically derived flavoring emphasizing sweet and salty that can create food addiction—can include savory and natural fats that are nutrient-rich.
Barry wants people to get in touch with the connection food has to their bodies so they can eat more intuitively and ultimately, feel better. This could entail adopting new principles like his to replace dieting “rules.” Many people have become indoctrinated to seek advice on what to eat, he said, based on fad diets and dietary advice that follow the government’s old food pyramid or the newer My Plate guidelines.
“I truly believe when we feel better, we then treat others better,” he said. “These kinds of principles can truly change the world and how we interact with each other, but it’s got to start with us being more mindful about what we eat and how we eat it.”
Presentation
For those who don’t love to cook, Barry said it’s possible to find ways to enjoy the process. He suggested improving kitchen lighting and listening to music or a podcast that supports a positive atmosphere for you.
“Plate the food as though you are going to be serving it at a restaurant. Don’t just slop it on the plate like you don’t care about it at all,” he said, adding that you don’t have to be a professional to add a bit of creativity. “You can do things atmospherically to support the outcome you want.”
- Use bright green that makes things “pop,” like parsley or other herbs.
- Include some red or yellow that elicit positivity and hunger, including diced red bell pepper or even a bit of lemon zest.
- Create interesting shapes with the food, such as using a cup to create a form for rice.
- Slice meat thinly or find ways to make it look interesting.
“Then you have to take a moment before you eat, and it doesn’t matter what you do, it could be grace, a prayer, a moment that forces you to take a breath that forces you to be in the moment and more grounded,” Barry added. “Before you start plowing down, it gets you to be grateful. It will help you to slow down and be more mindful.”
