How food affects our decisions

Image by xiuqilong from Pixabay

We only need to stop and pay attention for a moment to see how closely our consumption choices correlate with our worldview, and how we communicate and live.

A Buddhist monk eats no more than twice a day, minimally, does everything early, and with emphasis on mindful consumption and gratitude.

The party life is associated with late nights, pizza, sugar, cigarettes, alcohol, recovery, and loud (can’t hear a thing, causing us to react from what we can see with our eyes).

Most of us fall somewhere in between. What we eat compared to the next person might look similar, but there’s nuance. And those nuances inform the lens through which we see.

What most people don’t realize is that food is not just calories; it’s information. It actually contains messages that connect to every cell in the body.

– Dr. Mark Hyman

Everything we put into our bodies impacts our gut microbiome, which directly interacts with our brain, affecting mood and cognitive function, informing our decisions, and ultimately molding our personality and life experiences.

The wrong foods, and even too much of the right ones, can create neurological issues and chronic inflammation of the brain, negatively impacting energy levels, clarity of consciousness, ability to concentrate and have patience, and causing mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

Here’s one example of how food can affect a person:

When my son went into Early Childhood, he became fast friends with an incredibly sweet boy in his class. This friend often displayed behaviors that his teachers, parents, and peers had trouble managing. Lucky for him and everyone else, his parents were on it!

I saw this boy go from inability to sit still, reactive, and with obvious difficulty self regulating - in a school that prioritizes recess and outdoor time and does not sit their children all day (Waldorf) - to becoming a calm yet willful, curious, playful, self-regulated child without the use of drugs.

What changed was his diet.

This is not to say that all cases of attention deficit, tantrums, or behavioral issues stem from food, but it is to say that our food choices do matter. And for some of us, they are everything.

So much of our gatherings are centered around food. It’s sensual, connective, and nourishing. But it doesn’t feel so great to ever have to consider changing how we eat.

My son’s friend had to eliminate a LOT of foods from his diet for a while.

In situations like this, people will ask,

But why would you deny him (a treat, reward, this celebration, name the food)?

Um.

Because outside of that single short moment of temporary pleasure, he’s not doing or feeling well.

Thanks to that “treat,” he isn’t able to self-regulate. Nor is he enjoying the labels that go with his inability to self-regulate. He’s unable to be still and relax, so he gets overtired.

Food intake profoundly impacts not only human physiological processes but can also change our behaviors.

- an abstract from Science Direct titled Eating to dare - Nutrition impacts human risky decision and related brain function

And again…

What you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood.

- Harvard Health Publishing, Nutritional Psychology: Your brain on food

So why would anyone “deny” themselves anything?

Why would anyone deny themselves feeling great?

Why would anyone spoil a good day by having things end in a

• Melt down or shut down?

• Headache, migraine, or tummy-ache?

• Fatigue?

• Irritability?

• Food coma that wipes out the entire afternoon?

• Inability to be present with others?

• Inability to wake up refreshed in the morning?

• Lack of motivation or discipline?

• A depressed immune system?

• Depression, anxiety?

Sounds more like punishment than a treat, doesn’t it?

Of course there are other factors that go into behaviors and health, but let’s stick with food today because it’s an important piece that is overlooked and often dismissed.

This is not to say that we can’t enjoy food that doesn’t bode well with us from time to time.

But it seems wise to pay actual attention to the effects of the foods we eat to decide whether or not it’s worth it. This would require making the connection between food and how we end up feeling and thinking afterwards.

The more I say yes to the wrong foods, the more depleted I feel. The easier it is for me to justify a later start to my morning and give up what’s truly important to me; and the harder it is for me to stay present.

When these things happen, the energy isn’t there, and I become prone to negative self-talk. I’m also more likely to take what others say and do more personally. Then, from an unconscious level, I’ll crave more of the wrong foods to put myself back to sleep not to have to deal with those feelings. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Nothing tastes as delicious, and supports and celebrates the good life, the way feeling good does. Nothing tastes as amazing as clarity and the ability to make the decisions I want to make.

So I find it wise to eat in the most emotionally and energetically supportive way. In a way that wires the brain, and strengthens the digestion, to harness the courage to live life according to my deepest values. To have enough self regulation to communicate bad news kindly and honestly, stay optimistic, and have equanimity.

Here’s how to reduce brain inflammation and indigestion through food… and support best decision-making.

Heads up: it’s not all in what you eat. The how and when are just as important.

1. Have your largest meal between 10 am and 2 pm when digestion is strongest. Have your dinner as early as possible.

2. Sit when you eat, and chew your food. Do not eat standing up or while working or watching t.v. Your taste buds and stomach’s ability to signal the right messages to you will be impaired if you do. This is often why we lace our foods with additional sauces - to be able to experience the flavors more fully when all we need to do is to be fully present to it. This tends to translate into how we lace our lives as well.

3. Enjoy good conversation. Save the more stressful ones for another time, otherwise you’ll go into fight-or-flight (sympathetic) mode when you should be in rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) mode.

4. On that same token, try not to eat when angry or emotional. Emotional eating, including eating from boredom, is a thing, and it’s rampant in our culture. We think we’re hungry, which in fact we are. Just not for food.
   Check in with yourself before you open the fridge or pantry. Meditation is good for this because it teaches you to slow down the monkey mind and see why you do things.

5. Sip your water. Too much water will dilute the enzymes in your digestive tract that break down food. Ice water will weaken your ability to digest foods. It’s crazy that restaurants start us off with a tall glass of iced water; it’s so normalized that it seems downright weird to have it any other way. Try asking for hot water with lemon. Experience the sensation of doing something new, radical, and good for you.

6. Minimize or cut out highly processed and artificial foods including sugary products, highly processed oils, processed meats, refined carbs, and freezer meals.

7. DO have the freshest, whole foods you can get your hands on. As they say, stay in the peripheries of the grocery store. The highly processed stuff is in the aisles. Watch out for the sauces and dressings; there are loads of chemicals hidden in many of them. Read the ingredients more than the nutritional facts. Who cares if there are no sugars and saturated fats if it isn’t even food?

8. I’d be remiss not to mention the effects of drugs and alcohol on brain inflammation, decision making… and increased risk of dementia. It doesn’t matter if you’re a “high functioning” consumer that only drinks socially, you are still impacted, and not just when under the influence.

9. Sit for 5 to 10 minutes after eating to give yourself time to digest. Sobremesa is a Spanish word meaning over the table. It refers to this highly cherished time after a meal when we get to sit, relax, chat, and connect. This window of nourishment is the best dessert. And it helps you better digest your food and the rest of your day. Adopt sobremesa time.

What, when, and how much to eat?

These answers will be different for you than for me, but it’s easier and more intuitive than you think.

If you’re paying attention, you’ll know almost immediately after eating whether or not it was good for you. Your mind, body, energy, and mood will tell you.

On the other hand, making this connection is difficult when you’re multi-tasking while you eat and then moving on to the next five things on your list without pause, probably all while on the phone.

Five to 15 minutes after eating, make it a habit to check in with your energy, mood, and sense of clarity. It will give you all the information you need.

Consider that when something upsets you after a meal, it could be the food you just ate coloring your perceptions and response-ability, and not what someone just said or did.

Over time, you’ll get good at identifying what works and what doesn’t. Your ability to self-regulate, feel focused, kind, patient, gentle, firm, open, proactive, experience more joy, and make your best decisions will increase. And so will your overall health.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Salud!

Love, Savitree