Relationship with Food - Simple Tips to Support Your Best Life
Written by Dr. Arun Garg. Content Reviewed by Dr. Anthony Marotta, PhD
Health is more than just the absence of disease. It is a composite of financial, spiritual, mental and physical well-being.
Maintenance of one’s well-being should be an integral part of managing a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.
Though reactive management of acute diseases requires external use of diagnostic testing methods, implementation of pharmaceutical agents, and in some cases surgical interventions - our current healthcare system has made much progress and has provided exemplary services by enabling timely responses to address patient needs.
Nowadays, as people live longer, preserving one’s well-being for the long term requires a re-examination of current approaches with more emphasis needing to be placed on enabling people to make more informed lifestyle decisions to support their long-term well-being. Eating healthy, reducing external stressors together with increasing physical activity are key pillars that fortify good health and support our well-being.
As Hippocrates stated “Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine Be Thy Food”. Nutritious food that is full of macro- and micro-nutrients, which ties into the biochemical basis of eating, is a requisite to good health. Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, required vitamins and minerals, and other important nutrients that fuel our cells should all be taken in balance - this is the way that nature intended it to be and this is how we have evolved as a species over time. But there is more to eating than just nutrition. As a trained clinical professional, my perspective today centers on a more holistic, integrative and sustainable approach - the consciousness paradigm.
To start with, food security plays a major role in managing one’s well-being. Availability of nutritious food and ensuring that it is affordable are important considerations in the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. There is sufficient clinical evidence to support the premise that unhealthy, highly processed foods contribute to poorer quality health outcomes. But even more important to this paradigm shift in eating, is the understanding of how lifestyle habits play a role in building best utilization strategies of food for good health.
As we re-evaluate things, eating habits like those listed below become far more important than even simply what you eat.
When you eat
How you eat
How much you eat
With whom you eat
We are learning that food is not only intended to fuel our cells, but with Its link to the inflammatory response and alterations in the gut microbiome, it is so much more crucial to overall human health than has ever been contemplated. Eating is well beyond chewing, chemical digestion and conversion to biological energy. How this energy is utilized and stored within our bodies also plays an important role in overall health. Accumulation of fats in body organs like that present within fatty liver disease plays a significant role in the development of a myriad of chronic diseases.
Today we know that It is impossible to lower cholesterol by reducing dietary fats as large percent of cholesterol is synthesized in the body, specifically the liver. As our knowledge regarding the connection between eating and health continues to evolve, we will need to create the best strategies to help consumers make more informed decisions about what to eat. Consumer interaction with products through packaging is one of the most influential factors involved in the purchasing decision matrix. As such, food labeling must be simple for consumers to understand yet it will require more comprehensive ways to eliminate subjectivity related to specific benefit call-outs and the misinformation that is highly prevalent in today’s food ecosystem. This is a major part of our work in understanding total food composition and its impact on the systems within our bodies and how they work in concert to promote overall health.
When you eat is another component where we have total control. Dietary habits like late evening eating, also referred to as unconscious eating - when watching your favorite program for example - can play a major role in how food is utilized by the body and in turn the focus of storage and biological resistance. In the case of Type II diabetes, this can be a major source of fatty deposits in organs and thus insulin resistance.
How you eat, though simple, is not practiced on a daily basis. Many of us often eat in a hurry as a consequence of our daily pressures rather than taking the necessary time to properly chew our food. Although taught to us from a very young age, this important life lesson is overlooked. Digestion is a biochemical process and chewing of the food primes the gut to receive the bolus of food by secreting digestive enzymes. The speed at which we eat can put strain on our digestive system and also be associated with an increased BMI and hypertriglyceridemia.
How much you eat is also extremely important. Unconsciousness in eating often leads to overconsumption with processed foods being formulated in a way to promote overconsumption due to their addictiveness. Coupled with this, we need to reprogram our thinking between feeling of fullness and satisfaction. The premise that unless you are full, and feel full, you have not eaten enough. This notion is counterproductive and leads to excess caloric intake which permits buildup of body organ fat and the start of key causes of insulin resistance and type II diabetes . In this context the role of fasting is also a healthy habit, well prescribed in Vedic sciences and all ancient books . Fasting provides balance on total calorie intake and biochemical balance in hormones secretions for balance.
With whom you eat is such an important cultural aspect that has the ability to unite cultures, families and friends together. It is a bridge between other cultures and an opportunity to learn and build new relationships.
Finally, food is linked with the role of the integrative approach to health. Food goes well beyond the physical and physiological process of science - abstract concepts of mind and intellect play an important role in food and health. Individual self-realization, self-determination and self-management of food is critical in lifestyle and behavior modification. Any change in dietary habits is the sum of education, empowerment and engagement of the individual.
To make the greatest impact on societal health, we need to teach people the proper techniques from a very young age, and give them the tools to reinforce these important life lessons. It is like riding a bike. Once you learn it and reinforce those habits they are with you for a lifetime.
Citations
David Tendler, MD. Pathogensis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/pathogenesis-of-nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease
Ahmed A, Wong RJ, Harrison SA. Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Review: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Outcomes. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2015 Nov;13(12):2062-70. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2015.07.029. Epub 2015 Jul 27. PMID: 26226097. DOI: 10.1016/j.cgh.2015.07.029
de Cabo R, Mattson MP. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. N Engl J Med. 2019 Dec 26;381(26):2541-2551. Erratum in: N Engl J Med. 2020 Jan 16;382(3):298. Erratum in: N Engl J Med. 2020 Mar 5;382(10):978. PMID: 31881139. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1905136
Lewis P, Oster H, Korf HW, Foster RG, Erren TC. Food as a circadian time cue - evidence from human studies. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2020 Apr;16(4):213-223. doi: 10.1038/s41574-020-0318-z. Epub 2020 Feb 13. PMID: 32055029. DOI: 10.1038/s41574-020-0318-z
Leong SL, Madden C, Gray A, Waters D, Horwath C. Faster self-reported speed of eating is related to higher body mass index in a nationwide survey of middle-aged women. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011 Aug;111(8):1192-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2011.05.012. PMID: 21802566. DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2011.05.012
Paz-Graniel I, Babio N, Mendez I, Salas-Salvadó J. Association between Eating Speed and Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients. 2019 Jan 4;11(1):83. doi: 10.3390/nu11010083. PMID: 30621124; PMCID: PMC6356451. DOI: 10.3390/nu11010083
About the Author
Dr. Garg is a Clinical Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia, the Medical Lead for the South Asian Health Institute, Fraser Health.
As a global physician with a passion for a healthy civil society, application of my expertise for health promotion, illness prevention, and more specifically in disease management, the biochemical monitoring and its application to food will be of special interest.
In addition, diet and food has very significant cultural overlay, which is of special interest to me inclusvie of the role of safe culture, diversity and applications in health. Life style and behavior modification is very culturally linked and will add value to the work we do in targeting individuals of different ethnicities.
To learn more, watch my video interview on the BeFUSED podcast.