What do Gum, Waiting Tables and Artificial Sweeteners Have in Common?

When I ask most people where digestion starts, many say confidently, “The stomach.”

But a number of things happen before food reaches the stomach. You can just THINK about food and have a visceral response. Exposure to food in your environment starts the digestive process. Of course, you usually see it and smell it too.

Then, comes chewing, which signals again, that food is on its way – get ready!

Next, there is the taste of the food. Sweet, salty, pungent, and bitter flavors will all ignite a different digestive response. We know, for instance, that the bitter taste improves digestive function by increasing hydrochloric acid in the stomach, bile flow, pancreatic enzyme production, and overall peristalsis in the gut.

Finally, the food hits the stomach.

So what do gum, waiting tables, and artificial sweeteners have in common?

All of these things dysregulate digestive function.

Let’s start with chewing gum, which doesn’t do your body any favors, whatsoever. When you chew, your body expects food to be on the way, but is left wanting. You can see where your digestive system becomes confused, thinking it should get ready to go to work and then nothing happens.

(Xylitol mints are an excellent way to avoid gum AND support the health of your mouth and teeth. My favorite brand is Zellies.)

A similar situation occurs with waiting tables. I remember waiting tables where the shifts were very long. I was surrounded by food and was starving. I suffered from a fair amount of loose stools during that time frame. Once again, the body sees food, it smells food, but nothing is coming in for nourishment. Traditional Chinese Medicine calls this stomach deficiency. Looking at food and not eating it depletes digestive vitality.

I’ve saved the most disastrous for last: artificial sweeteners. In nature, sweet taste implies nutrition. Think about berries, nuts, meats, and honey – all of which are naturally occurring and are nutrient dense.

Artificial sweeteners are a chemical shit storm in your mouth. The body tastes that sweetness and asks: “Where’s the beef?” But the nourishment never comes.

Over the years and decades of tricking your digestive system, the metabolism and appetite get very confused. You will eat more in an effort to obtain the nourishment that never came. Studies have shown that people (and rats) who consume beverages with artificial sweeteners are overweight and suffer from the dysregulation I have described here.

(See sources below).

Now is as good a time as any to share with you my perception of sweeteners from the worst to the best:

Artificial sweeteners, like aspartame and saccharin – poison, avoid at all costs

High fructose corn syrup – poison, avoid at all costs

Sugar – acts like a drug, avoid as often as possible

Natural sweeteners, like maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar – use in moderation

Stevia – use whenever appropriate. Stevia is an extract from a plant. It is a naturally occurring substance from nature with a positive nutritional profile when consumed in its whole plant form. The body will recognize this on some level and it won’t wreak the havoc that artificial sweeteners do, especially because artificial sweeteners are sweeter than anything found in nature.

Over time, gum, artificial sweeteners, and constant exposure to food will cause you to lose the trust of your body. Trust is a two way street! You trust your body and your body trusts you. These three things violate trust. You’re participating in these activities, and there is no food coming. It’s an unfortunate scenario for many, many people.

Obviously, I am not telling you to change careers if you are in the restaurant industry, but what I am saying is be aware. All transformation starts with awareness. Avoid the things that don’t serve your highest good. Gum and artificial sweeteners are easy – just say no.

Small changes, over time, have great impact.

One last note...

You might see things slow down on the blog for the next couple of months while I work to finish my book. Have no fear...I'll still be sending out my weekly newsletter, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to keep getting all my top tips and tools for reclaiming your vitality.

Sources for this article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21424985

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3714671

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18535548

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18298259

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666312004138

Cooking: Is It Just a Big Pain in the ASS?

A few months ago, my husband and I were watching an episode of House of Cards, and these monks were making this amazing piece of art with sand. It was part of a peace keeping ritual, I think. There were four monks blowing colored sand in these intricate shapes. It was gorgeous. When they were done with the design, they wiped it clean. They put the sand in a sacred jar. The art was gone.

Just. Like. That.

I thought to myself: that is like making a meal. It is an act of love. It is art that you eat. Cooking is sacred. Food literally creates us. I spend hours in my kitchen cooking for my family. And for what? A 10 minute meal? Not to mention all the time it takes to gather the ingredients. And then poof, my creation is gone.

If I look at it like that, cooking sucks.

But its disappearance is an illusion. Your work in the kitchen lives on - in both you and your family. The food becomes you. The food you eat changes into something else. It is transformative. You can see it in your glowing skin and bright eyes and clear mind and stable energy levels. You can see it in your children and spouse. Next time you are struggling in your kitchen cooking, wondering what's it all for...remember this.

That said, sometimes cooking feels like nothing but a big pain in the ass, and that’s ok, too. No pressure. Let the desire to cook ebb and flow in your life. It doesn’t need to be yet another source of stress.

Just know that there is a distinction between not wanting to cook and not having time to cook. If I lack time to cook, then I’m usually in trouble, meaning that I am out of balance and over committed, and I need to renegotiate my priorities. But just not wanting to cook because you are spent, well, that’s another matter.

Whatever the case, instead of entering a spiral of shame about not wanting to cook, I respect my feelings. For days when I don’t have the time, or energy, or interest in creating an intricate culinary work of art, I compromise. I lean into purchasing prepared food items and healthy convenience foods, knowing that at some point I will come back to my kitchen with JOY!

Besides, you can still eat well and nurture your body by purchasing foods that are consciously pre-prepared, and pairing them with easy vegetable sides. I've learned to trust this natural flow of activity and rest when I need to rest. This is your permission slip to do it too.

Cook in Peace!

Love,

Charlotte

P.S. You might see things slow down on the blog for the next couple of months while I work to finish my book. Have no fear...I'll still be sending out my weekly newsletter, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to keep getting all my top tips and tools for reclaiming your vitality.

Should I Call 911?

Sometimes the best way to make a point is to share a story.

I am recovering from a two-week summer cold. My three and a half year old son had it first and after a few nights of bad sleep and life stressors, I succumbed to it as well.

It started out with a sore throat, which turned into stuffy nose, which turned into a night of severe muscle, bone and skin ache with a fever, which turned into no appetite, which turned into sweats and more fever, which turned into an alternating wet and dry cough, which turned into something I had never experienced before: heart palpitations.

I had noticed my heartbeat speed up a few times during this infection, but I didn’t think anything of it, until one morning last week, I told my husband that I felt really funny. I went to lie down in our bed and at that point the symptoms peaked. My heart was racing faster and faster and I was overwhelmed with a feeling of anxiety. Frankly, it was terrifying.

I said, “This is it. I am dying. We need to call 911.”

My husband held my hand and said, “Sweetie, you have pink cheeks. You are well. I am going to stay here with you. Let’s give this some time to work itself out.”

I was scared. All I could think about was how much I love my son, husband and mom. Then, I started chewing a number of Standard Process supplements geared to support the heart, and I took a few key herbs to shift the state of my nervous system.

We have a blood pressure monitor that tracks the heart rate, so we utilized that to help me connect my heart rate with the symptoms I was feeling. We watched my heart rate and blood pressure change with the supplements and herbs I consumed. It was fascinating.

It took about an hour of attention, and then I felt well enough to get in a warm bath with 4 pounds of Epsom salts and lavender. I rested in the tub for two hours and when I got out, I felt like the worst had passed.

Saturday morning I woke up and felt better than I had in months. My mind was clear, and I felt physically strong and content with life.

I am not sure what kind of infection I had. It could have been in my heart. It could have been in or affected my nervous system. It fit the profile perfectly for an enterovirus. Who knows?

But my question to you is: how many people are willing to live in this kind of mystery? In this situation, most people would have ended up in the emergency room, and surely endured a litany of unnecessary tests and pharmaceutical drugs to slow the heart rate.

Fortunately, I leaned on my husband’s confidence in my body and recalled a moment when I was birthing our son.

I was in the bathtub, moving through contraction after contraction, and I thought to myself, “I think that I just want to go to the hospital and do this. That might be easier.”

I will never forget what happened next. My midwife walked over to me, touched my arm, and said, “Charlotte, there is nowhere to go. Call on every hard thing you have ever done. You can do this.”

She read my mind.

Acute infection and childbirth have two things in common: pain and the thought that you are dying. We need to address both of these within ourselves simultaneously if we are going to live well.

Life is uncomfortable at times and healing hurts. This is a fact, but we try to avoid it with drugs that block that vitality from flowing. Moving through the pain of being human strengthens you physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In terms of childbirth and acute illness, we have thoughts of dying because we are, but it is a symbolic death. In natural childbirth, the mother is going through a transformative process, developing the spinal fortitude to bring new life into this world. In acute illness, the body transforms its vulnerability into a shield of armor, exercising the amazing muscle called the immune system.

Acute illness and childbirth put you in the way of the Divine, where something much larger than you takes over your body. This is where we develop TRUST. Trust in our selves and trust in something greater than our selves. This kind of transformation can only happen one person at a time, one event at a time.

It is up to you to strengthen this intangible, yet visible part of yourself.

My experience reminded me of a book I read a few years ago – Breaking the Iron Triangle: Reducing Health-Care Costs in Corporate America by Robert Duggan. Duggan founded the Tai Sophia Institute, now known as the Maryland University of Integrative Health, where I studied herbal medicine. He is an educator, acupuncturist, and healer with over 40 years of experience. (You can watch his TED talk HERE).

Don’t let the title of this book fool you. It’s about a lot more than corporate America. It is good education for anyone interested in wellness. In it, the author shares the following:

“A well-respected senior public health officer told me the following story a few years ago. I had known this person professionally for some time, and I knew that as a very traditional public health officer, he was reluctant to support the wellness approach to health care that I advocate. In a personal capacity, however, he had asked me about some family issues regarding pain and disease. I recommended that he and his wife learn yoga. And indeed, they began to do yoga; and he told me how much they enjoyed and benefited from it.

Then, one day, home alone, he fell while coming down the stairs. The pain in his back was excruciating, and he felt he could not move. He knew he needed to call 911 but had no way to access a phone. As he lay motionless on the stairwell platform, he had the thought that perhaps some of the breathing techniques he learned in yoga might help. He began to breathe deeply, mainly to settle himself. Then he thought that some of the other things he had learned in yoga might be helpful. It took about 15 minutes, but after settling down through breathing and then stretching out with yoga techniques, the pain was gone. He got up and walked down the stairs, never calling 911. He was keenly aware that if he had called an ambulance, the expense probably would have been close to three thousand dollars, whereas helping himself with yoga was free.

I’m sad to think that he did not immediately turn that learning experience into a public health campaign. The resources were available to him, but it would have meant his ‘coming out of the closet’ with a radical approach.

The public continues to be told to call 911.

Instead, often they first could be told to breathe” (p16).

That’s what I did. I breathed through my pain. With the help of my husband, tried and true supplements, trust, and a tincture of time, we didn’t call 911. Because I held on and worked my way through the experience, uninterrupted, I was gifted with renewed vitality and a deeper confidence in my body’s ability to heal itself.

Are you willing to sit in discomfort long enough for your body to reveal its abilities? And when you feel bad, do you seek out herbal allies and rest as your first line of defense? Next time you find yourself in an uncomfortable physical state, see what happens if you take a new approach to healing. Trust yourself; you just might be surprised at what you find.

Heal in Peace, my friends!

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