What You Know In Your Gut

What is your body telling you?We all know about gut instinct.

It’s that inner compass that guides you day in and day out – even when you choose to disregard it’s message.

Most of the time, it’s ‘spot on’ – helping you determine whether something might be harmful to you, or not – be it another person, a situation, or even the foods you choose to eat.

You can either honor that innate directive in the moment it occurs or ignore it completely.

All to often you might choose the latter – despite knowing, on a gut level that you really ought to pay attention!

The thing is, you have a direct gut-brain connection in your body – with these two seemingly distinct entities constantly in communication with each other.

Yet while your thinking brain knows how to separate fact from fiction – the brain in your gut (literally your 2nd brain) doesn’t have that ability.

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Let’s Chew On This (or How to Take Care of Your 2nd Brain)

Bread CrustDo you remember the mantra about taking time to chew your food?

Chances are, it was your grandmother who proffered this advice, the idea being that you chew thoroughly, at every meal. (My husband’s grandmother had a hard and fast rule to chew each bite exactly 33 times).

Do you scoff at the very thought? Do you also firmly believe that you don’t have TIME to chew every.single.bite – or you’d never leave the table?

Well, guess what?

It turns out your grandmother was right all along!

Chewing your food thoroughly is such a critical part of the digestive process, because it primes your stomach and your digestive juices for the task ahead.

Not only that, the entry point of your meal – your mouth – is also where the Gut-Brain connection happens!

What do I mean by that?

Your gut and your brain are closely connected – to the point that what happens in your gut affects your brain, and vice versa.  [Read more…]