Wait…What Did I Eat for Dinner Last Night?

By Dr. Julie T. Chen, M.D.

Integrative Medicine

San Jose, CA

There was that time that I sat down with my husband to dinner at a restaurant and it took us five minutes to get from when the food landed in front of us to when we were asking for the check because we were done eating. Then, there was the time where I was working as a medical resident and was on-call at the hospital and I ate my dinner in ten minutes…but couldn’t remember what I had eaten because I was just eating to stop the hunger so I can go back to work.

Let’s be honest here, most of us have had many episodes in our life where food was seen as something to satiate our hunger or to drown our emotions or was stuffed into our mouth in less time than it takes to brush our teeth. It’s not that these episodes make us our own worst enemy in regards to our health, but they do have more of an impact on our well-being than we realize. The more often we treat eating as a stress-reliever or as a means to an end just to stop hunger, the more of a negative effect it will have on our long-term health.

But how can we change this when the modern American lifestyle, more often than not, equates to constant stress as well as having to multi-task non-stop? There are three quick tricks that can help us take the first steps toward using our food as our friendly allies in the fight against the inevitable slide down the slope of aging.

1. Awareness:

The ever-popular adage that we are what we eat? True. Our bodies are like machines, a miraculous machine unlike anything we can create in mechanical form, but a machine none-the-less, where we have to provide the parts it needs to function optimally.

Each of our cells requires electrolytes, amino acids, cofactors, etc. for it to work optimally. But unlike our cars, when our body’s nutrient needs are not met, we don’t just stop all at once…we create increased inflammatory chemicals in our body to try to heal itself from the trauma of doing work while in a starved state. Short periods of inflammation are necessary for our bodies to heal and function after cellular trauma. But chronic inflammation from this kind of long-term deficiency of nutrients and co-factors is not beneficial to our body. In fact, it plays a huge part in disease development and aging.

So, what can we do about this? Be aware of the types of food in front of you and be mindful about what you put in your mouth.

Even if you have only five to ten minutes, take the time to think about what’s going into your mouth or what foods you are putting on your plate. Most of us are not doing that…taking that moment to really look at our food and our plate and asking ourselves whether what’s on our plate is something that is needed by our body or are we eating it to drown out emotional stressors or cravings. Simply being aware of what we are eating, which doesn’t take a lot of time, can make a big difference in your health…and waist line…in the long run.

By consuming foods that are as diverse in colors as the colors of a rainbow, we naturally are able to obtain the essential phyto-nutrients and minerals we need for our little cellular soldiers to perform their duties more efficiently. And what that efficient cellular function translates into is less inflammation and less of its corresponding symptoms of fatigue, irritability, and difficulty metabolizing glucose, just to name a few.

1. Integrating Complexity:

We are all complex individuals, aren’t we? So, when we remember that we are complex beings, it should help us to remember that eating foods with complexity can help our bodies gain the energy it needs to battle all the complexities we face in our busy life.

What does that mean? Well, most fast food and junk food are considered processed, simple foods where they provide us with empty calories that do not assist in healthy cellular functioning but, instead, promote an undesirable pro-inflammatory state.

In comparison, an easy way to decipher whether a food is more likely to be complex in nutrients, and therefore more beneficial to our health, is to think about whether a certain food you are about to consume is easily imagined as growing fresh off a tree or from the fertile soil of the ground.

These foods usually tend to be higher in fiber content, provide us with more minerals and nutrients, and are less likely to predispose our body toward a pro-inflammatory state. By integrating complex foods into our diet on a regular basis, we ensure that our miraculous machine of a body gets all the parts it needs to function optimally.

For those of you who are used to consuming simple processed foods, the task of switching over to complex foods may seem daunting for you at this moment. A simple way of helping yourself through this transition period is to mix the complex foods with the foods you are used to eating without increasing portion size. This will naturally decrease the amount you are consuming of the processed foods while still maintaining some of the taste of the foods you are used to eating.

For example, if you only like white rice, you can try mixing brown or black rice or vegetables into a smaller portion of white rice to increase complexity. This way, by realizing that it’s not an all-or-nothing mentality, when it comes to eating, you will feel less deprived.

It’s important to make sure you keep healthy food palatable for you. If it isn’t, you are more likely to ignore healthy eating when you become busy or stressed. Therefore, we have to be creative in how we ensure long-term consumption of nutritious foods such that it is still enjoyable to us.

1. Rehydration:

I believe the character of Samantha on the TV series “Sex and the City” said it best when she said that ‘men are like plants…’ Except I have to disagree with her, in that, I think all men and women are like plants.

Why do I say that? We are like plants because we all need to be watered at regular intervals. It is how our body functions most optimally. Ultimately, we age more gracefully and healthily when our bodies are provided with needed nutrients on a regular basis. Water is necessary for all cellular functioning and facilitates molecular and metabolic functioning so that our body can face the daily challenges of life.

I know you have all heard this time and again that drinking water is important, but what can you do if you just don’t like the taste of water? Again, it’s about being creative with knowing what tastes you like and what you like to eat.

For example, if you like carbonated beverages, you could try sparkling water with a splash of freshly squeezed orange juice in the water to give it flavor. You could also keep filtered water in the refrigerator where you can add various berries to it to give it natural flavoring. This way, the flavor imparted into the water makes it more palatable and it also provides you with flavonoids and nutrients from the orange and berries used for flavoring. It may even allow you to feel decadent in the way that spas put cucumber and orange slices in their water. Why not pamper yourself? With your busy life…you deserve it!

This is clearly not a comprehensive guide to healthy eating…nor was it intended to be. Knowing how busy your life is with work, family, and friends…all you have to remember to get you started is that we all need AIR (Awareness, Integrating Complexity, and Rehydration) to survive.

These three quick tips can help get you on the road of helping your cellular soldiers function more efficiently. And when these hard-working cellular soldiers are less starved, you will reap the benefits of improved energy and mood. You may even notice that your skin looks brighter and wait…are you sleeping better too?

In the end, the most important gift you can give yourself and your loved ones is a healthy you. I think the airlines are right in reminding us that we have to ensure our own strength and health first so that we are more able to care for those we love. So, remember to enable your own nutritional ‘oxygen’ mask first, and in doing so, you are more able to help the people you love do the same.