How We Eat Matters: An Ode to Eating in Spain
Imagine this:
It’s 4:00 pm and I’m sitting down for a late afternoon lunch. I’m in Spain and my family and I didn’t really eat breakfast until 11:00 am. Lunch will be the biggest meal of the day. Dinner won’t be until after 8:00 pm. We’re integrating into the Spanish lifestyle; however, because my three year old, Domingo, will never take a siesta, I won’t either.
We don’t need to read the menu because we know what it’ll say. It’s more or less the same at every tapas bar or traditional Spanish restaurant. There are bocadillos - prosciutto, sometimes with sheep's cheese or a tomato on a baguette. There are croquettes - a fried ball of potatoes mixed with meat, fish or cheese. There are tortillas - eggs and potatoes baked in a pie dish. Sometimes, there are salads - simply tossed with onions, tuna and mayonnaise or oil. There is bread, usually with olive oil or mayonnaise. (In the Basque country, there are no condiments, just bread.) And finally, there are small peppers and olives. (The olives in the town of Saint Vivcenc in Mallorca are the best olives I’ll ever eat.)
Now, it’s 5:30 pm and at the end of the meal, I feel great. Engaging in the European fashion of eating - sitting down, connecting with family and friends and not rushing for the bill afterwards - gives my body the time it needs to digest the food I just enjoyed. I don’t bloat and I don’t feel sluggish. I feel amazing.
Back to reality:
I hear all sorts of digestive complaints from patients every day. Many people come to me focused on figuring out what foods they’re eating make them feel sick. It’s a reasonable thing to consider because there are so many foods in the United States that are barely food at all, but I can’t help but wonder if for the average person, focusing more on how we eat, rather than what we eat is the prominent miscommunication between body and mind.
Although all the menu items in Spain are simple and not overly ‘healthy’ (there are very few vegetables served and there are lots of fried components), the staple foods of bocadillos, croquettes, tortillas, bread and olives feed a nation. When I googled ‘what are the healthiest nations?’ I saw many large news corporations such as Time Magazine named Spain the healthiest country. I’m not entirely sure by what metrics they measured this claim, but I do agree that people in Spain seem generally healthy and happy.
Obviously, the concept of health is very multifactorial, but since our food is what gives our bodies its foundational nutrients, I’m going to focus on the body’s nervous systems for the purpose of this article because the European style of eating gives the body the time it needs to switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system.
There are 3 nervous systems in the human body.
The 1st is the one everyone thinks of right away - the brain and the spinal cord.
The 2nd is the enteric nervous system, which is the medical term for the brain in our stomachs. There are more neurons in our gut than in our brains so when I say I have a gut feeling, I’m picking up a lot of information about my surroundings and interpreting it through this nervous system in conjunction with the conscious thoughts that formed in the brain.
The greatest takeaway is that the enteric nervous system is your intuition. Let this be another reason to prioritize gut health!
The 3rd nervous system is the autonomic nervous system. It’s made up of two branches - the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system is the classic fight or flight section. For example, you see a bear and you run away or fight back. Even though most people don’t see creatures that could harm them on a regular basis, this branch of the nervous system gets activated or stays activated frequently because of chronic stress. The parasympathetic nervous system is the opposing system that allows you to rest and digest. The primary function is to shunt blood from the muscles to the organs when you need to fight or flight. This shunting of blood to the stomach, heart, lungs, etc helps you digest food, assimilate the nutrients, and keep everything moving steadily along.
The stomach needs to be primed before eating.
We need to have a period to sit down and rest to literally get the digestive juices flowing. These juices, such as hydrochloric acid, break down proteins in the stomach and then pancreatic enzymes helps you assimilate all the nutrients into your body. It's best to eat slowly, chewing the food and taking time between bites to allow these juices to have time to work through all the food. For bonus points, it's best to avoid slurping down a bunch of fluids, especially cold liquids, with your meal because too much can literally water down the digestive enzymes.
Now, let's compare my average lunch from when I was in residency to my average lunch in Spain. While working in a clinic or in the emergency room during residency, the cultural expectation was to take my lunch to my computer and eat while catching up on things like notes or labs and imaging. There was no real break, so it was typical to have my meal interrupted several times with phone calls. Unfortunately, sometimes this is what my life looks like now when I’m feeding my toddler at home or eating quickly between patients. In these scenarios, I don’t give my body the chance to switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic. Therefore, although I’m putting nutritious food into my mouth and chewing, optimal digestion isn’t achieved.
Eating in the European style of slow meals is another example of ‘riding the tide to ecstatic bliss.’ Our bodies do carry the inherent ability to process food efficiently and effectively but in many cases, we don’t give it the right materials and the right environment for it to get the job done.
Now that I’m home and back to work, I’m prioritizing eating at least one meal a day slowly. Try it with me. Turn off distractions (such as phones, tvs and computers), sit at the dining table and chew your food. See for yourself what a difference it makes.
Give your body what it needs and trust that it will take care of the rest.
― Dr. Charlie
Want to learn more ways to feel better? Read this: Hormones: 3 Easy Lifestyle Adjustments to Improve Your Mood and Libido
The opinions shared in this blog post are for informational and educational purposes and do not replace advice from your personal medical and healthcare professionals. Please see our Medical Disclaimer at the bottom of our website and always seek medical advice from your personal and established healthcare providers.
