How and why to avoid internal traffic jams
No one likes being stuck in traffic. It doesn’t matter how long you sat on your ass and meditated that morning, being stuck behind a massive semi-trailer when you’re already running late for your commitments will get even the most zen folk in a tiz. Your food feels the same way. Have I lost you? Bear with me and all will be revealed.
Most of us pay absolutely no attention to the order in which we shovel food into our mouths. We will eat salad after something heavy, drink juice or whatever else in the middle of eating, and finish up with a bowl of healthy fruit salad. Sounds harmless enough, right? That is until we get bloated, gassy, stomach cramps or just undo-you-top-button-and-take-a-nap lethargic.
Just like how a highway is extremely slow moving when you get stuck behind a big truck, the same goes for your internal highway, aka your digestive system. Different foods take different amounts of time to digest. Take meat, for instance. Being totally void of fibre, it can take up to three days to make its way through your system. Refined and processed foods are also slow and difficult to digest because they have been stripped of their fibre and the enzymes needed to make digestion easy. Whole grains are faster, being packed with fibre. Fruits and vegetables are super easy to digest and take hardly any time at all. So, in order to prevent an internal traffic jam from occurring, it is wise to take all of this into consideration and order your food consumption accordingly.
Why bother?
If this all seems like too much effort to just avoid a bit of belly bloating, let’s talk about the more serious damages. If you drink a fresh juice or smoothie or eat fresh fruit, veggies or salad after a heavy meal that takes a bit of time to digest, the lighter stuff will have to wait its turn in your system. It will sit on top of the slower, heavier stuff and have time to ferment and acidify. Not only will you not absorb any of the nutrients, but the fermentation and acid will wreak havoc on your body.
How can we avoid this?
All you have to do is remember this one simple rule: eat light to heavy. We here in the Wellness Warrior house eat our soup first, then have our salad, and then we eat our potatoes and veggies last. And we never finish the meal with fruit! When you drink hourly juices it is a little tricky to have them all away from meals, but it is a good idea to drink juices and smoothies on an empty stomach. This way your body will get all of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes it is promised without being compromised by a shoddy digestive system.
What do you think of this rule? Does your body let you know when you’ve eaten food in the incorrect order?
PS: I am so excited today! Why? Because today is the day that I have had my very first article published on my favourite website ever, Tiny Buddha. Click here to check out what I have to say about Creating Happiness From Within Even When Times Get Tough.
Positive affirmation for the day: I respect my body’s inbuilt wisdom and listen carefully for the messages it tries to tell me.
Hey Jess,
I learnt all about this in Kimberly Snyder’s The Beauty Detox Solution. Makes total sense, but it’s all about being diligent.
Thanks for the reminder.. I must admit I’ve been a little slack lately.
Daniella
I always use to have a big glass of fresh orange juice with my big bowl of cereal. i stopped when I realised i would never have half a glass of milk topped up with OJ. Thanks for expanding my thoughts Jess
Love this advice – is definitely making me think twice about my lunch today : )
Congrats on the awesome article on Tiny Buddah too – double reasons to be happy on a Thursday!
Looking forward to the next installment, Courts.
xx
Hey Jess
Funny I was discussing this with Sharyn yesterday! Just curious do you have your juices with breaky, lunch and dinner in order to take the supplements that are required with food? Could explain all my excess gas! Thanks petal
Hi Suzi,
Yes we do. There’s no way around it – especially when we can’t drink water. We have our last juice before dinner though, so we have to take the after dinner pills with a sip of water. I definitely feel the pressure in my tummy when we have green juice directly on top of rolled oats!
xx
…another simply put, beautiful article… my gf has been having issues in this dept recently though we verge on vegan, whole, bio-dynamic, slow cooked and raw we never looked at it like this, thanks again…
Hi Jess,
Thanks for this post. I’m sure it can help people suffering with IBS, too. Where do grains fit into the scheme? If you have a vegetable stirfry with brown rice, for example, is that okay all at once?
Thanks again
Because the veggies are cooked, this slows down the digestion process – so having brown rice and veggies together is totally fine! x
Thanks Jess,
It all gets a wee bit confusing sometimes! I read your recent post with a new Gerson recipe, and I love trying to come up with new recipes with strict limitations… If you let me know what’s allowed I’d love to have a crack at a recipe for you!
Hi Jess,
I follow this rule faithfully thanks to you and your post on Beauty Detox!! Before that I always had bloat and didn’t know why since I was eating so healthy – but the order makes a tremendous difference. Now I always have a flat tummy and benefit from all the nutrients.
xo
Thanks for a great article Jess. In eating light to heavy do you give certain courses so to speak a set time ie. 10 min before progressing say from the salad to veggies? I thought food sits in our stomachs for about 45min-1hr before progressing into the small intestine?
Hi Jess,
The reason I was curious about this article is because I thought it might be able to help my IBS symptoms… but funnily enough, after doing a bit more research, it seems IBS sufferers can actually benefit from almost doing the opposite!
Help for IBS claims: ‘You should always eat soluble fibre first. Eat soluble fibre whenever your stomach is empty and make soluble fibres the largest component of every meal or snack.’
This would mean that greens etc. should be consumed after something with soluble fibre – say rice, quinoa or sweet potatoes. I must admit your post made more sense to me in the tummy traffic line scenario, but apparently this system is working for so many people. I decided to give it a go and after two days I’ve already noticed a reduction in gas, bloating and pain. Just thought you might find it interesting!
I often think that eating fruits is good. Never did I think about the timing! I think I will have to adjust my eating habit (I used to eat fruits after the meal) from now on.