The Emo! Diet

Our world today is awash with diets that promise us revolutionary results. Whether you’re drawn to Keto, Paleo, Macro, Mono, Vego, or Zero (aka fasting!), there’s a missing ingredient that can render all of these useful approaches totally ‘fruitless’ if we don’t pay attention to it.

I see people in my clinic all the time who tell me with relish how they have made the commitment to eating totally organic, nutritionally rich, de-toxing foods, have eliminated all the major gut irritants, and have a daily regimen of high quality probiotics and supplements. Yet they are still experiencing digestive discomfort and are mystified as to why.

There is a hidden reason why all these wonderful products can sometimes end up as very expensive gut compost and it relates to the emotional environment in which you eat. I am by no means disputing that what you eat is, of course, very important, but how you eat it is even more crucial.

How many of us eat ‘on the run’, eat while watching the latest catastrophes on the daily news, eat while letting our ‘mind monkeys’ run amok, eat with people who make us uncomfortable, eat during business meetings, eat while the kids are screaming…? If any of these are a part of your daily routine, then you may as well flush all the contents of that very expensive grocery bag down the drain! Here’s why…

Stress and Digestion

You are probably all familiar with the term ‘fight of flight’ that is typically associated with stress and anxiety. This response is mediated by the Sympathetic branch of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) which is basically the body’s auto-pilot that runs all our sub-conscious routines (such as regular breathing and the beating of our hearts). What people are less familiar with is another branch of the ANS known as the Parasympathetic system which controls the ‘rest and digest’ state - spot the clue?

There is a beautiful moment-by-moment dance between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems that literally fluctuates with every breath we take, but we are typically only familiar with their extreme states. While the extreme end of the Sympathetic system does indeed produce the terror of the fight or flight response, it is also the system that just mobilizes us to get up out of bed each morning or get ourselves to the gym or off on our morning commute. The extreme end of the Parasympathetic system would produce a Zen chill-out state or deep sleep, but it is also just our normal resting state when we are not under threat and when the body can go about its normal daily routines of maintenance, repair, and (guess what?) digestion!

Being in a Sympathetic dominant state, whether that’s just rushing to get to work or actually experiencing an anxiety attack, requires a lot of energy to be diverted towards our defense and mobilization systems - heart rate will increase, muscles will become tense and primed for action, blood sugar is released, a hormonal cascade is initiated. Therefore, all non-essential activities in the body need to be switched off to free up energy to meet these requirements.

The digestive system uses a significant amount of our overall energy and is biologically quite expensive. If the body is faced with a threatening situation, one of its first actions will be to switch off digestion in order that those energy resources can be redirected towards our mobilization systems. Basically, your body doesn’t really worry about whether it digested lunch if it’s about to become lunch for a predator!

If you chose to eat a meal when your body is in a state of mobilization then you are pouring food into a digestive system that is literally ‘closed for lunch’!. We have to bear in mind that the Sympathetic (fight/flight) system is not only activated by physical or mortal threat. More often than not these days it is typically being activated by our own ‘mind monkeys’ jabbering away about all the terrible things that might happen in the near future, or the ruminating thoughts about what we did or didn’t do in the recent past. We can literally become our own predator and prey in a disaster movie of our own making!

It can also be triggered by being around people who make us feel uncomfortable - that lunch meeting with your boss, for example. At a fundamental level, your body does not feel safe.

Safety Belt

If your body does not feel safe, then digestion is switched off. This means we are not producing any of the necessary digestive juices to break food particles down. Gut motility (the contractions of the gut lining that move food through the digestive tract) is also shut off, as is the mechanism that absorbs nutrients into the body. Therefore, anything we eat at this time is going to sit undigested and immobile in the gut.

What happens to organic material when it sits and stagnates? If begins to ferment which leads to the release of gases - this can result in the discomfort of bloating and abdominal distention that many people experience. When your body feels unsafe and you have food in your gut, then the safety belt is always going to feel too tight!

The Inflammation Loop

When food is not being properly processed, we will experience increased gut inflammation. When we are in a Sympathetic-dominant state general inflammation levels are increased throughout the body, so this combination can result in disruption of the delicate balance of our gut microbiome.

The gut and brain are connected via the Vagus Nerve. Inflammatory signals from the gut will travel up this nerve to the emotional centers of the brain, acting as an alarm that triggers further anxiety. Irritation of the gut lining will lead to the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome which itself becomes emotionally stressful. So we can find ourselves in a loop where our initial anxiety has shut down digestion, leading to increased inflammation and discomfort that further drives anxiety.

Expensive Gut Compost

We can see now that it really doesn’t matter how nutritionally valuable our food is when our body is not able to break it down, remove and absorb all the precious nutrients, or move it through the system for elimination. All the time and care you took to create the perfect diet has resulted in very expensive gut compost and you will be feeling very little of its benefits.

In order to maximize our ability to absorb all this wonderful nutrition, we have to pay attention to the emotional context in which we are eating. We have to be in a Parasympathetic state for our food to work for us, not against us.

Mealtime Rituals

In order to maximize our digestive health, we have to return to old-fashioned values of meals as a form of ritual. While saying grace before a meal may have religious connotations that do not resonate with everyone, we can perhaps see how this moment of quiet gratitude for the food on the table was a way to induce a Parasympathetic state and to open the digestive system for business. Meal times should be protected zones where we switch off any distractions, remove ourselves from the presence of people who my trigger us, and turn off our mind monkeys! Here are some further tips for preparing the body for food:

• Carve out time for eating and avoid eating ‘on the run’

• Turn off the TV, phone, tablet, or any other distractions - honor the time with your food

• No multitasking!

• Avoid eating around people who may trigger you - if this can’t be avoided (perhaps in a work situation) then chose a lighter option that will be easier on your system

• Use breath work to bring the Vagus Nerve (Parasympathetic system) online before eating

• Use the food preparation time as mindfulness practice - be present with the ingredients

• Take a moment for gratitude before eating - thank the food on the table

• Clear your mind of distracting thoughts - be present with your food

• Chew your food slowly and savor the flavors!

• Remember that when you finish eating, digestion is just beginning

• Create quiet time after the meal for your body to process the food - don’t cut and run!

Training your digestive habits is the true key to healthy nutrition. Yes, you must absolutely pay attention to your diet and chose a modality that resonates with you and your health goals, But remember, none of these diets will get you the results you want unless you pay attention to the emotional environment in which you are eating. So whether you chose Keto, Paleo, Macro, or Mono, or Zero, always be sure that you always couple it with EMO!

The Big Picture

Our world today is awash with diets that promise us revolutionary results. Whether you’re drawn to Keto, Paleo, Macro, Mono, Vego, or Zero (aka fasting!), there’s a missing ingredient that can render all of these useful approaches totally ‘fruitless’ if we don’t pay attention to it. People invest a lot of time and money on sourcing only the best organic ingredients and add to this a mind-boggling array of supplements, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to ensure it all goes down smoothly. However, most of them still suffer with digestive discomfort and are mystified as to why! What they fail to recognize is that the emotional context in which you eat is even more important than what you eat. When you are anxious or preoccupied, the digestive system is closed for business, so anything you put in it will not be processed and will cause discomfort/ Be sure to add the EMO! Diet protocols to any other regime to avoid your well-chosen food becoming very expensive gut compost!

Want to learn more? Check out Jennie’s online courses at BecomEmbodied.com