“Let food be your medicine,” says Cathy Moore, PA-C, a Physician’s Assistant at One Agora Integrative Health. Cathy explains that many of us have started treating food as a passing need rather than a vital fuel. We often eat on the go and may not even remember what we ate for lunch by the time we’re eating dinner! This approach critically disrupts our gut health, since we aren’t taking the time to rest and digest before, during and after each meal.
Rather than rushing through meals, Cathy suggests that we instead be intentional about what we eat and how we eat it. By taking deep breaths before starting a meal, for example, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system, prepping our bodies to better digest our food. An increase in mindfulness around food also allows us to establish a better relationship with what we’re eating, promoting an attitude of gratefulness rather than the fear that so often surrounds restrictive diets.
Tune into this week’s episode of Beyond the Basics Health Academy for a conversation with Cathy Moore about digestive health. Learn about the differences between healthy and harmful bacteria, the strategies you can use to retrain your taste buds, and how best to balance between your emotional and nutritional worlds. Improving your gut health is not an impossible feat! Join Cathy and host Meaghan Kirschling for some simple steps you can take to kickstart the journey towards a balanced microbiome.
Quotes
• “If you’re going to sit down for a meal, it’s important to take some time and look at your plate, just connect and be intentional with what you’re eating instead of eating emotionally. Because most of us are eating out of emotional needs that haven’t been met. So, when you’re intentional with what you’re eating, you’re looking at your plate, you’re sending gratitude and thankfulness into those foods, which really actually brings good frequencies into that food and helps with the structure of the food.” (4:25-4:52)
• “I think every meal is a chance to heal the body. It’s either that food is going to bring life-giving frequencies and health and life into our body or it’s going to bring cellular death.” (5:39-5:47)
• “We have the good, healthy bacteria that’s really necessary to be able to regulate and govern over our immune system function. And you want to have plenty of what’s called acromancia. I call them the ABCs: acromancia, bifidobacterium, and clostridia. Those are our main healthy, good bacteria that we really need in balance, and when those have too much, then that causes problems, but when there’s not enough, the immune system is really suppressed and low.” (18:48-19:17)
• “Oftentimes, patients will feel like, ‘Gosh, I’m just anxious all the time. I’m so nervous.’ And you think about...what’s going on in their brain, when actually we should be thinking, ‘What’s going on in their gut?’” (22:33-22:45)
• “Let food be your medicine.” (26:46-26:48)
Links
Book a session with Cathy: https://www.oneagorahealth.com/
BE KIND TO OTHERS, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, AND MAKE GOOD CHOICES.
Stay connected to Dr. Meaghan and her work:
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBvlMzs8K94
• Instagram: @oneagorahealth // @drmeaghankirschling
• Facebook: One Agora Integrative Health Clinic
• Twitter: @btbhacademy
• LinkedIn: Meaghan Kirschling
• Clinic Website: https://www.oneagorahealth.com/
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