Intuitive Eating for our Children
Encouraging our children to get inquisitive and connect deeply with the food that serves them.
"There is a universal, intelligent life force that exists within everyone and everything. It resides within each one of us as a deep wisdom, an inner knowing. We can access this wonderful source of knowledge and wisdom through our intuition, an inner sense that tells us what feels right and true for us at any given moment."
— Shakti Gawain
I believe a balanced wholefood diet is fundamental to a child’s ability to thrive and flourish in the world we live in today. But how do we engage with our children to encourage them to connect with the food that nourishes them when there is so much background noise and a plethora of quick and easy pre-packaged treats? It’s certainly not easy…
I invite you to come with me as I take a deep dive into a sensory experience followed by a bit sized tour of the GI system, how it operates and why a simple ritual can connect us deeply with our intuition and support the foundations of health.
I wonder if we’d been taught from a young age to sit quietly, to listen and to drop down into our intuition, we’d remember the quiet voice within, the voice that chooses from a place of alignment to serve our highest needs. In today’s world, the exterior noise is loud and pushy, enticing us away from our intuitive senses. There are also a multitude of stressors from academic demands, social conformity to environmental factors all playing their part in distracting us and potentially putting us in a fight, flight or freeze sympathetic state. During this sympathetic state it is unlikely we will hear any messages from within and we are more likely to react and make choices that are not in alignment with our health and wellbeing. Not to mention that our body is not in any state to rest and digest any food, nourishing or not.
Let us go on a bite size tour of the GI tract and how it operates to support the foundations of health. This is the long tract which runs from our mouths right through to our anus.
It all starts in our mind
As soon as we start to think about food, maybe what we are going to eat for supper tonight, our brain starts to collate images and immediately our senses are ignited. The colourful variety of vegetables, maybe roasted in olive oil and herbs, the warm smell of spices maybe even the first delicious mouthful and as we do so, our brain begins to send messages to our digestive system to prepare itself to receive.
Fluids will be sent to various areas of our digestive system to make sure it has enough to make digestive juices to breakdown and assimilate the nutrients from the food and saliva will gather in readiness of chewing the food.
So far this is all just in the imagination. Once our food arrives our senses are in full swing. The aroma fills our nostrils, we see the array of colour on our plate and as we collect our first mouthful our proprioception picks up clues about the density, weight, and texture of the food. Once the food enters our mouth, thousands of nerve endings are stimulated and 10,000 taste buds are confronted with an explosion of flavours – maybe sweetness, sourness, saltiness, pungency, or bitterness. This is the cephalic phase of digestion involving the brain.
The minute we start to chew, the brain initiates multiple functions along the digestive pathway, activating a system that is capable of adequately digesting, absorbing, and metabolising food.
Chewing is super important.
It is essential to pre-digest our food as much as possible to take the strain off our stomach. Best tip is to try and chew until your food is a liquid. Even chew your smoothies as this helps the absorption of nutrients. Chewing and swallowing stimulates the regular pulsing contractions of peristalsis which moves substances through the GI system out of your anus. If you’re constipated, try chewing your food more!
Having enough saliva is also key for swallowing and importantly contains IgA (immunoglobulins) that act as the immune system’s surveillance team preparing it for food proteins.
It is essential to have adequate stomach acid so hydration, good levels of B6 and Zinc, stimulating the senses and being in a state of rest and digest is critical for optimal digestion. Stomach acidity is also necessary to trigger the valve to the small intestines to open and to activate the release of additional digestive secretions. The more thoroughly the gut digests foods the less likely our immune system is to react to them.
Mindful eating for children
For our children to really benefit from good nutrition it is essential they eat in a relaxed and mindful way, letting their senses initiate choices and stimulate the cascade of digestive enzymes so that there is adequate digestion, absorption, and assimilation of nutrients from food. If on the other hand they don’t pay attention to their food, they grab something pre-packaged off the shelf of the supermarket and wolf it down mindlessly on the run or watching TV when the food hits the stomach it’s not going to be ready with adequate HCL for the digestive process and this will have a knock-on effect through the whole system. Equally, if they eat in a stressed state their body will ready itself for the flight, fight or freeze response switching on the sympathetic response which switches off digestion.
Fussy eating is a blog for another time, but one idea to engage the creative minds of our children is to encourage them outside with us this Spring and help us sow new vegetable seeds. Colourful wall charts can be made documenting progress and variety so they can be part of the creative process of bringing food to the table. I love the work of the wonderful Dr Deanna Minich. She champions eating the rainbow and believes there is an intelligence to colour as the array of phytochemicals within these plants reflects the varying wavelengths of light with multiple benefits for our health and wellbeing. Research has also found that food grown at home holds a higher vibration than that which has travelled further. Just another supportive nudge to give it a go!
I’ve created 8 supportive reminders which I hope will help you create a ritual around preparing food and mealtimes that can really support the foundations of your family’s health…
Before mealtimes, tune into what your body feels like eating today
Envision the food to get the digestive juices going
Cook from scratch, if possible, with colourful foods and always try and include herbs and spices (so supportive for our liver in the detoxification process). Involve the children in the process, even if it’s just laying the table and stirring a sauce.
Just before you eat imagine a bubble of calm around you, a space that stretches in all directions
When the food is in front of you, place your hand over your heart space to initiate heart coherence and spend a moment thinking about the journey your food has been on to reach your plate, look at it like a work of art, be grateful for it and inhale the aroma and full sensory experience.
Sit up straight (allows sphincters to seal properly) ensure there are no electronic distractions – allow mealtimes to be sacred family time to share stories, laugh and go slow. My favourite one is to ask everyone in turn what is the funniest thing that happened today and most memorable thing. The sillier the better at getting everyone to relax and digest properly.
Now take a few mindful mouthfuls, savouring the taste, texture and temperature of the food and chew to a liquid if possible before swallowing
Refrain from drinking too much water which may dilute stomach acid and avoid tea and coffee as the tannins can inhibit absorption of nutrients.
I hope this has inspired your family to get inquisitive about the food choices you are making and the importance of taking a pause to drop down into your intuition to connect in and listen to the messages your body is communicating to you so you can choose from a place of alignment, ignite those senses fully and eat mindfully to support the foundations of health.
