The Ultimate Way to Optimize Your Digestion

Friday dinners in college were absolutely spectacular. We’d get to the dining hall about 5, and we’d be there until after 8. Lingering for hours was absolutely amazing.

Fast-forward to last week. Or the week before. Or the week before that because this is a regular occurrence for me. We gather at my place or a friend’s place. Everyone brings something to make. Someone puts on some music, and we’re all cooking away. Last week, I was making fish tacos. My one friend was making a spicy rice dish. My other friend was slicing the strawberries he picked earlier that day. When we got hungry, we all shucked some oysters. We eventually got to the main meal. All in good time.

I live for lingering meals.

And a fascinating thing about lingering meals is they’re the best way to optimize your digestion.

Optimizing your digestion isn’t about nutrients.

Optimizing your digestion is about love.

Because love mediates the two branches of your autonomic nervous system like nothing else.

Your sympathetic nervous system is activated when you’re expending energy or you’re stressed. This system is about fighting or fleeing. The more stressed you are, the more it’s activated.

Your parasympathetic nervous system is activated when you’re storing energy or you’re relaxed. This system is all about digesting, absorbing, assimilating, and eliminating. The more relaxed you are, the more it’s activated.

When you’re in a stressed state and your sympathetic nervous system is activated, most of your resources are directed to your muscles. So you can fight or flee.

When you’re in a relaxed state and your parasympathetic nervous system is activated, most of your resources are directed to your stomach. It’s all hands on deck for digestion.

What’s the most relaxing experience you can have?

Being completely loved.

Something you’ll never find in a bottle of nutrition supplements sold as a digestive aid.

All other factors being equal, when you’re alone, you go into a sympathetic state.

All other factors being equal, when you’re with your peeps, you go into a parasympathetic state.

That’s why lingering dinners feel so good—and it’s why they’re so good for you. They simultaneously satisfy your two most primal needs: food and relationships.

Food is life.

Relationships are life.

Lingering dinners are absolutely wonderful.

And they’re the best way to optimize your digestion.

In many circles, talking about eating well consists of lifeless conversations about nutrients. To confuse getting enough magnesium and B vitamins with eating well is a grave mistake. Of course, nutrition is important and nutrients are essential, but eating well is about savoring delicious real food with your close ones. And because nature is so sublime, when you do so, you actually get more magnesium and B vitamins from your food.

Remember, your parasympathetic nervous system is all about digesting, absorbing, assimilating, and eliminating. In the process of digestion, you break food down into nutrients. In the process of absorption, you move nutrients from your small intestine into your bloodstream for distribution throughout your body. In the process of assimilation, you make new cells, tissues, and organs from nutrients. In the process of elimination, you remove waste products from your body.

These glorious processes are what keep you alive and well for seven, eight, nine, 10, or more decades. These glorious processes are how your body maintains its structure over time. You literally are what you eat.

But you must be in a parasympathetic state for your body to do all of this. That is, your body only makes new cells, tissues, and organs when you’re relaxed.

That’s why lingering meals are the best way to optimize your digestion.

Resist the temptation to eat while working, driving, watching television, using your phone, or even reading a book. These are all stressful conditions in which to eat. They all divert resources away from where they’re needed most. Let’s consider watching television. When you watch a person get shot in a cop show, your body reacts as if you were actually witnessing a person being shot. When you watch two people fight on the news, your body reacts as if you were actually witnessing two people fighting. All of this adds up to impaired digestion. No bueno. And not nearly as enjoyable as savoring a lingering meal with your peeps.

Don’t fall for another quick fix.

Optimize your digestion by continually cultivating fulfilling relationships and having awesome meals with your close ones on the regular.

“Life is relationships; the rest is just details.”
—Gary Smalley

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.