Friday, April 15, 2011

Day 4 - Spring Cleaning

Read my previous Sugar-Cleanse Blogs:

Day 1 and Introduction

Day 2

Day 3


Day 4:

To start off, eating this type of diet requires a LOT of chewing. With all the roughage and raw material being consumed, and the fact that we are still eating meat (like steak), you tend to sit at the table chewing for a very long time. Is this a good thing, or does it just make you feel like a cow chewing her cud?

A few months ago, I remember learning about the types of food that quickly form a bolus in your mouth; easily chewed up and becoming, as the dictionary says: a soft, roundish mass or lump, especially of chewed food . Think about when you eat crackers, bread, bananas, chips, and most fast food. Specifically fast food - it's not just fast because they can make it in a jiffy, but because you can literally consume it in minutes! It takes very little time to chew up a soft, sweet bun filled with a grease-loaded burger, lubed with sweet, slippery mayonnaise and barbecue sauce for a smooth journey down the hatch.

One of the biggest problems with foods that quickly form a bolus, is that most of them are highly processed and not exactly natural. They are most often depleted of most of the nutrients and fibre that is good for you. REAL food is often harder to eat, takes longer to digest, but will supply your body with REAL nutrition that you need, without overloading you on useless calories.

So, despite feeling like a grazing animal at mealtime, picking over a plate of crunchy, fibrous veggies I can take comfort in the fact that this stuff is really good for me, good for my digestive system and will help me in the long run. When you give your body food the way nature intended, one might assume that your body will feel better, look better and operate better!

One last thought... and I will talk in vague terms, but if you of a more "genteel" nature, this might be TMI (too much information) for you: One might wonder how long it takes for one's digestive system to catch up with a new style of eating, particularly a diet with a significant increase in fibre. Let's just say the morning of the 4th day (yesterday) left me feeling much lighter. This effect may be different depending on how starchy/sugary your diet has been in the past, and I had been filling myself with a lot of junk in the previous week. However, a healthy diet promotes healthy digestion and doesn't leave you sluggish and slow. That's all I have to say about that.




Yay for roughage!

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