‘Tid-bits’ of Health
B efore the era of fast foods, restaurants and television, families gathered around the dining room table three times a day. Mother prepared the meals. The smells wafting from the oven tickled everyone’s sense of smell. The dinner bell rang and the family gathered around the table. Father asked everyone to join hands and bow their heads while he returned thanks to the Creator for designing our bodies to need nourishment, for designing the nourishment to be so tasty, for the farmers’ skill in growing the tasty food and for Mother’s hands that prepared it. He thanked Mother for adding the ingredient of love to each recipe and invited the children to enjoy every bite. (I remember my oldest brother, who had a bottomless pit for a stomach and a hollow leg that could never be filled, piping in about now saying, “Okay, it’s time to reach, grab, and growl!”)
Today, the fast food, restaurant meals, TV trays and other priorities have made family dining a lost art in most homes. So, let’s ask, “What’s wrong with that? We’re still eating. Isn’t that enough?” A deeper look into what’s happening in our brains and endocrine glands will shed a new light on Thanksgiving dinner and every table gathering.
All of our organs communicate with each other just like we do. We carry cell phones that send text messages right through the air to the other person. That’s nothing new. Our organs and cells have been sending messages to each other through their own little “wireless” systems for ever. The messages are called “hormones”. It takes thousands of hormone messages to run a whole body. One hormone message says, “Eat.” Another one says, “Stop eating.” One says, “Burn Fat.” Another says, “Burn sugar.” Others are, “Store fat,” “Turn sugar into cholesterol,” “Build muscle,” “Take muscle apart,” “Yikes! Run away!” “We’re safe now; stop running,” “Wake up,” “Go to sleep,” “Take out the garbage,” “Dump the dumpster,” “Feel wonderful,” and the list goes on and on. Some messages are stronger than others. For instance, when the emergency message “Yikes! Run away!” goes off like a siren, the message “Dump the dumpster” won’t be heard. In other words, a stressful relationship can lie at the cause of digestive problems.
Thoughts and feelings of being upset trigger the “Yikes! Run away!” message. When that message is blasting away the message to “Burn sugar” gets louder too. That triggers the “Eat Sugar” message which raises the blood sugar level and makes the liver “turn sugar into cholesterol.” The message to “Wake up” follows and sometimes triggers the message to “Take muscle apart.” All of these messages work together to drown out the “Burn fat” hormone message and when the body doesn’t burn fat, it “Stores it.”
The smell of food makes the brain send a messages to the stomach, pancreas, liver and intestines saying, “Get ready. Food is on the way.” The organs start preparing their digestive juices and enzymes. When the organs are ready, the stomach growls. The food will be swallowed into a prepared environment, and more nourishment will be obtained.
To make sure our Thanksgiving dinner ends up as nourishment instead of being stored in the fat cells, it must be prepared with love, smelled and anticipated, brought into an internal environment that’s ready for it then digested completely at every stage.
To you from a Thanksgiving greeting card:
‘Twas the night of Thanksgiving; but, I just couldn’t sleep. I tried counting backward. I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned — the dark meat and white. I fought the temptation with all of my might.
Tossing and turning with anticipation; the thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door and gazed at the fridge full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes, pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round, ‘til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling and floated into the sky with a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.
But, I managed to yell as I soured past the trees ... Happy eating to all — pass the cranberries, please.
May your stuffing be tasty, May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes ‘n gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious, May your pies take the prize, and
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!
Until then … Take charge! … Sylvia