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Bodily Communication · 18 June 2013

Sometimes my stomach gives my mouth snappy comebacks. But usually, way too late. Those times make me wish that my body could communicate with itself better.


Like most people, I have times when my mouth wants to eat, but my stomach says it has had enough. Unfortunately, it is usually too late by the time my stomach tells my mouth to stop eating. This miscommunication usually happens when I am not eating nutrient dense foods. When I am having too much processed foods, my mouth wants more even when my stomach is full. It is like getting insulted and not being able to think of a snappy comeback until the other person has walked away or even until the next day.


“I should have said…”


My stomach was like that the other day. The food tasted good in my mouth and I do not even remember thinking that I had overeaten one evening. But I finally did get the snappy comeback. My stomach was overfull, but did not say anything until the next morning.


“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”


In reality, our stomachs ought to have plenty of time to tell our mouths when they should stop. When we eat slowly, our stomachs have to give feedback to our mouths and brains. This is fairly easy to do when we are eating lots of vegetables. It takes lots of time to chew broccoli, spinach, and the like. Meals take longer because we need to chew, chew, chew. And so our stomachs can talk to our mouths in a timely manner.


I guess when it comes down to it, I can help my body communicate with itself. I can eat the right foods (plant-based, whole food) to lessen the need for snappy comebacks. I can eat slower to give my stomach time to communicate with my mouth and my brain. My body does not really need better communication. I just need to do a better job facilitating that communication. That way, I can stop giving my stomach reasons for forming snappy (albeit slow in coming) comebacks.

© 2013 Michael T. Miyoshi

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