By Caroline Leaf
Thinking impacts eating!
Did you know that thinking plays a huge role in eating? In fact, you shouldn’t eat if you are feeling stressed, worked up, angry, facing or trying to bury a toxic thought (never a good idea anyway!), upset or dealing with major issues or decisions. The toxins generated by toxic thoughts interfere with the proper workings of the digestive system!
Now why on earth am I daring to bring up eating, as we are right into the holiday season, which involves a lot of eating? Eating is a highly emotional and cognitive event, so what we are currently thinking about as well as what memories have popped up from the past will not only affect our food choices, but also how our digestive system actually processes food. This is an emotional season, and being toxic free in spirit, soul and body will make this season abundantly special (and to keep and even get rid of that excess weight)!
The act of eating – and the choices involved in eating – comes first from our minds. Therefore, if we make bad and unhealthy decisions concerning food, this reflects the state of our minds. Unhealthy minds open up the door for many more problems to develop, thus it is essential to keep our minds healthy and our bodies junk food free. The two most extreme cases of the unhealthy mind-body connection, gluttony and anorexia, start in the mind.
We are thinking beings made in the image of a thinking God. Thoughts are real and God expects us to bring all thoughts under His control: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” 2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV
We are thinking and building thoughts all day long, and at night time we are sorting out our thoughts. Research shows that 75-98% of physical, mental, emotional and behavioral illnesses come from toxic thinking. So what we think affects our physical bodies and spiritual development and feeds back in to our minds in a continual feedback loop.
Our large and small intestines are lined with neurons, neuropeptides and receptors enabling them to respond to how we are thinking. The pancreas releases more than 20 different emotionally laden neuropeptides (brain peptides) that regulate the assimilation and storage of nutrients and whose function is affected by our thinking. A structure in the brain called the insula is very important in the translation of information between the mind and the body as well as between thoughts (memories) of the past moving into the present.
The mind is in a unique position between the spirit and the physical. It is through the mind we choose to harness the neuroplasticity God has designed in our brains and choose to rewire –or renew – our mind (Romans 12:2).
Tune into your thoughts, stand outside of yourself and observe you thoughts, words, actions and emotions, but, most importantly, use your mind to develop an ongoing internal conversation with the Holy Spirit about everything, including what your body needs to eat, when and how much it needs and what to eat. We need to detox our thought life to detox our brain to detox our bodies and lose that excess weight or get healthier.
Dr. Caroline Leaf received her training in Communication Pathology (BSC Logopaedics) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Leaf also holds a Masters degree and Phd in Communication Pathology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She frequently lectures to both Christian and secular audiences worldwide on diverse topics relating to optimal brain performance.
For more information on Dr. Leaf visit www.drleaf.com
