Eat Less, Live Longer
Allow me to introduce you to the concept of not eating beyond the belch. In essence, your body signals when you’ve eaten enough by producing a verbal gastric release, aka the belch. Sometimes it is loud and crass, other times barely perceptible. If you tune into your body with a heightened awareness, it is nearly always there. How lucky we are! We have a built-in mechanism for preventing overindulgence.
Enter the discussion Paavo Airola, a brilliant nutritionist. While Paavo never mentioned the belch, he was very interested in health and wellbeing though proper nutrition and lifestyle. He travelled all over the world studying centenarians, those rare relics who live to be 100 years old and beyond. From Russia to China to South America, he consistently found that centenarians rarely, if ever, ate to the point of feeling full. From his studies, Airola concluded that the key to longevity was systematic under eating. In his many wonderful books, Paavo Airola emphatically advocated eating less that we actually want to! What a concept, especially here in Supersize Me America!!
How do we begin to cultivate the mindset of under eating let alone put the practice into action? I say start with the belch! As soon as it happens, which will probably be somewhere near the end of the meal, simply stop eating. Let the belch be your guide. Believe in it, trust it, and follow its innate, self-preserving wisdom. Do it at every meal for a day, then a week, a month and then six. Watch the digestive complaints resolve, the pounds melt away and the energy return. Then, start planning what you’re going to do with the rest of your very long, healthy life!!
