In my young quest for super strength and health, I used to gobble down mounds of food, guzzle gallons of protein drinks and take every new supplement on the market.
I was sure that this was the way to pack muscle on my scrawny frame and improve my stamina.
It was not until my early adult years that I discovered a cheaper more effective method for gaining muscle and health.
It was not so much how much I ate, but how I ate it.
S-l-o-w-l-y.
The old-time advice from books like Yoga and Health, The Strength of Sampson and Biblical Nutrition was to thoroughly masticate each mouthful of food and drink.
"Drink your foods and eat your liquids," was the expression.
Now this was hard to accept as a skinny guy trying to gain weight quickly.
In typical western thinking, I was always looking for the fast solution, thinking more food and exercise would solve my under weight problem.
After all that was the popular advice: to gain weight eat more and exercise less.
(Just as the "scientific" advice for weight loss is t eat less, exercise more.
) Now that kind of thinking was fine for flab, but not so good for muscle weight.
Here is where the yoga approach is radically different.
Eat your food slowly, focus on it and enjoy it.
The laboratory test for this concept is pretty basic.
When food is reduced to a soft mush it breaks down easier, period.
For instance, take two portions of almost any food (e.
g.
Corn bread).
Keep one portion in the form of a chunk and the other portion ground up and mixed with a mild alkaline (to represent the ptyalin enzyme in saliva).
Place both samples into a container of hydrochloric acid to (simulate stomach acid.
) I guarantee the mush portion will break down quicker than the chunk portion.
Not only will this mush portion of food be easier to digest, it will be easier to assimilate and eliminate.
Well ground food does not stick around long enough to be a problem.
There are no undigested food chunks to hang around the intestines, feeding hostile bacteria which produce nasty gas and histamines.
Another factor involved with thorough chewing is that after a certain amount of chewing, the intestines will produce enough the digestive hormone CCK (cholecystoknin) which induces a feeling of satiety.
So, you get feeling fuller on less food.
So, the overweight person also benefits.
This made no sense to me at first, because I felt that I was denying my body the extra food that it needed to gain more weight.
But, what happened was that I was feeling fuller, sleeping better, had less gas and, believe it or not, started gaining more muscle weight.
Along with better eating techniques, a calm mind is important for good digestion.
I know family feuds can cause a rash of indigestion at any meal table.
That is why I would rather eat something like a hot dog in the park with friends than a gourmet dinner in an atmosphere of hostile bitterness.
Of course, years of auto-driven bad eating habits are difficult to overcome.
But, it can be far more effective than trying to force feeding yourself to speed up muscle growth.
In typical yoga fashion, it is more effective to let your body do what it was designed to do, on its own time.