In 2005 I spent a week in South Africa that changed the way I thought about food—and its connection to rest—for good. I was part of a church group working with a missionary who was helping plant a church in a rural village without electricity or running water. Our role was to go door-to-door, telling everyone about the new church launch. I visited more than fifty homes, and in each one I noticed families hard at work and always cooking. Meals were prepared over outdoor fires, and all the water was drawn from a well several miles away. On our last day there, a local family invited a few of us to take part in their daily routine. They wanted to connect and to lavish us with their hospitality.

We met them at their home early one morning just before sunrise. Our first task was to gather fruit and vegetables from the fields. We walked for what seemed like miles to search for potatoes, beans, and beets. Meanwhile, the men spent the day procuring and killing a goat for meat. While they spent hours skinning, prepping, sanitizing, and cooking the goat over an open fire, the women and children prepared all the side dishes. We spent hours peeling and boiling the beets and potatoes. We walked nearly an hour each way to the well in order to draw pots of water.

We returned to their immaculate home with its dirt floor and one wooden table. Once the beets were boiled, one of the women showed me how to mash them with a kitchen tool that resembled a large wooden pestle. Another woman tended the fire; still others kept rotating the side dishes so all would cook evenly.

By 6 p.m., dinner was nearly ready. The table was set with mismatched dishes, silverware, and napkins, and it was one of the most stunning sights I’ve ever seen. Then we spent two to three hours consuming that meal. It was one of the longest, most beautiful days of my entire life.

Something soul-shaping happened to me that evening. That was the first time I realized that some parts of the world don’t even understand the concept of fast or convenient foods. Our hosts didn’t have ovens they could set to 350 degrees and walk away from for an hour. Instead they worked hard each day to prepare a meal that would nourish their entire family, with enough leftovers to snack on the next day (assuming they could be preserved and served without refrigerators or microwaves). For them, preparing food meant making sure the fire didn’t burn out, rotating dishes so they were thoroughly cooked, and trying to prevent anything from going wrong because if it did, they had no backup and couldn’t eat until the next day.

Just about everything in our culture fights against moving at a slower pace. Throughout my twenties, I ate all too many meals in front of my computer or while walking around and on the go, stressed out to the max. To be honest, sometimes it still happens because . . . life. But little did I know that my body wouldn’t prioritize digesting until I had calmed down and sat down. My body could not process the food I consumed in a hurried/anxious state until I was finally still. That’s because when I was rushing around frantically, my body wasn’t in the parasympathetic (calm) state needed for optimal digestion.

Anxiety and stress take a large toll on us. They even impair the way we take in nutrients. For instance, we must be calm internally for our digestive systems to properly break down foods and draw out the nutrients. Mindlessly gulping down food once will cause discomfort; when it becomes a regular practice, it will likely contribute to pain, bloating, constipation, and more. The body prioritizes this parasympathetic state so much so that it will literally hold on to the food dumped into your stomach while you’re running around and begin to fully digest it once you are able to sit still.

A chemical reaction occurs each time stomach acid breaks down food. Enzymes are the proteins in our bodies behind these reactions. The moment you begin thinking about food, your body sends signals to the mouth and stomach to start producing saliva and gastric juice. The longer you give your body the opportunity to really think about the food you’re preparing to eat, the more saliva production, the more enzymes, the better breakdown of foods.

This is further evidence of how essential it is to slow down when preparing and consuming food. God designed our bodies in such a strategic way that when we source foods that He provided from the earth and spend time cutting, dicing, smelling, roasting, and seasoning them, our bodies are simultaneously creating the very things they need to break down the foods we are about to eat.

And so our fast-paced way of living—including the abundance of convenience food options—affects our bodies even at the cellular level. When we approach a drive-through window on our way to an appointment and consume food quickly in the car, we are not giving our bodies the signals they need to digest well. A highly processed meal eaten with little thought can inhibit the production of these digestive enzymes in the pancreas, as well as other enzymes elsewhere in the body.

You will benefit whenever you take time to thoughtfully prepare and savor the smells of the food you’re about to eat. After that, it’s imperative to sit down, eat slowly, and enjoy the meal you’ve worked so hard on. By being present, you’ve already prepped your saliva glands to receive food, as well as produced gastric juices to break down the food.

Lingering around the table once a meal is over brings added benefits. Gathering with others after dinner is a lost art, but in ancient times (and in some countries even today) it was a regular practice. I think it was God’s intention from the beginning. The body needs us to give it space to complete the digestive process optimally.

Adapted from The (Good) Food Solution: A Shame-Free Nutritional Journey to Food Freedom, Spiritual Nourishment, and Whole-Body Health by Meredyth Fletcher. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.  All rights reserved.

Grab The Good Food Solution, here.