Healthy Living

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. Not just because I love food — and believe me, I do — but because it’s the one day of the year that reminds us of the connection between food and gratitude.

Anyone who has ever suffered from hunger or food insecurity can understand what a blessing it is to have food in your belly. And even if you have never had that experience, I hope you can appreciate how fortunate you have been to always have plenty to eat. However, you may not realize that food and gratitude are connected on a much deeper level.

I think most of us can recall a time when we were particularly tense and as a result, we suffered gastrointestinal symptoms from heartburn to bloating or even worse. It’s no coincidence that the people who report the highest levels of chronic stress are at the greatest risk for reflux disease and ulcers.

When we take a moment to really be thankful for our food, we transform our brain from a stress-riddled, mile-a-minute worry machine into a calm and peaceful mind — one that’s ready to savor and process a meal. And this is an important shift. Gratitude facilitates a serene state of mind that relaxes the body and allows it to produce the enzymes and hormones necessary to properly assimilate food.

Many of us may say grace before meals, but how often do we really think about the words we say and the food on our table before we eat it? How often do we think about where our food came from and the hard-working hands that brought it to us? Furthermore, how many of us truly understand how essential gratitude is to our health and well-being?

This Thanksgiving, I hope you will take the spirit of the holiday to heart both by eating scrumptiously soul-soothing foods among loving family and friends, and by taking the time to truly appreciate those foods along with all the other little miracles in your life.

And if life seems out of control lately and you’re not sure how to achieve the necessary attitude of gratitude, perhaps my favorite blessing will help you: “We give thanks for the food before us, for the friends beside us and for the love between us.”