One of our registered dietitians at Diabetes Digital, Anna Bohegan, recently led a live class called “Feed the Calm: Nourishing Your Nervous System from the Inside Out.” Anna specializes in nervous system-informed nutrition counseling, digestive health, disordered eating, and women’s health. She’s completed additional training in nervous system regulation and functional breathwork, and the class she put together covered something I wish more people talked about in clinical settings: the direct relationship between your stress state and how your body digests, absorbs, and even thinks about food.
Here’s what you need to know: food stress and fear around eating are not willpower problems. Your nervous system state at the moment you eat directly affects digestion, appetite, blood sugar regulation, and your gut microbiome. And there are specific, practical tools that can shift that state before, during, and after meals
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How food stress actually shows up (and why it’s not your fault)
Before we get into the science, let’s name what food stress looks like in real life. Because it doesn’t always look like someone curled up anxious before dinner. It’s subtler than that.
It might look like overthinking your food choices for twenty minutes and then feeling guilty about what you picked. Scrolling social media for nutrition answers and finding something that contradicts what you read yesterday. Decision fatigue at 6 p.m. when you’re standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what to make. Eating so fast at your desk you can’t even tell if you enjoyed the meal. A tight chest or loss of appetite when you’re stressed. Going hours without eating because you got busy and then eating too much too fast.
Food stress shows up in the body and in behavior, and it’s driven by the nervous system, not by a character flaw.
Anna opened her class by saying this clearly: the influences that create fear or confusion around food are everywhere. Media, conflicting nutrition advice, new diagnoses, dieting history, social situations. You didn’t choose to find eating stressful. And there are real tools to support yourself when it feels that way. We’re not trying to eliminate all stress around food. We’re building awareness and giving you something to reach for when it comes up.
Nervous system 101: the part nobody explains at your nutrition visit
Your autonomic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary functions like heart rate, digestion, temperature regulation, and breathing) has two main branches that are directly relevant to how you eat.
The sympathetic branch: fight or flight. When this branch is activated, your body deprioritizes digestion. Makes sense if you’re running from a bear: blood flow goes to your limbs, not your gut. Stomach acid decreases. Appetite is suppressed. Digestive motility slows down.
Now, most of us aren’t running from bears. But a packed schedule, back-to-back meetings, eating lunch while answering emails, or skipping meals and running on stress all day puts the body in a version of that same state. If you’re eating while stressed, distracted, or rushing, your body is not in the optimal mode for digesting and absorbing what you just ate.
The parasympathetic branch: rest and digest. This is where you want to be at mealtimes. Saliva production, stomach acid secretion, enzyme release, gut motility: all of that is running optimally in this state. Your hunger and fullness cues are more accurate here too.
There’s a third state Anna mentioned that doesn’t get talked about enough: the dorsal vagal state, sometimes called freeze or shutdown. This is what can happen when the nervous system has been in chronic stress for a long time. Instead of fight or flight, it goes to shutdown. Numbness. Disconnection. Lethargy. Some people eat in this state and feel nothing about it: not hunger, not satisfaction, not enjoyment. Just going through the motions. Getting out of this state takes a little more than just slowing down. It requires gently mobilizing the nervous system upward before you can settle into that parasympathetic rest-and-digest state.
Anna used a sound mixing board analogy that I loved. You can shift the volume up or down depending on what you need. If you’re someone with racing food thoughts who can’t stop thinking about eating: turn the volume down. If you’re in that shutdown state and can barely bring yourself to prepare a meal: turn it up. And if the approach you’ve been using isn’t working for you, switch the channel. Try a different route entirely.
The gut-brain connection and why your stomach is your second brain
The gut-brain axis is a two-way communication system between the brain and the digestive system, and it’s mediated through something called the enteric nervous system, which researchers sometimes call the second brain. It functions via the vagus nerve, a key nerve that connects the brain and gut and helps regulate your rest-and-digest state.
Here’s what that means practically. When you’re stressed, that stress can disrupt digestive motility, reduce enzyme release, dysregulate appetite cues, and cause symptoms like bloating, cramping, loose stools, abdominal discomfort, or loss of hunger. Our dietitians see this daily: clients who have been trying to figure out which food is causing their digestive symptoms, eliminating things one by one, when the bigger driver is chronic stress operating in the background.
But here’s the part that surprises most people: it runs the other direction too. Gut symptoms can also influence mood and stress levels. The system is bidirectional. Unsupportive gut symptoms can contribute to symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The connection is real and it goes both ways.
Chronic stress also disrupts the gut microbiome (the community of bacteria living in your digestive tract that influence immunity, mood, metabolism, and more) by increasing inflammation in the body. When vagal tone (how well your vagus nerve is functioning to keep you in that calm, parasympathetic state) decreases from chronic stress, the body stays stuck in fight-or-flight. And digestion suffers for it.
“Sometimes stress is sitting in the background. It’s happening chronically and you might have digestive symptoms that are ongoing, trying to figure out what’s causing it, blaming certain foods, when something bigger is going on in the back row.” — Anna Bohegan, RD, Diabetes Digital
What might be driving your food stress specifically
Anna walked through some of the most common drivers she sees clinically. A few might resonate with you.
A long history of dieting and food rules. If you’ve spent years being told certain foods are good or bad, allowed or forbidden, your nervous system has learned to treat food choices as high-stakes. That vigilance doesn’t just turn off when you decide to eat differently.
A new health diagnosis. A recent type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes diagnosis can create immediate fear and confusion around what’s safe to eat, especially without clear, compassionate guidance. Our dietitians see this constantly: someone who used to eat without thinking much about it, now paralyzed by fear of getting it wrong.
A fast-paced or demanding schedule. If you’re eating on the go most days, barely sitting down, working through meals, or skipping them entirely, your body is spending mealtimes in sympathetic mode. That affects not just digestion but the whole eating experience.
Digestive symptoms you can’t figure out. Unpredictable bloating, cramping, or discomfort that you can’t trace to a specific food is often nervous system related, not food related. Trying to solve it by eliminating more and more foods can actually increase the food anxiety and stress that’s driving the symptoms in the first place.
Practical tools that actually help: before, during, and after meals
This is the section worth bookmarking. Anna organized her clinical toolkit into four areas: gut-brain support, mindfulness, health anxiety, and body image. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Before you eat
Take sixty seconds. That’s it. Before your first bite, try slowing your breath: inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth for twice as long as your inhale. A few cycles of this signals the parasympathetic branch to activate. You’re telling your body you’re not running from a bear. You’re about to eat.
Look around and notice your surroundings. This sounds almost too simple, but orienting yourself to your physical space is a known technique for nervous system regulation. You’re grounding yourself in the present moment before eating, not arriving at the table still mentally mid-meeting.
Consider your posture. If you’re slumped over your phone or hunched at a desk, your body doesn’t register that it’s in a safe, settled state. Feet on the ground, upright but relaxed, creates a more grounded physical context for eating.
Humming while you cook and cold water on your face are two vagal toning techniques (practices that stimulate the vagus nerve to increase parasympathetic tone) that Anna recommends and that are genuinely supported by the research. Neither requires a meditation practice or a yoga mat. You can do both in your kitchen before dinner.
During meals
Start with slower bites. You don’t have to eat the whole meal slowly. Just ease into it. Set your utensil down between bites if that feels useful, though Anna was clear this doesn’t work for everyone and that’s fine. The goal is presence, not performance.
Sit down when you can. Reduce multitasking at meals when possible. Music or a podcast can feel more grounding than a screen because it’s less visually stimulating and pulls less attention away from the experience of eating. None of this is a rule. It’s a direction to experiment in.
Pay attention to taste, texture, and smell if you’re someone who tends to eat the same things without really experiencing them. Sensory engagement brings you into the present moment and out of your head. This doesn’t work for everyone. But for someone who meal preps the same things every week and eats on autopilot, it can be genuinely helpful for reconnecting with the eating experience.
After meals
Check in with your hunger and fullness levels without judgment. Not “did I eat too much” or “was that the right choice.” Just: how does my body feel right now? Give it time. Anna made a point that we are quick to evaluate and criticize before digestion has even had a chance to happen.
If thoughts about digestion, body image, or discomfort come up, acknowledge them and come back to a sense of safety.
Name it to tame it: this is one of Anna’s favorite clinical tools. Putting a word to what you’re feeling, “I’m feeling anxious right now,” “I’m feeling guilty about that meal,” literally calms the nervous system response in that moment. Naming the emotion reduces its intensity. It doesn’t have to go in a journal, though journaling helps too. Just naming it internally is enough to interrupt the spiral.
The nutrition piece: what “feeding the calm” actually means for your plate
This class wasn’t primarily about what to eat. But Anna did address the nutrition factors that directly affect nervous system state.
Don’t go long stretches without eating. Skipping meals or going hours without food puts your body into a stressed state. Cortisol (the body’s primary stress hormone) rises. Blood sugar drops. Your body interprets this as a threat, which activates the sympathetic branch. For people managing insulin resistance or diabetes, this is a direct problem for glucose regulation too: cortisol worsens insulin resistance. Long gaps without eating are not neutral. They are physiologically stressful.
Pair protein, fat, and carbohydrates at meals. A meal that has all three macronutrients is more satisfying, more stabilizing for blood sugar, and less likely to leave you hungry and anxious an hour later. Ask yourself after eating: was that meal satisfying? Did it feel like something was missing? That’s a useful question, not a critical one.
Stay hydrated throughout the day rather than drinking large amounts right before meals, which can affect appetite cues and digestion.
Be aware of caffeine’s effect on your nervous system. This isn’t a directive to stop drinking coffee. It’s a prompt to notice: if you have caffeine on an empty stomach, how does that affect your anxiety or your eating patterns later in the day? For some people it matters a lot. For others, not much. Know yourself.
The mindset shift that changes everything
Anna put one line on a slide that stuck with me: “You can know exactly what to eat and still struggle if your body doesn’t feel safe.” This is the thing that gets missed in clinical nutrition all the time. Information is important. Knowing how to power pair your carbohydrates, knowing what a balanced plate looks like, knowing your blood sugar targets: all of that matters. But if your nervous system is in a chronic stress state, if your body doesn’t feel safe around food, that knowledge will only take you so far.
The shift Anna recommends: instead of trying to control your eating, get curious.
Instead of perfecting your diet, build a flexible plan that doesn’t feel like a cage. The more rigid the rules, the more the nervous system responds to any deviation as a threat. That keeps you in fight-or-flight. Around food.
Instead of criticizing yourself after a challenging food moment, try: “That was a stressful moment. I had a lot of thoughts about that. And I’m able to take care of myself.” That’s not letting yourself off the hook. That’s building the kind of nervous system safety that actually allows you to make different choices over time.
“You can know exactly what to eat and still struggle if your body doesn’t feel safe.” — Anna Bohegan, RD, Diabetes Digital
The advice that’s clinically incomplete: “just stress less”
Telling someone who’s anxious around food to simply relax or stress less is not clinical guidance. It ignores the physiological reality of what chronic stress does to digestion, appetite, and the gut microbiome. It ignores the fact that food-related stress has real triggers: confusing nutrition advice, new diagnoses, dieting history, body image pressure. And it offers nothing actionable.
The weight-neutral, nervous system-informed approach is to meet people where they are in their stress state, give them tools to shift that state around mealtimes, and build the kind of body trust that allows eating to feel less like a high-stakes test and more like nourishment. That takes time. Small, consistent shifts toward calm build safety over time. Not one intervention. Not a meal plan handed to you at your first appointment.
One or two tools, tried consistently, will do more than a comprehensive protocol you can’t sustain.
Resources Anna recommends
The Nerva app is a gut-directed hypnotherapy app designed to support the gut-brain connection. It’s often used for IBS (irritable bowel syndrome, a common condition involving chronic gut discomfort and irregular bowel habits) and works through a structured six-week program that calms the nervous system through hypnotherapy techniques. You can book a call with their clinical team to learn more. Anna recommends it specifically for people dealing with persistent digestive symptoms that aren’t fully explained by food choices alone.
The Diabetes Digital food and mood journal, available through the Practice Better platform, is another tool Anna uses in sessions. It helps build awareness of thoughts, emotions, and body sensations around meals. Over time, patterns become visible. That visibility is useful. It makes the name-it-to-tame-it practice easier because you’re not trying to remember how you felt at lunch last Tuesday.
A note on working with a dietitian for food stress or anxiety
Anna ended her class with this: “Pick one or two things. You don’t have to do them all at once.” That’s exactly the kind of guidance that gets lost in a Google search. A dietitian who specializes in nervous system-informed nutrition will help you figure out which tool is the right starting point for where you are specifically: your stress patterns, your eating history, your diagnosis, your life. Not a generic protocol.
If food stress is part of what’s making blood sugar management feel overwhelming, that’s a clinical issue, not a personal failing. It’s addressable. Our dietitians work with this.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is nervous system-informed nutrition counseling?
Nervous system-informed nutrition counseling recognizes that how you eat is shaped by your physiological stress state, not just what you know about nutrition. A dietitian trained in this approach works with both the nutritional and nervous system factors that affect eating, including breathwork, vagal toning practices, mindfulness tools, and addressing the emotional drivers of food stress alongside the clinical nutrition work.
How does stress affect blood sugar for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes?
Stress raises cortisol (the body’s primary stress hormone), and elevated cortisol directly increases insulin resistance, meaning your cells become less responsive to insulin and blood glucose runs higher. Chronic stress also disrupts the gut microbiome, increases systemic inflammation, and can drive patterns like skipping meals or eating quickly, all of which affect glucose regulation.
What is the vagus nerve and why does it matter for eating?
The vagus nerve connects the brain and digestive system and helps regulate the parasympathetic rest-and-digest state. When vagal tone is high, digestion runs optimally: stomach acid, enzyme release, gut motility, and hunger and fullness cues are all working well. When chronic stress reduces vagal tone, the body stays in fight-or-flight mode, which suppresses digestion. Practices like humming, slow exhale breathing, and upright relaxed posture before meals can support vagal tone.
Is food anxiety connected to digestive symptoms like bloating or IBS?
Yes. The gut-brain axis is bidirectional: stress affects gut symptoms and gut symptoms affect stress and mood. Many people with IBS or unexplained digestive symptoms have a nervous system component driving them, not just a food intolerance. Research on gut-directed hypnotherapy (like the Nerva app) supports this connection.
What does “name it to tame it” mean?
Name it to tame it is a nervous system regulation technique based on research showing that putting words to an emotional state reduces its intensity in the brain. If you notice anxiety, guilt, or overwhelm arising around food, naming the emotion (“I’m feeling anxious right now”) helps calm the nervous system response in that moment. It can be done internally, in a journal, or out loud.
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of the Diabetes Digital Podcast presented by Food Heaven.
Today we are doing things a little bit differently.
We are going to share the recording from one of our classes with our lovely dietitian Anna.
0:16
And the reason we wanted to share this is because the demand for this class, I think it was like one of our most popular classes ever in terms of registrations and emails that we were getting that everybody was just so interested in this topic.
0:31
And so anytime we have that happen, we always like to publish the class as part of our podcast or aired on our podcast.
So people who didn’t get to attend can listen or people who attended and want to take more notes or listen again can also listen.
0:47
So this is a very special episode.
Again, we are going to be talking about the nervous system.
So the title of this episode or class is Feed the Calm.
And Anna is amazing because she has very unique training as a dietitian.
1:05
So not only is she a dietitian, she has experience working with eating disorders, but she also has this nervous system training that so many clients love working with her because of her background.
So she has nervous system training, she has breathing training, and she’s a perfect person to lead this class.
1:23
And also she is still accepting new clients.
If you want to work with her after hearing her talk, definitely go to our website diabetesdigital.co/start to book your first visit.
So what is the lowdown of this class?
So feed The calm.
1:39
Nourishing your nervous system from the inside out really points to the fact that your gut and your nervous system are constantly communicating.
And when stress, anxiety or disconnection from food show up, digestion and eating can feel a lot harder than they need to.
So in this class, our dietitian Anna Bohegan will walk you through how to support your nervous system through nourishment without rigid food rules.
2:01
Are overwhelmed?
She’ll be talking about how your nervous system shapes digestion and appetite, simple ways to eat with more ease and less stress, building trust with your body again, and so much more.
This is for you if eating has ever felt confusing, stressful, or disconnected, even just lately, the last week, and you want to feel more grounded and feel more of a supportive approach to nutrition.
2:25
So definitely listen in.
And like I said, if you want to work with Anna, you can go to our website, diabetesdigital.co/start and book your visit today.
We accept insurance and we’re in 40 States and we can’t wait to work with you.
All right, now on to the class.
Hi everyone I this is the end of my day so I’m so excited to get to finish out the day with this class.
2:48
I’ve just been waiting to share this information for a while and I’m really excited and so grateful that so many of you have signed up and are a part of this.
There’s a lot of information I want to share.
I do have a lot of slides where I’ll breakdown some of the information and then there will be time at the end for like AQ and a.
3:10
If you do have questions you can ask them throughout in the chat.
Jenny will have them, she’ll, you know, be keeping them and then we’ll go through them during that Q&A section.
And they’ll also be some time that I’ll pause during the presentation and I’ll have you guys answer some prompts and I’ll get to that in just a few minutes to explain that a bit more.
3:31
But welcome today.
This class is called Feed the Calm, nourishing your nervous system from the inside out.
It’s about reconnecting the with calm, confident eating.
And this is a really broad, broad topic because I want it to be broad.
I want it to reach everyone.
3:48
I think it can be helpful in more than just one way.
So I hope you’re able to see that today.
I’m going to go ahead and get started with my slides and move through them.
So this is a little bit of a class overview.
We’re going to start with an introduction and background.
4:05
We’re going to do a little bit of a self-assessment before we dive into more exclamation examples.
And then we’re going to get into some different tools and mindset shift in Section 4.
And then the last section will be some key takeaways.
And then of course, that Q&A.
4:22
One thing I’m going to have you do.
So just take a minute here.
If you have, can you prepare a pen and paper?
Or if you want modern day, have your notes app open, have some something open on your phone.
Or if you have a journal, go ahead and grab that.
All right, you’re there’s going to be some moments here again throughout the presentation where I’m going to prompt you to write some things down as you feel.
4:46
And then I’ll start with this introduction again.
Welcome to today’s class.
My name is Anna Bohegan, I’m a registered dietitian at Diabetes Digital.
I specialize in nervous system informed nutrition counseling.
I do focus on digestive health, disordered eating, Women’s Health, really do focus on that body trust area in all these different areas.
5:09
Of course, I really do care about supporting individuals who are experiencing food anxiety and burnout.
It’s something that I was passionate about when I first started in this field and something I’m still passionate about today.
I earn both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University Long Beach in California, and then I’ve completed additional trainings in nervous system regulation and functional breath work.
5:36
So for today’s class at this top right corner, you’re going to see, I hope we get some turn some confusion into clarity into calm.
That’s just this overall theme I’m going to start with.
And of course, we’ll get into that, dive into it a bit more, but I want to start by just acknowledging that eating can feel very confusing, overwhelming, or stressful for a variety of different reasons.
5:58
We have so many influences that we create around food.
This is not or that can create fear around food.
This is not your fault.
This is not a willpower issue.
There are absolutely ways to support yourself when you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed around food.
We actually, of course, when we’re born, we are, some of this stuff is intuitive.
6:18
We can lose some of that intuition and it can create a lot of that stress or fear around food.
I want you to walk away today with better awareness and tools.
It’s not about eliminating all fear or stress around food, but about building awareness and having tools to support yourself when these feelings arise.
6:38
So I want to note that that we’re not here to get rid of all the fear or stress.
There’s things that come about all the time through media, just through people talking.
There’s things everywhere.
I just want to create more awareness and how you have more supportive tools.
And then I really want to create a safe, non judgmental space.
6:56
So what that means is feel free to share in the chat when you feel comfortable.
I know Jenny will be reading through them, so she’ll get to see some of them and all get to see after the presentation.
So please feel free to share.
And then lets respect one another and recognize that we all have different lived experiences.
7:11
So if I mentioned something that you’ve tried and it didn’t work for you, you know, just kind of keeping that to yourself would be really respectful.
And then if there’s something that you absolutely love, of course, share it.
Just, you know, opening up about tools is really important too.
OK, let’s get started with some of this.
7:31
So how might stress around food show up in daily life?
Here’s some things that came to mind when I was thinking through this.
So overthinking food choices, fear of getting it wrong, worry, guilt or pressure.
Maybe some rigidity, maybe feeling mentally drained from thoughts about prep or planning in the second bubble.
7:54
Searching online for nutrition answers, relying on a lot of conflicting nutrition advice from social media and without any practitioner guidance.
Comparing eating habits to others, decision fatigue around meals, distracted eating, maybe some urgency or avoidance of eating, and then even physical symptoms like tight chest, nausea, loss of appetite.
8:19
So this is a self-assessment section.
So we’re going to start with is take a look at this.
I’ll go through some of them here.
What may be driving your fear, confusion or stress around food?
So you’re you might resonate with one or more of these points, but just kind of take a look, read through these things like the conflicting nutrition information, really what’s actually finding out what’s actually healthy?
8:43
History of dieting or food rules, maybe the fear of eating the wrong thing, Digestive related symptoms, maybe unpredictable ones too, so ones you can’t really pinpoint or figure out what might be causing it or trying to blame certain foods.
A lot of times feeling out of control around food, maybe a pressure to eat perfectly.
9:03
Could be body image concerns, a busy or stressful lifestyle.
So maybe eating more on the go, a disconnection from your hunger and fullness cues.
Maybe a past negative experience with a food or eating even really important here, medical conditions, maybe a new diagnosis, allergies or general health anxiety and then social, social situations around food, maybe eating out, parties or events on this next slide.
9:30
So take a few minutes, take some of this in.
On this next slide, we’re going to do some self-assessment reflection.
So I’m going to pause on this next slide.
This is where you have your pen and paper out your notes app.
And I just want you to jot some things down.
Feel free to share in the chat if you’d like to as well.
No pressure.
9:46
If you want to keep it in your your journal or your notes, that also works as well.
So bringing it back to you, I want you to look at these questions.
You don’t have to answer them all, but if you if you can and you can resonate with these, here are a few questions to think about.
10:01
When do I feel the most stress or anxiety around food?
What thoughts or fears tend to come up for me around eating?
And then how does my body feel in those moments?
Maybe it’s more rushed or tense or distracted or even shut down.
Just take a just take a few minutes here again, write down anything that comes to mind.
10:22
It can be a word.
It doesn’t even have to be a, you know, a whole bunch of sentences.
It could be a couple words or anything, but just based on these these last slides, what comes to mind for you?
So I’m going to give a couple minutes here before we go to these next slides before I click on to these next slides.
10:40
This is really a self-assessment.
So just know, like think about if you’ve even been working on some of these things for a while.
Maybe you did notice that that past patterns of anything that I mentioned before.
It’s also a really helpful thing sometimes to reflect on what you’ve done, and that will be an important theme of today’s.
10:59
You know, it’s not all about always fixing or doing, It’s recognizing what patterns have worked in the past for you.
So just another few seconds here, just thinking about this area.
If you want to write any of these questions down, if you miss them or you want to answer them later, you can.
11:16
And then I’ll move to the next slide.
I’m going to move on to this next slide here.
When I, by the way, when we get into more of like the tips and tools and some of these other things, I’m going to prompt you.
You can take some photos of the slides because there’s going to be really helpful things and it might be a lot to like kind of go through.
11:36
So when we get there, I’ll I’ll mention that to you.
But even for some of these prompts, if it’s helpful, you can snap a photo.
OK, so we’re going to start with a little bit of the sciency stuff, this nervous system one O 1.
11:52
It’s a quick overview why I have a bunch of information on the side and why I’m starting with this.
I’m giving you the most information to start with and then we’ll we’ll break it down more.
But it is so important to understand this part because having awareness of it is this first way to support and really nourish your nervous system.
12:11
So if some of the stuff doesn’t make sense, even jot down some of the questions that you might have.
I’m happy to answer them more, but also know I’ll go into some of the nervous system stuff a bit more as we go through the slides.
So autonomic nervous system.
This is the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary bodily functions.
12:30
This includes things like heart rate, digestion, temperature regulation, blood pressure, breathing, and much more.
All these things that are kind of going on in the background.
Pretty much that’s what the autonomic nervous system is doing.
There’s going to be two branches.
12:45
Some of you might recognize some of these sympathetic branches.
What I’m going to start with describing that’s like your fight or flight.
Imagine running from a bear, fight or flight.
That’s what I like to to phrase this one as the body here is actually going to de prioritize digestion.
13:05
It doesn’t matter in this state and it’s going to focus energy elsewhere.
This can lead to suppression of appetite, decrease in stomach acid and reduce blood flow to the digestive system.
Let me give you this example again.
You’re running from a bear.
Your all of your blood flows going to all your other limbs.
13:22
There’s none going to your digestive symptom system.
So you’re kind of running and that’s what your focus is.
Now let me bring it back to modern day life.
Maybe you’re not running from a bear.
Maybe some of you are, but maybe most of you aren’t running from a bear.
And maybe it’s just something like a really busy schedule or you’re just really not thinking about, you know, in the in the moment of needing to eat, you’re on the go.
13:45
You’re not thinking about actually sitting down and having a proper meal.
That would be that sympathetic branch.
And unfortunately, sometimes we can be in that state when eating and it’s not as supportive to overall digestion, overall health.
And we have the parasympathetic branch.
This one is called rest and digest.
14:01
And if that cues you in, you know that this is the ideal state for digestion and nutrient absorption.
It’s really important for saliva production, stomach acid secretion, enzyme release, muscle movement, all of that is really optimal in this state.
14:18
It’s a really, really key place to be when you want to digest and absorb your food properly.
And as we go in further, I’m going to explain that little a little bit more with the gut brain connection.
So I’ll go through that a bit more now.
I have one little arrow as an offshoot to the parasympathetic branch and it’s called the freezer shut down or the dorsal vagal state.
14:38
Now this is a part of the nervous system or this the nervous system can become overwhelmed.
It can do this by stress or trauma or just just chronic long term stress even.
It can get in this state and it’s really the shutdown to conserve energy, feelings of immobility, shutdown, stuckness, disconnection, maybe emotional numbing, lethargy.
15:01
Sometimes you could be eating in this state and if there is something like you’re just not, you’re just going through the motion, but you’re not actually experiencing that much of a relationship with your food or relationship with your eating at all.
It’s just kind of feels like numbing.
15:18
It can feel like the bottom of of maybe the trench and trying to get out, you know, to get into a state of that parasympathetic branch and that rest and digest it takes a little bit more.
So that free shutdown state.
There also could be eating that can occur there, but might not be as optimal for that digestion.
15:39
OK, so on this next slide and I’m going to go through, I’m going to show you here is this beautiful picture of a sound mixing board.
And you might think, why did I put in a sound mixing board here?
It really doesn’t have much to do with food or eating at all, but it really is this analogy that I want you to think about here.
16:00
It’s going to break this previous slide down just a little bit in a different way.
So I want you to realize you can shift the volume in channel, meaning that you can change the volume.
You can go up or down with the volume.
16:16
And So what that means is maybe you feel like you have, you know, with food and eating, you just feel like you’re always thinking about food.
Well, maybe shifting the volume down a little bit and having less of those food thoughts can be helpful and there’s ways that can support that.
16:31
But also it could be that you feel like you’re maybe in that dorsal vagal shutdown state and how do we turn up the volume a little bit and get out of that trench feeling like you can be ready to eat a meal?
How do we mobilize from immobilization, not be turning up the volume?
16:47
With the channel aspect of this, maybe it’s you’re doing something, you’re meal prepping a certain way and it’s not, it’s not working as well, or you’re prepping a certain way and it’s just not supportive to you.
Or you’re eating on the go and you realize I’m not really digesting my food, switching the channel, trying a different route, thinking of another way to do this.
17:05
That’s where I want to compare this.
You can shift the volume or channel.
So I want you to think about this analogy as we go through these that you’re able to shift into these different states to help support yourself.
And we’re going to talk about that on some later slides.
OK, This is one of my favorite slides here, this gut brain connection.
17:27
There’s so much information out there and I’m going to share a little bit today and go into a little bit of the research and what has really been discovered about this gut brain connection.
So what is this gut brain access?
It’s a two way communication system between the brain and the digestive system.
17:45
And it’s really happening via something called the enteric nervous system or it’s otherwise known as the second brain.
Some people say like the brain is the second brain is also connect.
You know, it’s in your gut.
Like there’s this connection between the gut and the brain and we know that.
We also know that stress can really impact this.
18:04
And so when I talked about before in the like a fight or flight state, you know what can happen.
Stress can impact digestive motility, enzyme release and appetite cues.
It can lead to symptoms such as bloating, distension, discomfort, maybe loss of hunger, loose stools, abdominal cramping, cramping, all these kind of digestive symptoms because the system is bi directional though people only think of it OK, well the how is that you know that effect with the digestive symptoms here from the stress, but it’s actually that gut symptoms can also influence mood and stress levels.
18:40
And so we have some research to show that sometimes like a unsupportive like gut symptoms can also lead to more of that symptoms of anxiety and depression in some.
So what impacts does this have on the gut microbiome?
18:57
Well, chronic stress can disrupt this balance of gut bacteria and increase inflammation in the body.
So that’s how we have this stress connection that’s in the between the gut and the brain.
So this is really something that is important.
19:14
And again, when we get into the tools and tips, we’re going to go over this more.
But sometimes stress is sitting in the background and it’s got a back seat, but it’s happening chronic, it’s happening in the background and you might have digestive symptoms that are ongoing and trying to figure out what it is.
19:29
And it’s easy to pinpoint and blame foods and certain foods when sometimes there’s something else bigger going on in the background.
Now, the vagus nerve, it says on the bottom here, the vagus nerve helps calm our gut.
But chronic stress can reduce something called vagal tone and that keeps the body in a more fight or flight state rather than rest and digest.
19:50
So I said vagus nerve.
So I have to naturally go to the next slide and talk about vagus nerve because I can’t leave you hanging with that.
The vagus nerve is a key nerve.
It connects the brain and the IT connects the brain and digestive symptom.
So it’s going to help regulate your rest and digest state.
20:07
It can help you really feel calm and present during meals.
It also really plays an important part in the role of like your hunger and fullness cues.
When stress is high, vagal tone can decrease.
I’m going to share later how vagal toning and some different tips for vagal toning things you can do around meals to help support this.
20:28
There’s also a lot of other resources for vagal vagus nerve support, but I’m going to keep it in the context of course, of more of eating today.
Digestion and appetite can be disrupted if there’s more stress that’s high.
Some slowing down, engaging in the body and creating a common environment really help support vagal tone.
20:48
And again, I’ll talk more about those resources.
This is what you can take away from this biggest nerve part and eating.
OK, I’m going to threw in some situational examples here.
These are a few common fat patterns that may shape our experience with food.
21:05
You may or may not recognize these as parts of your own experience.
So it’s OK.
It’s just things that I’ve given as examples.
If you do, if it does resonate, you can jot some notes down here too.
But sometimes feeling overwhelmed around food can be connected to a long history of dieting, food roles, and trying to get it right over time.
21:22
In some cases, new health information like a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes can lead to confusion or fear around what feels safe or appropriate to eat, especially without clear guidance.
It’s really important there.
For some, a fast-paced or demanding schedule can make it hard to slow down for meals, and that may impact both digestion and the overall eating experience.
21:45
So that’s that one that I was talking about of maybe being in fight or flight very often and that affecting your digestion.
And how does that affect your overall eating patterns.
So I’m going to start off with some practical tips here before eating you can do, and these are things you take a picture of this slide.
22:07
Please feel free to Before eating, you can take a moment to notice your breath.
If it’s helpful, you can gently slow down breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth for a little longer.
There’s a breath work exercise that sometimes I bring into practice, but I often and people think like breath work like that.
22:27
That’s not all I do and I often don’t do that to start with.
I often actually go through the nervous system work first and then do breath work.
But there’s a breath pattern where you can breathe in a certain amount of seconds through your nose and out through your mouth twice as long, and that can help get into that parasympathetic state and help with rest and digest can also be helpful for like breathing or other things.
22:48
But again, it’s that rest and digest state we’re looking for.
You can repeat it for a few cycles at your own pace, and then you can take a moment to look around and notice this, your surroundings.
When you’re ready, you can pause briefly before your first bite.
So this is just really taking a second to say, do you have maybe 60 seconds before your meal to just pause during eating, beginning with a few sore bites, allowing yourself to ease into a meal.
23:15
You might try setting your utensil down between bites, or you might not.
That might not feel supportive.
So this is just one potential tip.
When possible eat sitting down and reduce multitasking.
We can’t do 2 tasks at the same time.
23:33
Multitasking is going back and forth.
So with eating, it’s it’s quickly eating, watching something, eating, doing something else.
So really it can become a distraction and again that can take away from the present moment of eating.
Listening to a music or podcast might feel more supportive or grounding than screens like computers, phones or TV, or even reading sometimes.
23:53
Even though that’s a wonderful thing to do, doesn’t mean you can’t ever do those things.
It’s just when you’re trying to really focus in on how do I have more presents during my meal?
After eating, you can check in with your hunger fullness levels.
Without judgement, remind yourself you’ve nourished your body.
24:09
If thoughts about digestion or body image or discomfort arise, acknowledge them and come back to a sense of safety.
Give your body time to settle before evaluating the experience.
We are quick to judge.
We are quick to really jump on ourselves and say hey, like I did something wrong and whatever it is.
24:28
And I’m going to give some helpful like prompts to think through when these situations come.
But it’s time that we need some time to let the experience happen.
Let digestion and absorption occur.
These are some practical tips.
Now we’re going to go through some practical tools and this is where on these next 4 slides, I’m going to go through more in depth what these are.
24:50
So this is just a general overview.
On these next slides, you may take some photos as well as these slides are going to explain the things a bit more.
And if you didn’t catch everything right away or there’s some detail you want, it’s, you can absolutely have that.
The first is the, I divided these into different categories.
25:09
So gut brain, mindfulness, health anxiety, body image.
This is not, of course, the extent of, of everything that we’ve talked about today, but these are where I’ve divided them into and it can be helpful to kind of focus in these areas.
But of course there’s crossover too.
So for the gut brain, I’m going to be talking about the NERVA app and vagal toning.
25:28
And I’ll, I’ll get into that a bit more.
For mindfulness, I’ll talk about breath awareness and sensory details.
For how things that I’m going to talk about journaling and then something called Nemetotine it, which is one of my favorite things to talk about.
For body image, I’m going to talk about food neutrality and self compassion.
25:48
So first I’m going to talk about the NERVA app.
Some of you may have heard of this.
The NERVA app is a gut directed hypnotherapy app.
It’s really designed to help the gut brain connection.
It’s been recommended to a lot for conditions like IBS and it can help reduce digestive symptoms by calming the nervous system.
26:07
You can actually, and I have put the link here, you can book a brief call with like their clinical team to learn more.
It’s something that can be helpful.
There are also things that like like resources that they use that I’m, I’m sure other like apps or other maybe like treatment modalities that can also help.
26:27
But this can be specifically, it’s usually in a certain format like 6 weeks that you would go through and do the the gut directed hypnotherapy.
So that’s one resource I wanted to provide for the gut brain vagal tone support.
So this is a really, really important one.
26:43
You can do this actually again at other times too.
But before meals there’s some things you can consider doing.
Humming, splashing cool water on the face, and considering your your posture.
So an upright and relaxed posture, taking slower bites, and playing music are all things that can help with vagal tone, increasing vagal tone.
27:05
So if you think about it before meals, like something like while you’re cooking, humming can be really helpful.
Again, just splashing cool water on the face or considering the the posture 1 is a big one.
If we’re slumped over, how are we telling our body that we’re ready to eat?
27:21
So it’s helpful to say, OK, at times, can you think about having your, and this is not all the time, but can you think about having your feet on the ground?
Can you think about more of a grounded setting to be having your support while you’re eating the meal?
So these are all things that can help vehicle tone support.
27:39
OK, breath awareness.
Breath awareness doesn’t have to mean breath work.
It can simply mean understanding and following your breath.
Sometimes we’re in more of of, you know, breath might be more rapid, it might be more shallow.
So just understanding where it’s at.
27:56
A few minutes of sitting and noticing your breath before a meal.
Consider sound sensation, movement.
Do you notice fast, slow, shallow or deep breaths without even any intervention, without even changing the breath?
Yeah, without even doing an exercise, you can see, you can say, well, it might be helpful to say what can help with slowing down my breath.
28:13
This can also be helpful before bed as well, by the way.
But talking about this in the context of your meal next is sensory details.
I want to acknowledge for this one that it might not be helpful for everyone, but if you’re focusing, let’s say you are not, you’re someone that’s kind of go, go, go, and you’re not focusing on eating your meal all the time.
28:35
Focusing on things like taste, texture, and smell brings you into the present moment.
If you’re maybe the type that meal preps a lot and you don’t really know what you’re even eating, or you eat the same things but you don’t feel like you’re actually enjoying it, this can be helpful.
28:50
It’s helpful for times when you’re cooking and eating at home so you can actually get that sensory experience.
Again, this might not be useful for everyone, but it can be helpful for some.
Journaling.
Journaling is very broad.
We have our wonderful food and mood journal that we use on practice better.
29:09
A simple way to build awareness of thoughts and emotions.
Maybe body sensations around food.
This can help with the reducing the reactivity.
So when you have those kind of instant thoughts, it can help support a more regulated patterns.
So you can jot things down, actually like to like after meal, jot things down maybe when some of the things arise, you know, right away.
29:31
And then this can help prevent getting stuck in the moment and what can happen with the nervous system states, you can get very stuck in the moment and you’re stuck in that state.
We want to, you know, think of ways that we can help get out of that state.
And then here I told you one of my favorite tools is the name it to Tainment.
29:52
So the name it to Tainment is really putting words to what you’re feeling.
Example, if it’s stress, fear, or feeling overwhelmed around food, it can help calm the nervous system and reduce that intensity again in the moment.
If you’ve noticed an emotion or a mood change come before a meal, maybe you’re thinking about the food, you can name it.
30:12
That’s the name it part and that can help tame it.
The practice general journal mood portion can be very helpful for this.
I love this part of the journal.
You don’t have to obviously, if there’s something else that you use, but just recognizing that part in the moment can be helpful.
30:28
So it doesn’t carry on me through the meal more.
OK, and then we’ve got food neutrality.
So maybe some of you have, you know, looked into food neutrality before or practice this.
But removing the good and bad labels reduces pressure and all or nothing thinking, seeing food as just food rather than something you shouldn’t eat can reduce food related stress and then self compassion.
30:57
So I really like to have these like what can be helpful?
This is one example what can be helpful to support like the kindness more instead of the criticism.
So instead of saying things like I messed up when you eat a certain food, maybe there’s a certain food that is specific that you’re unsure if you tolerate it, but it also is very supportive to your overall health and you’ve had it before.
31:19
Instead of saying things like I messed up, saying that was a stressful moment, I have a lot of thoughts about that specific food, but I can take care of myself and I know I’m able to support myself in this moment.
So just having some of those things showing that all right now we’ve kind of recognized we’ve set that safety part around this food and you may not be ready to do that yet, but that’s one way to show that that self compassion there.
31:46
So what are some nutrition considerations for a feed?
The calm focus.
Well, the first thing is nourishment is #1 avoiding long gaps without eating because this can put the body in a stressed state.
So I’m going to repeat that.
This can put the body in a stressed state, putting it in fight or flight that can occur if you’ve gone a long time without eating.
32:08
I, you know, I could go into, I could talk about this all day and we could go into this, but I know I have to keep it to this one class.
But if we know about that wonderful hormone and it shows up here in multiple of these points, but cortisol or stress hormone, putting ourselves in that stress state by not eating and just running off of stress throughout the day.
32:29
Combining protein and fat and carbs for meals when possible.
Ask yourself if the meal is satisfying.
Was it maybe missing something?
Staying hydrated, Staying hydrated.
Consider fluid intake throughout the day rather than large amounts in one sitting or right before meals.
32:46
If you’re drinking a lot of fluid right before a meal, how could that potentially maybe impact your appetite?
How could that affect your appetite cues and how could that throw off eating patterns?
So we want to be a bit mindful of that, of course, considering throughout the whole day.
And that’s something that can, you know, that might be adjusted for everyone based on their own schedule.
33:06
And then this last point here of creating a gentle awareness about caffeine consumption, I love talking about caffeine in the nervous system.
Not because we shouldn’t have caffeine at all.
That’s not it at all.
Caffeine is there and we can consume it.
It’s the awareness.
How does caffeine affect your stress levels?
33:23
Surely when you have caffeine on its own, there might be more of an impact on your eating.
There might be more of an impact on your stress levels.
So just being aware of that and maybe it doesn’t affect you as much and that’s OK, but maybe that’s not an area that you feel like you need to pay attention to as much.
33:40
So these are just some considerations for that feed the calm focus.
So this slide building trust with yourself, I put this on this wonderful iPad looking board thing here.
33:56
It says you can know exactly what to eat and still struggle if your body doesn’t feel safe.
In other words, you can have all the knowledge in the world, and we want you to have the knowledge, you know, to be able to support yourself.
We want you to be able to know about what these different nutrition considerations are, but also knowing that if your body doesn’t feel safe, if you don’t have you know, any of that awareness there, it could be really challenging to actually have that, you know, positive relationship with your eating patterns, feeling like you’re nourished and you’re in a calm state when eating.
34:36
So what are some helpful mindset shifts?
Instead of focusing on control over eating, set your mind towards curiosity, observation and gentle awareness.
This can be kind of molded based on the individual.
What do you need most?
Maybe you need more curiosity.
34:52
Maybe you need less curiosity.
Instead of perfecting your diet, set your mind towards a flexibility plan that feels comfortable and not too rigid.
The more rules that we make, the more we say we can’t have this, we can’t have that, we can’t have certain things that can become too rigid.
35:10
Now in those way where I I told you everyone has a different lived experience.
So some people to start with might feel most safe having more of a restrictive pattern, but as long as they have that nutrition support in the background and they start to expand when they feel comfortable, that can be really helpful to think about.
35:30
But especially when we restrict too many Whole Foods, that’s something to consider.
Instead of creating more rules about food or dietary pattern, consider the helpful responses to challenging these thoughts.
And that was some of the examples I gave in there.
How do we talk to ourselves?
The way we talk to ourselves has an impact on our eating patterns.
35:49
And so think about how you would talk to a loved one who was in a similar situation, especially if they were had a lot of discontent with a diet or something they were doing that wasn’t supportive.
And to wrap up a little summary here.
36:05
So some main points I want you to consider if your nervous system plays a really important role in your eating experience, there’s so many ways to gently support a balanced supportive state.
Very, very important here.
Small, consistent shifts toward calm can create more of that safety and ease over time.
36:23
So it wouldn’t be expected that you immediately feel like, OK, I’m going to be able to, you know, do everything at once.
Pick one or two things.
Those tools are very practical.
You don’t have to do them all at once.
Pick one or two things.
And that gets me to this final prompt.
Here is what is one thing you learn from today’s class and what is 1 tool tip or research that you plan to try.
36:46
This is something you can journal for yourself, write down for yourself with your pen and paper or in your notes app.
And you can also share it in the chat this time too, if you feel comfortable.
I’d love to hear what are some things that maybe you learned that you didn’t know or what are just a resource maybe you didn’t know about, but you plan to try.
37:03
So I’m going to leave this here and then my last slide is just says thank you, but I want you to be able to take a chance to, to look at this real quick.
And then I’ll go to that slide and we can move on to more of AQ and A.
37:19
So let me see here.
I’m gonna there’s just my references and then go back.
We’ll leave it on this slide, but yeah, that kind of that wraps up everything for today.
I just really want to reflect here and then we can really go into questions if you guys want to tap chat, type anything into the chat.
37:41
Yeah, I didn’t want to share anything here, but yeah, thank you guys so much for listening.
I hope this was helpful and I hope there are some things that you learned today.
Clinical Sources
Mayer EA. “Gut feelings: the emerging biology of gut-brain communication.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2011;12(8):453–466. DOI
American Diabetes Association Standards of Care in Diabetes, 2025, Section 5: Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-Being.
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