Chew your food and see better nutrition

Are you a chewer? I used to have a bad habit of wanting to get food down the chute rapidly so I could go to more important things. Hey, we all have limited time these days, right?

What a mistake -- because not chewing your food properly can lead to all kinds of problems, as odd as that may sound. The teeth and saliva have jobs in that they both break down foods into smaller pieces as well as begin some digestion on different types of food like sugars and starches.

If you don't chew your food enough, the process is interrupted and bacterial contamination that would be normally killed by your saliva may pass right through into the stomach. You've probably experienced the feeling when the esophagus is irritated because you are sending larger food chunks down it as well as a result on inadequate chewing. Solution: chew that food better and take the time to eat properly. If you're like me, it'll be a hard lesson to learn -- but worth it.