Far 2 Fabulous

How does stress show up in your digestion (and what can you do about it)?

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 93

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 Episode 93: How does stress show up in your digestion (and what can you do about it)? 

Your body might be doing everything right—just at the wrong time. We dive into the overlooked power of how you eat: the timing, the pace, the breath between bites, and the simple rituals that flip your system from stress to digest. Drawing on lessons from French and Spanish lunch culture, we explore why protected mealtimes lead to steadier energy, calmer guts, and better sleep, even before you change your menu.

We talk frankly about the gaps in our food and health systems—chefs who aren’t taught nutrition, nutritionists who aren’t trained to cook—and how that disconnect shows up in everyday life. From school canteens with short breaks to workplaces that erase lunch, the result is rushed meals, screens at the plate, and a digestive system left in the lurch. You’ll hear practical shifts: a simple 12-hour eating window, moving more fuel to the first half of the day, and saving heavier carbs for the evening with a two to three-hour gap before bed to support sleep. We break down why three slow breaths before eating change everything, how chewing activates the TMJ and influences pain perception, and why something as ordinary as a short stroll after a meal can smooth your blood sugar curve.

This conversation is warm, real, and immediately usable. You’ll get no-nonsense tips to reclaim lunch, cook as a family to prime digestion, and swap the sofa for the table to turn eating into a restorative pause. Expect fewer afternoon slumps, lighter evenings, and a calmer gut—without a complicated plan. If this resonates, subscribe, leave a quick review to help others find the show, and share your best mealtime tip with us in the Facebook group. Your next great habit might be as simple as taking a breath before your first bite.

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Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Party Fabulous. Punchy Party and Catherine. Join us on a mission to racial fabulousness and redefined wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chat, and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing. Let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fabulous podcast. Do you know what? And I really need to say that better because when they transcribe far too fabulous, sometimes it does say far too fabulous.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_00:

It does often actually. So not to be confused with the Far Too Fabulous. We could be that term. And actually, I'm off on a tangent already. And I don't know when this is gonna come out, but this clip will forever be funny, so it doesn't matter when this comes out.

SPEAKER_01:

I was watching Celebrity Traitors. Oh, with C uh what's her name? Celia. She bought it in the funny, wasn't it? And she just totally owned it. I love that about her. She was like, Yeah, that was me. Yeah, sorry, I'm nervous. And Claudia just kind of looked around and went, What just happened there?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know how she kept a straight face, actually. It was absolutely brilliant. And then I saw somebody who said they'd watched it like so many times and they still can't stop laughing. She's just like, yeah, totally owned it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just, isn't it funny that we find it so funny when it's something that is completely natural and we all do it? Yeah. And then that is that is funny. Like I know sometimes burps and things are funny, but they're not as funny as farting. No. Why is Fartin so hilarious? I don't know, and it is really funny.

SPEAKER_00:

Like even round the table if Mikey does it. Sorry, son. But yeah, I just think it's really funny. And he thinks it's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Never I I think I think it'd be a sad day when we don't find that funny. Anyway, this is my house around the day. That was that was the uh first episode of the Far Too Fabulous podcast. But now we're gonna start the Far Too Fabulous podcast. I think I've forgotten what we're talking about. I don't even know what we're talking about. Well, perhaps this this ties in nicely. What we are gonna talk about in a general way is how you eat your meals. So this came about because I was listening to Jamie Oliver on the Davina McCall podcast, and he comes across as a thoroughly lovely bloke.

SPEAKER_01:

He really does, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_00:

I just like and I love the idea of their family life. It sounds bonkers and very probably as bonkers as in my house. And he was saying when he was, I think he was studying his nutritional therapy, he'd gone back to uni a couple of years ago.

SPEAKER_01:

He did, yeah, he did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, which is really again is really interesting, isn't it? That you can learn how to cook and how you can put meals together, but in chef school or whatever it's called, you don't learn necessarily the nutritional content of school.

SPEAKER_01:

No, well, chefs don't learn nutrition and nutritionists don't learn to cook. So you can't just assume that a nutritionist knows how to cook and has all these fabulous recipes because not all of us have got that. I'm lucky that I do, yeah. But not all nutritionists know how to cook.

SPEAKER_00:

I've never thought about it that way. I have always marvelled actually at your like your recipes and the fact that you um are willing to sort of show how to cook things, but no, that's true. Yeah, they need to put these put these schools all together.

SPEAKER_01:

It's the same as like the food industry don't know about health and the health industry don't know about food.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's the same thing, it's all disconnected.

SPEAKER_00:

It is all disconnected. What was I saying?

SPEAKER_01:

You were listening to Shame Oliver and he was and he was talking about how you eat your meals.

SPEAKER_00:

That was it. So he for his studies he was looking at the blue zones, which are areas in the world that have a higher percentage of centenarians in them. So these are people that have lived over a hundred. And actually, I don't think, and then he started talking about France. I don't think France have a blue zone. I don't think they do. I don't think they do. Italy's got two. However, what he was saying was that one of the reasons that they have a low incidence of metabolic disease and disorder is because they are fiercely, still fiercely protective of their hour and a half lunch break. And he said that schools still have a three-course meal, and places like factories and those sorts of things still completely shut down for an hour and a half, and they have their meals, so they have time to digest them. Maybe they have time to make them, I guess, if if they have not got them or go and get them, and I guess the social aspect as well must hugely pay into it, and this and this has a massively positive effect on the rest of their health. So it it almost doesn't matter, almost doesn't matter what they are eating, it's how they are eating that has had the amazing effect on them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is an important one. I know that when my parents lived in Spain, there was that gap in the middle of the day where everything was closed, and the children often went home for their lunch. Yeah. And then they had their cooked meal at lunchtime because then they have a siesta. Yeah. Then they go back later, don't they? And then they have a lighter meal in the evening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Which makes sense. That's you know, you're supposed to, don't they say, eat like a eat like a king?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, for breakfast, breakfast like a king, yeah, lunch like a queen and no prince and then dinner like a pauper. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And you think about like a supper used to be like a sandwich or something. It didn't used to be like a massive evening meal, like what like our day is certainly set up for. And I've been really aware of that, and I really find it, I am finding it difficult to be able to not only change my habit, but change it within the family that we eat more at lunchtime.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh sometimes my kids will say, like they bring their pet lunch home and they haven't eaten it all. And my daughter will often say, I didn't have time. Yeah. And I know their lunch break is pretty short at school now, and especially if they have to queue up to get food. There's so many of them. I know that it's very limited. And also they don't have enough tables and chairs for people to sit down. Yeah. So they sit on the floor to eat their food a lot of the time. Yeah, or they just go wherever, sit on the steps. I'll say to my daughter, Where did you eat your lunch today? And she say, Oh, we sat on the steps round by the sports hall or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's what if they've got something from the canteen as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because they've bought their own. I mean, their particular school is has been oversubscribed. I think it's got more popular, and but the canteen facility is still for a small school, so they can't cope with it.

SPEAKER_00:

But I mean, even to both the children that are in um secondary school at the moment, my two, they same issue? Mikey's is staggered now, so they have different lunch break different. From year groups, yeah, yeah. Um, so that they can get everybody through. And yeah, Kitty says it's an it's absolute mayhem. Mayhem, yeah. In there. So the kids that don't want to be part of that mayhem that isolates them instantly. And I suppose the kids that are in within that mayhem, that's no good for sitting and enjoying a meal and digesting your food. Yeah, it's not set up for that at all. No, it's ridiculous, isn't it? And I mean, we know how important that nutrition is for their brains, for their development. I mean, it's a whole other subject, is what they are eating. We won't go. We won't go there. We won't go there. However, there is there's lots that they can do around kind of how they're eating to support their learning.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, especially when they lock all the toilets and don't let them go and stuff like that. Don't get me started on that subject. Because that is an absolute nightmare, I think, for a lot of kids at school. I know we've mentioned it before about you know, you're not allowed to go to the toilet. And I know some children are they use it as an excuse and they're disruptive, but most of the kids, if you want, if you need to go to the toilet, it's embarrassing enough to put your hand up in the class to say that you need to go. So if you've got to that part, then just friggin' let them go. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I yeah, I completely, completely agree. Another thing about the way that our meals are set up is that you know that we were fierce fans, fierce fans of fasting.

unknown:

Fierce fans.

SPEAKER_00:

We still are, but in a man like in a in a certain way. And we've changed it around, haven't we? So we we're not fasting in the morning, we're making sure that we are fueling our brains more than anything. This is what I was talking to Kitty about the other day, actually. Um, or no, it wasn't, it was Anya. And she said, Oh, I don't feel like anything in the morning. I said, But your your brain needs something, you know, you're going off to uni and you're and and it takes a lot of energy, that's what it needs to sort of rev up and get going.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and so yeah, so we don't fast in the morning anymore. However, there is lots of research, again, and these are really simple things to suggest that if you keep your eating within that kind of 12-hour window, but like a normal 12-hour window from like seven to seven. Normal eating. Um, but you don't then eat, say, after seven o'clock in the evening, and you've got that good space between finishing eating and then going to bed, yeah. That the health outcomes of that, and again, nothing to do with what you are actually eating, but when you're eating and how you're eating, have huge positive impacts on your on your physical health, on your mental health, and so simple to do, but it's not hugely adopted. I think in the evening eating is is a it's probably a problem. I'm gonna go for a problem.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I find that the person that's cooking the meal is probably got more benefits to the ones that just rush in, sit down, hoover their food down, and then they're off again. Because actually, the way that our system works is by us preparing the food, we're getting ready, our digestion is getting ready. So we get a benefit. If you're someone who cooks all the meals like I do, then you know, sometimes it's such a chore when you're the person responsible for that. Yeah, but you do get that benefit of your digestive system will get ready whilst you're preparing the food.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I'm gonna try and use that line for the kids when I try and rope them into chopping stuff up for me. They did actually, I think that they helped. We had um we had salsa and guacamole and stuff, and that always seems to be more prep preparation than I think it is. Then you anticipate, yeah, every single time. I'm like, oh yeah, well, just whip up a salsa and you're like, I'm still here chopping. So many of them, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, so I'm gonna say it'll help them to prepare for their for their meal.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and the other thing is, although you know, I'm not religious at all, that um when when certain cultures and religions take that moment to be thankful for the food, that in itself gives your system time to switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic, which is rest and digest, which is actually what you need to eat. So I will often tell my clients, because like I said, I'm not religious, and most people don't say grace and things now, but is to just take a moment to take three breaths before you eat. Because again, you want to be because you've been rushing around a lot of the time, and a lot and then and a lot of the time, even when you're making dinner, you're rushing because you're trying to get everything ready, you've got to switch from that doing stress sympathetic over to parasympathetic.

SPEAKER_00:

What happens if you don't switch over to that when you're eating?

SPEAKER_01:

What happens to that? That's a really good question. So you don't have the digestive enzymes in your stomach in order to rip be ready for that food to come in, so then you can't digest it as well, which means you don't absorb the nutrients as well, yeah, and it impacts everything from the top to the bottom.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, that's really interesting. I'm just thinking about like literally, if I make some scrambled egg on toast or something, and I'm there eating it whilst I'm making lunches or I'm you know doing other things. Or do that. No, that's really interesting, and the same with like if you're if you've got lunch and then you take it to your desk.

SPEAKER_01:

If you're eating while you're on the computer and stuff, or or on your phone, it's not good. You know, a lot of children will watch tablets and things, and I know some in some cases that's the only way you can get them to eat, etc. There's no judgment here, but that distraction to the brain means that some of those digestive functions don't happen. So just really concentrating on what you're eating, lots of chewing, so much chewing, chewing is absolutely vital. You got really animated then, lots of chewing. It's so interesting how that um that TMJ joint that you've got for your jaw, the one up by your ear, yeah, is one of the most important joints in the body, it's got a link with um pain receptors. So, actually, if you chew your food, you can reduce pain. So, this has been shown in people with inflammatory type conditions. If they chew their food because they're using the TMJ joint, yeah, that it has an impact on pain receptors. How amazing is that? That's bonkers.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's absolutely bonkers. I've never heard that before.

SPEAKER_01:

No, yeah, and actually, if you've got like you can feel with your jaw, if you're someone that grinds your teeth at night, yeah, you need to massage that part. I mean, I'm pointy, but obviously you guys can't see that. But often that would be sore in there. Yeah, you feel yours, yeah. Obviously, if it's a bit sore, you can yeah, you can release this. And this is one of the one of the um problems if you have dental work done where you've had to have your mouth open for a while. Yeah, that if you trigger an issue with your TMJ joint, it's not just localized there, it can cause problems anywhere in the body, but digestion is connected as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's really interesting. And also, what about the social aspect of like eating and drinking a meal?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I think the studies on it are just so like it is so obvious when you look at those studies that you would get benefits from a family sitting down, it's time for problem solving, talking about issue, anything it's so important.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's to be honest, it's the only time that we can all get together. Um, and we whether we're whether we are talking or whether we're just munching away, it's just it's nice to have everybody there together. And it is so easy to go, shall we watch something? And kind of you know, shuffle into the front room and stick your feet up on the on the lazy boy or something like that, but there is so much more benefit to sitting around and talking, and often we'll then descend into like card games and stuff afterwards because we're just all sat there together.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I know not everybody has that um that opportunity to do that because again, the way we've we've organized our work life, we don't have a lunch break, we can't even sit down as a family and eat anymore. I think lunch breaks have got shorter, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure I used to have an hour, and also things like they don't pay you for your lunch breaks, so it just encourages people to go, oh no, I won't bother. Yeah, it's so true. That is true, completely uh counterproductive because you're not going to get the work, the the right calibre of work out of your workers if they're not fuelled properly or rested slightly.

SPEAKER_01:

But this is where we've got this massive disconnect, isn't it? With you know, making people work longer, harder, the productivity is less, and that's been proven again in countries where they've gone for the four-day week. Yes, and the difference that's made to people or flexible working that hasn't had a positive impact. People are more productive, but I think we've got a long way to go. But yeah, we've got longer working days, no breaks, shorter. I mean, I've I speak to clients who literally have no break at all during the day. Back-to-back meetings, yeah, on Zoom, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's terrifying. So, what you need to take away from this is that you need to look at when your meal times are and just be fiercely protective of them, keep them within that 12-hour window. Try and move the majority of your eating towards the front part of your day. It makes sense. That's when you need your fuel to go in. Yeah, it doesn't make sense when you're just about to go and go to bed, go to rest. You just watch the TV. No, exactly, because then just it makes perfect sense. You don't need it then, because then the body's gonna go, Oh, I don't need it now. What should I do? I'll just sort of I'll just pug it up in your belly and your bum.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's why movement after exercise, um after eating. Well after exercise, movement after extra.

SPEAKER_00:

It's good, yeah. I agree.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, movement or exercise is what I meant to say after eating, yeah, has a positive impact on blood sugars. Yeah, because you're gonna use it straight away. Yeah, using the fuel. So a nice little stroll after, yeah, after again, for digestion, it's one of the best things you can do is to get up and move after you've eaten.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I suppose as we're getting into darker evenings as well, having a bigger lunch and then going out for something, uh going out for a stroll is a much better idea than waiting until the end of the day. And it's such a rush, isn't it? Like, you're like everybody's back paying, quick feed them. Oh my god, we've got to walk the dog, oh my god, we've got to do homework, oh my god, we've got to do all of this. It's an absolute rush. That can't be good for your digestion as well.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, your digestion wants you to be calm and everything to be slow. You've got to chew your food. So even if you have only got 20 minutes for your lunch break, you can still be calm before you eat, can't you? Yeah. Just take those breaths. The breaths, because then that switches into parasympathetic, and then chew your food. In fact, look over the week at how many food, like how many meals you need to actually chew, because that's the other thing. A lot of our meals we don't even need to chew anymore. No, that's true. We really can't, we don't need to. Yeah, they're all soft and squidgy, and we just you know hoover it in. Yeah. And the digestive system goes, hang a minute, what happened? I wasn't ready. The chewing didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't ready. Oh, that's really interesting as well. So, some I think some really, really great, really actionable tips there. And so, yeah, like you said, even if you've got 20 minutes, take those three breaths, make sure you're chewing plenty. Don't sit on your phone or the TV. Even if I mean, shock horror, even if you sat there and just ate and did nothing. Nothing else. How very dare you! Yeah, or go and find somebody to sit and talk with while you're while you're having your meal.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

And if you're in France, you go add red wine to it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yay! Yeah, I must just say something quickly about carbs at lunchtime because this this is quite interesting. I often do this with people as well, with my clients, is that when we improve lunch but we lower the carbs, it means that you don't get that mid three o'clock slump. Yeah, yeah. And actually, carbs do make us tired. So we need carbs with our evening meal, not with lunch.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, interesting. That would be a good one. Another one to just help with the help with the sleep.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But making sure that you've had what how many hours do you think between eating and going to bed? Three. Two, three. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Three is is is the golden number. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I know that I genuinely I know how difficult it is to be able to set just my own eating habits up the way that I want them, let alone try and fit that into crazy family life. But I think there are some tips in there that can be applied at any point. So let us know in the far too fabulous Facebook group what your eating habits are like. If you've got any top tips or if you've applied any of these and they've made a nice difference. Yeah, absolutely. We will see you in the Facebook group. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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