Nonviolent Eating: Relax Your Eating for Better Health

TL/DR;

• I used the Dexcom Stelo "Continuous Glucose Monitor" or CGM.
• I confirmed the same lessons from previous experiment. My Experiment Results
• Foods high with grains or processed sugars cause blood glucose levels to rise
• Walking after eating helped to bring levels into acceptable ranges
• Stress can cause levels to rise more (even with identical foods).
• New insight:
• Nonviolent eating (I made this term up), or mindful eating in a relaxed, non-rushed manner can help reduce blood glucose spikes

Six years ago I did an experiment with taking periodic blood glucose  measurements after eating. It took hundreds of finger pricks.

Luckily, Dexcom now has a non-prescription, over-the-counter, continuous blood glucose monitor which provides readings every 5 minutes. I won't review all of the data because it basically confirmed what I discovered with my previous experiment.

Tuxedo Cake

The first surprise was on Memorial Day (May 26, 2025). We had my daughter and her family over. It was a relaxing, enjoyable day with swimming and ping-pong. At 12:45 PM, we had hamburgers, watermelon, etc. Then at 2:52 PM, we broke out the Tuxedo Cake from Costco. I ate a slice, then another, and then had a few more smaller pieces. I thought to myself, "This is really going to spike my blood sugar!"

Costco Tuxedo Cake

I went back to playing ping-pong with my grandson and then checked my levels later in the Stelo app. The green circle in the image marks the time when I ate the cake. My blood sugar never spiked (highest was 118 mg/dL an hour later). I figured it was being active (playing ping-pong) that kept it low. 

Blood Glucose After Eating Tuxedo Cake

Oatmeal

These next measurements were for times I ate oatmeal for breakfast. The only thing I add is raisins, roasted almonds, and sea salt. The captions describe the differences for three days.

Instant Oatmeal

Whole Oats, Walk after

Relaxed Eating (Whole Oats, no walk)

The second measurement I went on a walk just as it was spiking, bringing down my levels. The last measurement (June 5, 2025), I decided to actually take a break to focus on eating. I put on music from a relaxing playlist and I didn't do any work. 

I only discovered this relaxed eating the last few days that I had left on the sensor, but I applied the approach at every meal with noticeable reductions in blood glucose levels.

Nonviolent Eating

The way I think of it is as a hunter-gatherer out on the savanna. You're picking nuts and berries and eating as you go. You are very alert to any dangers, so you throw the food quickly in your mouth and munch it down quickly. You're telling your body "hey, I may need this to run away from a lion, so convert it to ready energy." This is "violent" eating, because you are in fear of violence while eating.

You bring some of the food back to your dwelling and the hunters just got back with a kill. You all sit, relaxed in the safety of your group and eat a relaxing meal. This is "nonviolent" eating, since you are not in fear of violence while eating. 

The goal is to create a mindful situation for your eating, where you aren't binging or rushing. You calm your mind and focus only on eating. You aren't thinking ahead to the next task or problem.

The Book of Everything

Imagine a book where every page represents the state of the universe at a different point in time.  The first page is the beginning of time.  The last page is the end of time. You thumb through the book and notice the continual changes from page to page.  The formation of stars, planets, life. These pages are a record of all history. As you thumb through the book, you discover the remainder of the book is completely blank. This is the future. Nothing is printed because it hasn't happened yet.

You turn to the last page with printing on it.  This is the present.  On this page is everything happening in the entire universe at this very moment.  The spiraling of galaxies. The motion of the planets. The moon, satellites, international space station and space junk all orbiting the earth.  Meteors are striking the atmosphere and burning up into dust.  Airplanes are flying through the sky.  Clouds floating and changing shape. Rain falls somewhere and it is snowing elsewhere. Birds are flying and singing. The wind blows.  People going about their business: driving, eating, sleeping, crying, laughing, arguing.  Billions of people.  Animals roaming the earth, climbing trees, digging holes.  Trees and plants sway in the wind and reach for the sun.  Fruit ripens.  Fish are swimming in the water.  Boats ride on the oceans, rivers and lakes. 

Your awareness of the present is like a small period on the page of the present.  A little dot.  There is infinitely more that you don't know about the present than what you do know.  You could spend every minute of the day reading the news and social media and your knowing is still a dot. 

You turn to the previous page and there is your little dot at an earlier time.  Maybe seconds ago.  Maybe minutes, hours or days.  There is a trajectory of dots all the way back to your birth. You realize that there is nothing you can do to change your past trajectory.  It is permanently recorded in the book of everything.

When you meet someone in the present, it is a rare moment when your trajectories intersect. Even if it is someone you see everyday, their trajectory is more unique than their DNA or fingerprint. Their path is so different than yours that your only choice is to be curious, interested, non-judging.

You turn to the page after the present and it is completely blank.  It's the future.  It hasn't happened yet.  You have no knowledge of what it brings.  No amount of thinking can make your dot appear on that page, let along anything else.  The printing will only appear when the page becomes the present.

You realize that the only thing that you have any influence over is your tiny dot on the present page.  What you think. What you say. How you act. How you breath. That's what you control.  But only in the present.  And only in the present that you are currently experiencing. You let go of the past.  You forget about the future.  You focus on the now.  You feel your heart open up to the present. Everything becomes more alive. Colors are more vibrant.  Sounds are clearer.  Food tastes better. People are more fascinating. Your feelings are more clear. 

You realize that the goal isn't to change the world; it's to experience the world.
You realize that the goal isn't to feel good; instead it's to be good at feeling.