Writings
A Few Minutes After Dinner
The most portable metabolic tool I know asks for ten minutes and a hallway.
Muscle at work takes up glucose directly, without waiting for insulin to open the door. Timing decides how much this helps: movement that begins soon after a meal intercepts the glucose spike before it peaks, so the rise is smaller, the insulin response is smaller, and the fall that follows an hour or two later is gentler. For anyone who knows the 3pm crash or the late-evening wire, that gentler fall is the point. A smaller swing means fewer emergencies for the stress chemistry to correct.
Ten to twenty minutes of easy walking after a meal is the most studied version. Easy is the operative word. A stroll around the block after dinner is enough, and a hard workout right after eating tends to pull blood away from digestion.
Japanese research offers an even smaller option, and it fits inside a small apartment on a rainy night. Kakato-otoshi, heel drops: rise onto the toes, then let the heels drop to the floor, and repeat for a few minutes right after eating. Two things happen. The large calf muscles draw down glucose, the same mechanism as the walk. And the gentle impact through the heels stimulates bone, which releases osteocalcin. Nearly two decades of research connect osteocalcin to insulin secretion and glucose metabolism. Bone, it turns out, signals back to the pancreas.
The beauty of the heel drop is that it can be done while clearing the dishes, waiting for the kettle, or standing at the sink. A few minutes, most evenings, is enough to notice a difference in how the evening and the following morning feel.
Between a walk and a few minutes of heel drops, there is a post-meal option for almost any circumstance. Pair it with a dinner of adequate protein, and the evening craving for sugar and starch tends to quiet at its source.
This essay is adapted from Cultivating Your Terrain, a book in preparation. Join the list to receive it on release.