Improving Digestion

This is a longish read but worth it for your digestions sake. 

Digestion of our food is the key to long lasting health. We can have our macro/micro’s down pat, but if they are not being digested/absorbed then It’s to little or no effect. 

We need to have our systems working with us and not against us – and it’s linked to digestion and lost habits that if we had to re-introduce we will lower the overload/inflammatory response of the body and it’s systems which will ultimately help us reach our goals. 

There are many ways to give the body the tools it needs, but these below are the bodies priority:

1. Hydration is key for digestion:  Most of us are dehydrated at the root and if we are around 70-90% water so we need to re-hydrate it!!! Digestion is about hydration, assimilation, absorption and elimination. A cell should be a grape not a raisin and nothing can work if the cell is so dehydrated that nothing can get in and out. 

Drink structured water 20-30 min before a meal. This prepares the stomach acid and readies it to start the digestive process. Don’t drink and eat at the same time. This dilutes the digestive fire needed to break down food.

Apple cider vinegar, lemon, or Swedish bitters with warm water first thing in the morning and 20-30min before meals gets digestion fired and ready for the day!  

2. Chew your food: Chewing is where digestion actually begins. Chewing stimulates enzymes and signals down the digestive tract to prepare for food, so chewing to mush does a big bulk of the workload. That’s why your teeth are there!! This is where I add how bad chewing gum is for you. Chewing gum signals to the stomach to start releasing stomach acid, the gallbladder for bile, the pancreas for enzymes. They wait and wait and nothing comes. You’ve effectively released acid that has nothing to break down so will burn into an ulcer. The gallbladder and pancreas have nothing to digest and get clogged up. It’s just not worth it. 

3. Eat when you’re hungry:  Eating more than 3 meals a day puts a stress on the digestive system and overworks it. If we’re constantly eating, when can the body rest to allow enzyme/metabolic activity to recover? Not only this, but eating without hunger will never give the body reason to burn it’s fat reserves as it will continue to use the available energy from food every 2-3 hours as opposed to utilising any stored energy. Eating when you’re hungry would really put you into a natural rhythm of intermittent fasting which is a very good tool for reducing inflammation.

4. Add herbs and spices:  Find good unprocessed herbs & spices to fire up the digestive juices to aid and support better digestion. ADD ADD ADD wherever you can! Beets and green leafy veg are also good to help boost digestion. Immediately throw away your table salt and purchase Celtic Sea Salt – it is handsifted and therefore has all your essential minerals needed.

5. Take time to eat and relax: The digestive system is turned on by the parasympathetic nervous system (calm and rested). The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated by eating on the run or in the stressed state, so therefore your digestion is compromised. Sit, engage in your food, and enjoy what you are eating. Be GRATEFUL for the food as nourishment and life to your body.

6. What and how to eat: Seasonal eating, and with variety allows the body’s digestive enzymes to function in its cycle of time to work and time to rest. As is most things in nature, there is a symbiotic design to work and then rest - food in season provides everything you need for that time, even the microbes to break down the food. These days with so many foods now modified to produce annually, all those supportive enzymes are not there – putting huge pressure on our digestion and it hasn’t the strength to fully cope. This also highlights the benefit of rotational eating – don’t eat the same foods all the time! The body’s microbiome and systems thrive with variety! Food combining is the foundational way to choose what to eat. Daily add fibre with food to slow the glucose spike, the first bite before every meal should be fibrous veg.  Eat vegetables first, protein and fat, then carbohydrates last. 

7. Effective elimination through daily bowel motions, lymphatic and breathwork:  We need a healthy digestive system and gut health to effectively detox and eliminate unwanted toxins. Not eliminating these toxins is what causes inflammation; stress on the organs; hormonal issues, disease and ultimately weight gain. Weight is not stored good fat but stored toxins ie processed goods. Our body is able to digest healthy fats (ie avocados) but it cannot utilise processed refined poly fats (sugars/vegetable oils/preservatives etc). You can’t be healthy if you can’t poop and if your lymphatic system is clogged up.  

8. Reduce processed items and refined grains/sugars: We will never be able to fully remove process from our lives but we can reduce and find better options. Anything that is genetically modified or hybridised, made in a factory or goes rancid, is the equivalent to never cleaning off grease from your stove. The body can’t utilise it because it doesn’t recognise it as fuel so it overwhelms and clogs your digestion (bloating/gas/IBS/heartburn/fatigue etc) and causes your liver/gallbladder/bile ducts to malfunction and store!!! (toxicity/autoimmune/disease/weight gain/depression .... Possibly nearly everything?) How processed your food is can be seen by the sodium and carbohydrate levels on your boxed food.

9. Restoring old fashioned habits: We used to preserve foods and cook and bake from scratch. This allowed for natural fermentation and development of good healthy bacteria to grow to naturally aid in digestion, and reduced exposure to unnecessary processing and additives. Add some fermented foods!  

Food used to serve us, now we are servants to it.

Getting outdoors with soil to our feet and hands dirty; not sanitising every area of our lives; not going on an antibiotic for a cold - these all help boost our digestion because they don’t deplete our stores. 

10.Supplements: You want to reboot function and not create dependency, so there’s a time and a place for supplements but they cannot be used instead of good wholesome eating and living. You NEED to be careful with supplements because not all are made equal with many are synthetic and full of fillers.  Reach out for personal advice. 

In summary, the purpose of setting the digestive function right first is so that every other system in your body can effectively work. Every person has different battles of varying degrees, but getting the basics of digestion right is always the base line for everyone before we can fine tune specific weaknesses and kinks in the system!! Everything in the body is fixable, repairable and can be optimised for an enjoyable life!!