How digestion works step by step
Things like hormonal
shifts, stress, genetics, food intolerance's, thyroid health, chronic diseases,
medication or supplement use,
and of course the foods that we eat. And if you feel
that your digestion is off more often than not, it may cause you to steer clear
of some foods or even question what is truly best for your unique body, making
it really challenging for you to practice eating well on a daily basis. So I'm going
to share with you a few tips and tricks that can help you optimize your digestion
so that you can feel your best and not have to worry about being uncomfortable
after eating or before eating.
How digestion works
Digestion is a super complex process. So I'm going
to spare you all the scientific details and break it down in a
simple way. The process of digestion is the act of consuming, breaking down and
also processing and utilizing the food for energy. There are two major ways food is digested.
Mechanical digestion
In mechanical digestion food
is chewed and physically broken up into tiny little pieces.
Chemical digestion
This is where food is
broken down into even smaller molecules with the help of digestive enzymes and
also stomach acid. Now overall, there are steps to the digestion process.
1. Food is mechanically
broken down by our teeth in the mouth and chemically by the enzyme amylase
particularly for carbohydrates in our mouth.
2. The peristalsis, a motion that pushes food through our esophagus to
the stomach and continues to physically churn the food through the stomach
muscles is where pepsin and then also hydro caloric acid meets the food. And
those two elements chemically break down our food.
3. Now after food has been chemically
and mechanically broken down, which again, can vary in time just depending on
how much food you ate, so the portion, the variety of foods, it can be around
one to two hours depending.
4. And then it goes into
the small intestine. So for example, healthy fats or fiber-rich foods and even
protein take much longer to digest typically than carbohydrates do. That’s why
also eating them together can help us feel fuller longer which a great win is.
So the small intestine, again, breaks down food but it also absorbs some key
vital nutrients with little finger-like projections called villi and micro villi.
5. So after that, the liver
produces bile and the pancreas produce pancreatic juice which is sent into the
small intestine to further chemically break down food. There's a lot of
breaking down.
6. After the food has been
broken down and passed through the small intestine, the large intestine
basically takes all of that remaining water and also remaining nutrients and
absorbs it’s this is how stool is also formed and then the stool passes out of
our bodies via the rectum. So there are several steps in the digestion process
and our body and your body do a lot of work to make that happen.
7. Now you can use these
tips absolutely to help alleviate any digestive woes that you might be having
or experiencing, but digestion is more than a few tips. It really comes down to
knowing exactly what to eat on a daily basis, being routine with that, being
consistent with that over a period of time so that you're truly supporting your
body 365 days a year.
8. The best and most
elementary way of improving your digestion and also just helping it function
the best ability that it can is to chew your food well and chew it enough that
you can almost swallow it like a liquid.
9. Chewing your liquids
also activates that digestive enzyme in the mouth to prepare your stomach for absorbing
all of those amazing nutrients and also just helps the digestion process kick
start. It seems really simple but so many of us are quickly eating, we're
hardly taking the time to actually chew our food thoroughly.
10. If you're normally a
distracted eater meaning you're at your desk, you're typing, you’re eating, or
you're in front of the TV, or you're doing any other activity other than solely
focusing in on your meal, you’re likely not focused on chewing, you’re just
eating it bite by bite.
11. Eat more fiber. Fiber,
especially from vegetables takes us longer to chew, and also helps us stimulate
our digestive juices and get the whole process going with our enzymes and they
can also help you feel fuller longer. So fiber among many things is also a
cornerstone for our health, especially when it comes to of course our digestion
since it adds to the bulk of our bowel movements.
12. Fiber is incredibly
important to any diet because it helps us balance our cholesterol levels in the
blood, it helps regulate our bowel movements as I just shared, regulates our
blood sugar levels, regulates our satiety levels which is that fullness feeling,
lowers risk of certain types of cancer, reduces risk of diabetes and overall
adds to that bulk to help you stay regular, it provides our gut with a hefty
dose of macrobiotics which are the food for the good bacteria in our gut. So a
few fiber-rich food sources include dried figs, flax seed, beans,
lentils, whole grains, and all of our non-starchy carbohydrates.
13. If you're feeling constipated,
try adding more magnesium to your diet and also water. You can add magnesium in
your diet really easily by beefing up the beans and lentils and greens. I know
so many of you might have trouble digesting some of those particular things,
especially beans and lentils, so if that's the case, one quick tip that you can
do is to learn how to soak them overnight and then discard and rinse the water
after you soak them. We buy all of our beans and legumes dried so soaking is
always a part of our cooking process. And we just simply soak them overnight in
filtered water, then in the morning I discard the water, rinse them off and
then we cook them. So in addition, remember that beans are loaded with fiber,
so it's really important that you gradually increase your fiber intake over time
so that your digestive system can kind of adjust and get used to it.
14. Magnesium helps the
muscles in the body naturally relax, it does a million other things but that's
the thing that we're talking about with your digestive track. And another thing
that you want to make sure you have in your regular diet is both the magnesium
and then pro-bio tics and pro-bio tics. Now they work synergistic-ally together to
stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut which is of course key
for digestion among all of these other tips and things. And pro-bio tics include
foods like onions, garlic, legumes, asparagus, artichokes, and whole grains.
And food sources that contain good bacteria, what we call pro-bio tics include
naturally fermented foods.
15. Add some raw apple cider
vinegar to your meals. Raw apple cider vinegar contains some good bacteria,
pro-bio tics, due to its fermentation process which is a good thing for our digestion.
It’s also an acid which can help improve our digestion for those who tend to
have lower stomach acid. Again, which remember, this isn't a good thing to have
low stomach acid, we need acid to break down our food. So you can try by adding
a small splash like a teaspoon to any of your salad dressings, to your grains,
or any of your salad bowls. It tastes delicious; it gives it a nice zingy flavor.
16. A rule of thumb to
follow is to not eat until you're 100% full. You want to leave a little room in
your stomach so it has the space to do what it needs to do, to break down
mechanically and enigmatically all of those foods without you also feeling stuffed.
So often times I find that people are so hungry and they're eating too fast
which not only means that they're not chewing well, but they could be
overeating which then causes them to feel like they have a lot of bloating or
digestive issues after a meal. Your attention should on food while eating,
taking pauses, and making sure your food is chewed well can help tremendously
with preventing you from eating to 100% of a fullness factor. And throughout
your meal, just check in with yourself. Check in with your hunger levels and
eat until you feel like you're at a comfortable three to four.
Finally, digestive
enzymes in the form of a supplement can be quite helpful for those who need a
little digestive boost. So for example, many people cannot digest beans and
legumes very well and they're left feeling really bloated and there are so many
supplements on the market that can actually help break down the poly saccharin
in legumes that can make it a little bit difficult for us to digest, even after
we've soaked them.
Conclusion
There are also some
foods that contain natural digestive enzymes that are more powerful than most
than other foods. So for example, pineapple and papaya both have some really
great digestive enzymes. Now you don't need to take a digestive enzyme supplement
to optimize your digestion, but in some cases, in can help alleviate gas and bloating.
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