Better Digestion- understanding how to digest your food optimally
Basic Stages of Digestion, Assimilation of Nutrients and Waste Elimination
Digestion is about breaking down, absorbing, and assimilating and eliminating the food we eat. It’s not what you eat, it’s what you assimilate and absorb. Even if you eat the best food, its beneficial effects will be muted by poor digestion. You won’t produce energy, have a balanced mood, or fight illness if you can’t digest, break down, and absorb nutrients. Supporting healthy digestion is also about acknowledging how we process experiences, emotions and energy. The state and health of our digestion can have a direct impact on our emotional state and vice versa. If you have an irritated, inflamed gut, you will feel irritated in your life. If you have sluggish, slow digestion, you will feel slow, unmotivated and perhaps depressed in your life. Supporting your digestion (including the ways we prepare and consume food) will positively influence how you feel, perceive, respond, react and initiate in your life. And if we’re not digesting well, we may be missing out on the full nutritive value of some of the food we’re consuming. Supporting digestion is a broad topic, but here are a few straightforward suggestions to get you started!
Stage One- Brain: Be one with the food
This stage begins with your brain gearing up and getting ready for eating food. When you smell, see and think about the food you are about to eat your brain triggers the digestive system to release digestive enzymes and gastric acids lowering the ph in your stomach to get ready for our meal. It is very important for you to eat in a calm and relaxed state. You can practise this by taking a few breaths before your meal, close your eyes and relax and focus on the food you are going to eat. Practising gratitude for the food you are about to eat-giving thanks for the food you are about to eat, for those who grew it and those who prepared it. These are all ways that activate your parasympathetic mode of relaxation.
Stage two- Mouth: Chew your food
When you are actually eating your food make sure you chew the food enough. When you chew your food thoroughly, you begin to mechanically break it down into smaller and smaller pieces. As you chew, you secrete saliva with enzymes amylase which begins to digest starches right in your mouth. Chewing also tells the stomach to prepare to make stomach acid, and it signals the pancreas to prepare to secrete its contents into the small intestinal tract. When you chew your food well and fully breaking it down you help the stomach metabolize the food.
Stage three- Stomach and Gastric juices
- Stomach muscle contractions assist the digestive process by kneading the partially digested food while gastric juices containing hydrochloric acid (HCl) begin the protein-digesting process and also kill bacteria and germs from the food. HCl also stimulates the pancreas and small intestines to produce the digestive enzymes and bile necessary to further breakdown the carbohydrates, proteins and fats you eat. If you have low HCl (hypocholridia) you can have the following issues
1) Unable to absorb many nutrients, including minerals (iron, copper, zinc and calcium), vitamin B12, folic acid and proteins.
2) The contents of the stomach start to ferment. Fermentation creates gas that needs to be released somehow. Whether it goes up or down depends- but it will be released one way or the other. This gas that we can burp up can cause acid reflux- that can literally burn your esophagus leading to acid reflux. ometimes called dyspepsia, indigestion causes a painful, burning sensation in your upper abdomen. It may also cause you to feel uncomfortably full during or after a meal, or to burp more than usual. This condition typically affects the stomach and the esophagus, which comprise the upper part of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Here are ways to help increase HCl naturally —–link to another articleS
Stage 4: Small intestine: Absorption of nutrients
The stomach empties into the small intestine which is made up of three segments, the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. In the duodenum is where food is broken down by pancreatic enzymes released by the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder. Pancreatic enzymes alter the pH of the food to make it more alkaline for entry into the jejunum. Bile is made in the liver and it aids in the digestion of fat so that they can be later absorbed. The jejunum and ileum are both responsible for the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. The jejunum is designed to absorb carbohydrates and proteins and the ileum job is mainly to absorb vitamin B12, bile salts, and any products of digestion that were not absorbed by the jejunum.Each protrusion, called villi, is covered in smaller hair-like structures, which are called microvilli. Enzymes exist on the villi, helping further break down nutrients into a readily absorbable form. It is the job of the villi to help prevent leaky gut. These intestines are protected by a single layer of specialized epithelial cells that are linked together by tight junctions.These tight junctions are the gateway between your intestines and your bloodstream. They control what is allowed to pass into the bloodstream from your digestive system. If these tight junctions malfunction, they allow toxic substances that should be confined to your digestive tract to escape into your bloodstream this is termed Leaky gut. More about Leaky gut>
Stage 5: Large intestine: Elimination
Muscular contraction in the small intestine bring waste to the large intestine.The major function of the large intestine is to absorb water from the remaining indigestible food matter and transmit the useless waste material from the body. Waste products from digestion are not absorbed through the intestinal walls but continue moving through your digestive tract into the colon. Waste products include dietary fiber. Waste products leave your body via bowel movements.
Here are some more tips for Better Digestion
Set aside a special time and place for meals in a clean, calm environment.
Eat only when you are calm and focused on eating. You can do this by taking five deep breathes in and out before you start your meal. You can also focus on gratitude of how your food was made.
Leave as much time as possible after eating for unhurried digestion.
Avoid eating during peak liver detoxification activity, which is between 1am and 3am.
Eat dinner preferably three hours before your bedtime.
Drink plenty of filtered water or herbal teas between meals to promote regularity and the elimination of toxins.
Limit the amount of liquids one hour before and after meal and avoid more than a few sips of liquids with your meals. Too much liquid can dilute digestive juices.