10 Tips to Boost Digestion
Is your digestion feeling sluggish after a long winter consuming lots of rich and heavy comfort foods? Changes in diet and lifestyle can make a big difference on your gut health.
Here are 10 tips you can try to help get things moving!
Exercise. It takes healthy muscle tone all around the abdomen for food to digest properly. Muscle tone helps move food through our digestive tract. Increasing exercise can improve digestion, even if you don’t change what you eat
Try not to overeat. Overeating any food is taxing on the digestive system and can affect the rate of digestion. It requires the body to expend a lot of energy, adds stress on the system, and forces the body to try to use too many nutrients at once. Practice moderation and only eat until you are three-quarters full.
Take time for gratitude. When you take a few moments before you eat to pause and reflect, either with blessings or gratitude, you are activating the cephalic phase of digestion. Your brain signals saliva to release and stokes your digestive fires. Both are key to proper digestion.
Eat whole foods. Processed foods are challenging for the digestive system because the body has to supply its own energy and nutrients in order for these products to metabolize, robbing the body of nutrients rather than supplying any. Stick to whole foods as much as possible.
Chew your food. Chewing thoroughly will help any food digest. We complicate digestion whenever we eat on the run or gulp down our food. Slow down, savor your food and chew it up! Saliva actually contains a lot of enzymes that aid digestion.
Amp up the fiber. Fiber helps keep your colon healthy. It provides bulk to the stool, speeds up transit time through the colon, dilutes the effects of any toxic compounds, and helps to remove bad bacteria from the colon. Make sure you get both soluble fiber, which absorbs toxins and removes excess cholesterol, and insoluble fiber, which facilitates elimination.
Boost stomach acid. Many people have low stomach acid. Heartburn, belching or gas, fatigue, and headaches can all result from low stomach acid. Gently boost gastric levels by adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to your water or drinking one tablespoon of raw fermented apple cider vinegar in a glass of water each morning.
Drink more water. It’s one of the top nutrients for digestion. The stomach needs water for digestion, especially for the health of the mucosal lining, which supports the small intestine bacteria for proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. Lack of water in the digestive system can result in ulcers, indigestion, heartburn, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, and constipation.
Add in probiotics. We need good bacteria to strengthen the immune system, reduce chronic inflammation, help remedy leaky gut, support mental health, and more. You can introduce probiotics with supplements or adding raw fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, or kefir to your diet.
Bring in digestive enzymes. You need three categories of enzymes: lipase for fat breakdown, amylases for carbohydrate breakdown, and protease for protein breakdown. The best sources of enzymes are from foods that are in their live, raw, or unsprouted form. Pineapple, papaya, mango, raw honey, banana, avocado, kiwi, and ginger are just some examples of foods that are naturally rich in digestive enzymes. Supplementing with digestive enzymes is also an option if digestion is impaired.
