Foods & Tips for Better Digestion
**image from Pinterest
Digestion issues are real. It can be challenging to feel your best overall when you’re not feeling your best in your gut. Our gut health has a lot of say in our overall health considering it’s huge microbiome & it houses about 70% of our entire immune system! It makes sense that when our stomach doesn’t feel right, we just don’t feel right. Digestion is a hot topic these days and it seems like everyone is noticing gut issues. It could be an underlying health condition that you may need more specific recommendations geared toward you to manage; however, there are some tips that mostly everyone can benefit from:
Foods
Balanced meals
Eating a balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats at meals creates an ideal environment for digestion, nutrient absorption, hormones, and your blood sugar.
Complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates provide fiber that will help foods digest at a slower - but not too slow- pace. They’re not going to be absorbed quickly. The fiber in complex carbohydrates will help regulate your bowl movements.
Anti-inflammatory foods
Anti-inflammatory foods create an an anti-inflammatory environment. Your body benefit from including foods like vitamin E-rich oils, vitamin C- rich bell peppers, and berries to fight oxidation and free-radical damage throughout the body- including your gut.
Balancing raw and cooked foods
Eating too many raw fruits and veggies is likely to cause bloating and gas due to the high fiber content. Fiber contributes to the rough texture of a food and isn’t actually digested by the body - it’s excreted. Fiber is an important part of the diet with great benefits; however, too much fiber can create a lot of work on the gut. Eating a balance of raw and cooked can help decrease the roughage the gut needs to work through.
Prebiotics and probiotics
Fermented foods such as yogurt, keifer, kombucha, sauerkraut, etc provide a dose of good bacteria to support a healthy gut that digests well. Prebiotics like garlic and onions are fuel for these probiotics.
Diet diversity
The more diverse the diet, the more diverse the gut bacteria. This will encourage plentiful good gut bacteria to support great digestion. Click here to read last week’s body on diet diversity!
Hot tea
Hot teas often help to soother the stomach. I particularly like decaffeinated lemon ginger and peppermint teas.
Behaviors
Eat mindfully & chew well
Slow down and take the time to chew your food thoroughly. Digestion begins in the mouth with mastication - chewing. Well actually, digestion begins even before that when your mouth begins salivating at the sight or smell of a food! Anyways, you don’t need to chew for 5 minutes, but chewing well will help your body digest as the food moves through the GI tract.
Sit upright
Sitting up during a meal and ideally 30 minutes afterwards helps gravity do its job and move the food down the GI tract. You’ll find this particularly helpful with reflux, indigestion, or any inflammatory GI condition like Crohn’s.
Calm down
Our bodies function in 2 modes: sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest & digest). When we’re running around frantically, stressed out, or anxious at meals, our bodies are trying to digest in the opposite mode (fight or flight). This is likely to lead to bloating, gas, indigestion, and other stomach upset. Try taking deep breaths before and during a meal, eating mindfully and managing meal anxiety.
Light Massage & Stretching
If you’re experiencing bloating, gas, or uncomfortable fullness after eating light massage may alleviate pressure and help you find comfort. Try cross body stretches and movements that stretch the abdomen like lying down and stretching your arms above your head.
Wear the right clothes
Wearing clothes that are too tight around the abdomen creates restriction and increased pressure in the area that may contribute to discomfort or pain after eating and hinder digestion.
Desa