6 Tips to Improve Your Digestion Fast
Things like gas, bloating, indigestion, and heartburn can sometimes seem like a “normal” part of life but I am here to tell you this is far from normal. While this could be a sign of some deeper digestion issues, it may simply be related to how we are eating.
The Digestion Cascade
Digestion is not a simple process. It is a multi-step process that only works as good as the previous step. If one step doesn’t go as planned, all the following steps will suffer to one degree or another. This is why looking at the “how” is a crucial step to improving your digestion no matter how simple or severe your symptoms are.
How Does Digestion Work?
Digestion begins in the brain as we see, smell, and think about eating our next meal or snack. Our brains increase the production of saliva, preparing your mouth for a delicious bite.
Did you know your saliva contains digestive enzymes? That is right! Sure chewing our food is an action of digestion, but saliva takes the front of chemically breaking down your food.
From here, the food enters our stomach where we produce stomach acid (HCL), pepsin, and gastric juices to continue breaking down food.
From here the food will be released from the stomach into the small intestine where the acidity will be neutralized, and the small intestine will begin to absorb nutrients from the food.
What Happens when this Process Doesn’t Work?
Symptoms like gas, bloating, heartburn, burping, constipation, diarrhea, and stomach pains/cramps are all signs that you are not digesting your food well. When this goes untreated, it is common to develop food sensitivities (dairy, gluten, certain carbohydrates), hormone issues (heavy periods, PMS, mood swings), immune issues (allergies, histamine intolerance), and skin issues (acne, rosacea, rashes).
What You Can Do About It
Here are 5 things that you can do today to improve your digestion!
Before eating, sit down at a table (or something similar). Try to avoid eating on the couch or at a low table that causes you to hunch over your meal. An upright posture promotes good digestion by reducing heartburn and burping symptoms.
Remove distractions like TV, computer, phones, etc. that can cause you to think more about what you are watching/reading rather than eating. Place as much focus on your meal time as possible. Be present with your meal.
Take 3-5 deep breaths before eating to ensure you are in a calm state and present with your meal. Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose, filling up your diaphragm. Pause at the top. Exhale slowly through pursed lips. The practice of praying or giving thanks over your meal has a similar effect.
Chew each bite of your food for 15 -30 bites. This allows your food to be thoroughly broken down while also mixing with digestive enzyme rich saliva. Digestion of specifically carbohydrates begins in the mouth with your saliva.
Avoid drinking more than ~ 6 oz of liquid with a meal. This can decrease stomach acid. Rather, focus on drinking most of your water between meals.
Consider Digestive Bitters as a way to gently stimulate your own production of stomach acid and digestive enzymes. This can be a great herbal remedy to support healthy digestion.