I know what you’re thinking, but digestion is SUPER fascinating and SUPER important. In fact, it can be argued that most of modern society’s diseases stem from gut issues.
As a nutrition professional, part of my job is to teach people all the best foods to eat, how to cook them, and how to eat healthier. But the fact is that none of that is going to do anyone any good unless they can actually digest what they’re eating.
Digestion is one of those topics not everyone likes to talk about – people either think it’s boring, or unimportant, or embarrassing (flatulence, anyone?). But it’s an incredibly important part of daily life.
5 Stages
Digestion can be roughly broken out into 5 stages and basically if something goes wrong in one of those 5 stages, it sets you up for nutritional deficiencies, which can lead to inflammation, which can lead to disease… so obviously, all these things are connected.
The stages of digestion build off of one another, so if something doesn’t work right in one stage, your body’s not going to be able to perform the remaining stages correctly.
Currently, I’m working with Jaime in our acupuncture sessions and I’m also working with a naturopathic doctor to determine which of my 5 digestion stages isn’t working right, because here’s a weird thing I discovered… salads cause my digestion to be SUPER slow.
I have only eaten cooked food since I discovered this last May. I hate to think about all the important vitamins and minerals I’m missing out on by avoiding raw fruits and veggies.
Stage 1
Technically, digestion starts in the brain, so we’ll call that Stage 1. Basically your thoughts can either turn on the digestion process, or turn it off.
Let’s say it’s finally the end of winter and all these awesome fruits are becoming available again, so imagine a bowl of your favorite fruit, looking all bright and ripe and colorful and juicy. We’ll use my favorite, which is strawberries.
You think how good those strawberries look, you want to taste them, and you can imagine how sweet they’re going to be.
Stage 2
That starts some things going in your 2nd stage, which is your mouth. Your salivary glands start going and you start drooling over that bowl of strawberries before you even take the first bite.
Stage 3
Your brain also sends signals to your stomach to release stomach acid and other juices, ready to digest that bowl of strawberries you’re about to eat. So that’s Stage 3.
The last 2 stages
Then the food passes down to your small intestine (Stage 4) and large intestine (Stage 5) can break it down further into its individual parts and your body absorbs all the nutrients. And then at the end of the large intestine, whatever is left comes out the other end. Everybody poops!
Relax!
Going back to Stage 1, I want to note that there are 2 parts of your nervous system, which your brain system – the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
The parasympathetic state is what you need to be in so that you can digest food.
So think about it – when you eat on the go, like in your car, or you’re super stressed out when you eat a meal, you are in a sympathetic or unrelaxed state (also known as the “fight or flight” response) and your body turns off all parasympathetic processes, which includes digestion.
What happens then? If you look at Stage 3 in the stomach, this means you don’t pump out those gastric juices that break down the food, which means you don’t absorb the nutrients from that tasty bowl of strawberries!
All that vitamin C and whatever else goes to waste! Literally – it comes out your other end instead of getting absorbed and used by your body.
Are you absorbing your vitamins & minerals?
There’s lots of different ways you can tell you’re not absorbing nutrients. For example, I have really dry skin, white spots on my fingernails, and sensitive teeth. Some other things include brittle hair and nails, poor night vision, dandruff, hair loss, or restless leg syndrome… Lots of fun stuff!
What if, instead of strawberries, it was a bag of Cheetos or whatever your favorite processed junk food is? Since those things are made up of man-made parts, they’re not familiar to your body and so your body treats them as toxins.
Then your body tries to protect you by storing those toxins in your fat cells, or expelling them through diarrhea, or pushing them out through your skin in like acne or rashes or whatever. And those are only a few examples.
The body can do some amazing things to protect you.
So one can assume that if you eat poorly your entire life, or you’re super stressed out all the time, it can set you up for a lot of bad stuff, which includes not digesting your food properly.
I’ve started to notice that if I eat a meal in a hurry or when I’m stressed out, I’ll start feeling little gurgles or bubbles in my stomach. It’s how I know that I need to slow down or take a few deep breaths to try to relax.
The whole digestion process is a lot more complex than that, but this is the general idea. It’s important to know how important digestion is.
There are lots of simple ways to improve your digestion. Here are 5 quick tips you can try today:
- Ingesting a warm liquid before you eat. I like to drink a cup of bone broth every morning instead of coffee or tea.
- Bitter foods – I have found that sautéed dandelion greens are super bitter but work really well for me, personally.
- Doing relaxing activities or having them done to you – massage, acupuncture, taking a bath, yoga, tai chi, etc.
- Take 5 deep breaths before eating your meal, or slow down for a few moments to say a prayer of thanks.
- Chewing! You have no idea how big of a deal chewing your food is, but it is great. Try to chew each bite at least 30 times. I promise this is beneficial.
Do you have any other tips to add to help improve digestion? Let me know in the comments below!
If you want to eat better but don’t know where to start, click here for some one-on-one nutritional coaching from yours truly.