The Importance of Digestion

Digestion is not just about what you eat, what you absorb and assimilate. Real digestion begins in the mouth with the process of chewing and activating digestive enzymes. Your saliva encodes your DNA in the food so your body becomes more familiar with it and is easier to digest. The food you eat has a massive role in digestive health, but it’s not the only thing. As you’ll see, the process of how you eat is also a big contributor.

Ways to Improve Digestion Without Changing What You Eat

1. Exercise

Exercise has been clinically proven to beneficially impact the microbiome. Recent studies show that exercise can enhance the number of beneficial microbial species, enrich the microflora diversity, and improve the development of commensal bacteria. The more diverse and commensal (bacteria working together)our bacteria are, the better our digestion will be. Researches also note that over exercise can be negative toward our microbiome. About 70% of the immune system is located in the gut. We know that access stress will impair immunity.

2. Reduce stress

Stress can be a major factor that disrupts digestion. Stress can impair digestion through the gut-brain access. The microbiome can be disrupted through mental stress. We can address stress through tools like meditation. This is the practice of going within, and calming the mental chatter. Relating to yourself in a healthy way will remove a lot of stress. Getting in tune with the breath will influence the HPA axis, calming the endocrine system and the nervous system.

3. Listen to your gut

Listen to “your gut” to make decisions. We often say that, but are we doing it? There is often a lot of static on the line because of all the distractions. When we cultivate a relationship with our inner guidence, we can solve problems much better, and stop running into the same problem.

4. Eat in a relaxed state

The sympathetic nervous system is designed for the stress response, and the parasymphetic nervous system is designed for rest and digest. Key word is digest. Keep in mind that this is a binary system, so only one can be turned on at a time. Taking deep breaths and setting an intention for the meal is a good idea.

5. Chew like you have teeth

Chewing your food properly is so important. This is the beginning of the digestive process where you in code the food with your DNA. Your body is becoming familiar with the food, and making the digestive process much more graceful. If you don’t chew properly, you will spend a lot of unneccesary energy tring to break it down. It will also decrease nutrient absorption.