Have a good digestion! Danik Legault, ND.A.
Your digestive system will process on an average 170,000 pounds of food over the course of your life. It has more nerve endings than your brain. The main function of digestive system is to break down food into small enough molecules that the intestinal tract can absorb and release into bloodstream. What’s the point of eating all this healthy unprocessed food if your body cannot break it down properly to absorb the nutrients that it needs to function properly?
The state of your health depends directly on your digestion. It is the basis of everything and if it is not right, nothing is of significance.
Digestion is like a car wash, where each step in the process has to be well-executed and in order. It would never work this way if the car dries before it’s been soaped. Same thing for our digestion! There are 5 phases in this process. Let's take a closer look at each.
Phase 1: Just thinking of food
Digestion starts in brain. Seeing, feeling or thinking about food triggers signals from our brain to the digestive system (via the vagus nerve running between the two) to prepare what is called ‘digestive fire’. This produces hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes and other gastric juices.
It is important to be calm and in a peaceful environment when one is ready to eat. This keeps the nervous system in parasympathetic state which inspires ‘rest and digestion’. If your nervous system is in sympathetic state, it will inspire ‘flee or fight’ response, as a result of which your digestive fire will weaken and your ability to absorb nutrients from food will be compromised. The speed at which you eat will also be very high if your autonomic nervous system is in sympathetic state.
According to studies, people who describe themselves as fast eaters tend to be heavier than those who say they eat slowly. Fast eaters are up to 115% more likely to be obese. If your health is important to you, you should pay special attention to your digestion and know that it is impossible to have optimal digestion if you are in the habit of gulping down your meal in 4 and half minutes.
Phase 2: Chew!
Have you noticed that there are no teeth in your stomach or in your intestines? If you chew only 50%, it's like putting 50% of soap in car wash. It's probably not good enough, right? Proper chewing is probably the most important factor contributing to good digestion. Crushing food with teeth increases the surface area of food that can be digested and this releases its nutrients for further digestion in the stomach. Chewing also stimulates the cells lining the stomach to produce hydrochloric acid and mixes your saliva with your food. Your saliva contains an enzyme called amylase, which starts the breakdown of carbohydrates.
It is said that ideally there should be 42 chews per mouthful. You can try it for fun. This illustrates the point and emphasizes that it’s important. But the exact number is not important and it depends on the size of bite and obviously on what you are eating.
Proper chewing will automatically slow down the speed of eating and give digestion-related hormones time to do their job. These hormones are cholecystokinin (CCK), peptide YY (PYY), ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and they control our appetite (to some extent). They relay a message to the brain, letting it know that we have eaten and that the nutrients are absorbed and in this way, proper chewing will naturally decrease the quantity of food that we will want to eat each time.
Phase 3: Stomach
When your food enters the stomach, it meets an extremely acidic environment which is due to the presence of hydrochloric acid. This acidity is necessary for digestion of proteins and for sterilization of food to prevent certain bacteria or parasites from settling in your intestines or from entering your bloodstream. This is why drugs called ‘proton pump inhibitors’ can have extremely bad effects on your health. Because they hamper digestion, they will cause several deficiencies of vitamins such as B9 (folic acid) & B12 and important minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc to name a few.
Nature decided that the Ph of gastric acid must be around 2 and it’s not for nothing. One cannot simply remove stomach acid and think there will be no consequences. In fact, I will even go further and say that it is impossible to have optimum health if you alter the way your digestion is programmed.
Phase 4: Pancreas
Once your food has been sterilized and acidified, the next step would be release of pancreatic enzymes. These enzymes will help digestion, absorption and also change the pH of food to make it more alkaline in preparation for entry into the jejunum (the second part of the small intestine).
Phase 5: Liver / Gallbladder
The last stage of digestion takes place when the bile is released to emulsify lipids so that they can be absorbed. Bile is made from cholesterol and certain toxins that are neutralized by the liver. It is then stored in the gall bladder. Bile digests lipids, sterilizes our intestines and promotes regularity.
If our food is not digested well, some particles may leak into the bloodstream where our immune system cannot recognize these particles as food but as invaders which need to be attacked. This is where many of the food intolerances and allergies we know today come from. This immune response increases inflammation and affects sugar metabolism, which can cause a host of symptoms and chronic conditions eventually.
The absorption process then continues through small intestine. After the food is fully digested, 95% of absorption of nutrients takes place in small intestine. Water and bile are then reabsorbed into blood in the colon.
Here are 7 ways to improve your digestion:
1. Choose unprocessed foods.
2. Chew your food thoroughly.
3. Do not drink more than 250 ml of fluid with your meal so as to not dilute your digestive fire.
4. Eat in a relaxing environment, away from stress or work setting.
5. Go for a short walk after your meal.
6. Eat your fibers (vegetables) first.
7. Avoid sugar and alcohol as they can cause gastrointestinal problems.
8. Avoid allergens: dairy products, gluten, soy, corn and peanuts are probably the most common culprits.
9. Identify and eliminate (by means of a stool test) pathogenic bacteria, excess yeast amount or existing parasites. It is essential not just for optimal digestion but also for optimal health.
10. Supplement, as per need, with betaine HCL, pancreatic enzymes and a probiotic.
I suggest that you consult a certified naturopath before correctly applying the last 3 points (8, 9 and 10).
Danik Legault, ND.A
https://www.facebook.com/DanikLegaultNDA
References :
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