Total Wellbeing

Naturopathy in Sunshine Victoria

What’s So Important About Good Digestion?

By

The energy we get to live good, healthy lives is gifted to us through our body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients from our food. So, it’s super important to put good things into our bodies (in the right amounts) and to keep our tummies in good working order. Over 50% of us admit to uncomfortable tummy symptoms on a weekly basis, which gives me a huge clue, most of us could use some digestive coaching! So what can you do easily every day to assist your digestive health? Mindful eating and good digestive habits go a long way to solving most people’s tummy woes. That’s why I recommend these three tricks to prime your stomach to receive and absorb the food you eat.

1. Eat when relaxed:

Surprise! Digestion begins in the mind and stress has a direct effect on your digestion – it seriously puts the brakes on! Prepare for your meals by creating a calm environment both on the inside and out. Turn off the TV, lay out your cutlery and take deliberate long, slow breaths to reset your nervous system. Two minutes deep breathing into your diaphragm does do great things to reduce stress and calm the mind. The thought, sight, smell and taste of food stimulates digestion, so take a moment to indulge the senses. Eating before your stomach is ready sets you up for gas, bloating and malnutrition. However, if you take time to relax, smell, taste and chew every delightful mouthful, your body gets all the right signals to breakdown and release the goodness you need.

2. Develop your taste buds:

Bitter foods are great ways of getting your digestive juices flowing and we need these digestive acids to support our good bacteria in the digestive tract. The acid in your stomach is the first line of defense when it comes to killing off any pathogenic bacteria that may be hiding in foods and helps absorb needed nutrients. Bad bacteria can build up if your stomach doesn’t produce enough acids to thoroughly break down foods. The consequence is lots of bacterial fermentation and, you guessed it – gas. This causes bloating and discomfort. However, including small amounts of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice & bitter green foods like endive, radicchio, rocket or dandelion greens helps support a healthy digestive environment. An excellent habit is taking 1 tsp raw apple cider vinegar or some fresh lemon juice in some water before each meal. The benefits are better absorption of nutrients and less digestive stress.

3. Avoid tea and coffee for 2 hours after your meal:

Choosing healthynutrient-richch foods are of little benefit if those nutrients are not absorbed into your body. The problem with drinking tea and coffee directly after eating is that the tannins in them bind to minerals (like iron) and prevent them from being absorbed. Iron is involved in the healthy workings of your immune system, mood, energy & metabolism, however up to 90% of the iron in your meals is lost if you drink tea or coffee within an hour of eating. Choosing low tannin teas like Rooibos or Dandelion Root or waiting 2 hours for your tea or coffee is the best way to avoid compromising your iron absorption and sets your body up for improved mood, energy and immune function via good iron supplies.

What happens if I don’t relax and prepare to eat?

We’ve all been there, eating on the run or while watching the 6 o’clock news – somehow food just doesn’t seem to go down as well. Habits like these cause damage to your digestive system and can lead to leaky gut, allergies and malnutrition. The fact is, with the right signals, there is a cascade of chemical events cracking open your meal & delivering the building blocks for repair, energy and a healthy life to each and every cell in your body. Why not take a breath, chew slowly and bask in the benefits 🙂

Having trouble recovering your digestive balance?

It’s important to take good care of your digestion, particularly if you are recovering from gastro, a stressful life period or a bout of antibiotics. All these events can throw out your good bacteria and leave you generally feeling under par. Most likely there is inflammation in your belly that needs a little TLC to repair. Nourishing your intestines with pre-biotic fibre, restocking your supply of healthy gut flora and reducing irritating foods, is all part of this process. If you need some advice on getting this done, come in and see me for a consult. No-one needs to be saying years down the track, ‘My belly’s just never been right since…’. Look after your digestion and your digestion will look after you.

You can leave comments to this article on my Facebook page or send me an email anytime, love to hear from you.

About Jodie Williams

Jodie has worked in the health industry for over 10 years and has had an interest in health and how to be healthy from an early age. During Jodie’s childhood, she struggled with health issues that were supported by a healthy, active lifestyle.

Through a good start in country living Jodie has always had a passion for helping others live a healthy life and although it’s difficult in the city, with its inherent stresses and busyness, to always find the ideal way to be healthy, Jodie focuses on finding small ways to make changes to your lifestyle that deliver big benefits in health and wellbeing.

A qualified Naturopath and Massage Practitioner, Jodie understands health from a variety of angles and can tailor a health solution not only to your needs but also to your lifestyle and abilities. Change can be hard, but with the right support, you will find it just got that little bit easier.

Clinic: Glengala Road, Sunshine West VIC 3020 Australia
Email: jodie@total-wellbeing.com.au
Phone: 0402 097 028

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Toe Protectors says

    I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
    I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road.
    Cheers

  4. Foot Pain treatment says

    Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and I find It really useful & it helped me
    out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.

  5. Buy Propecia says

    I am actually pleased to read this webpage posts which carries tons of useful data, thanks for providing these kinds of statistics.

  6. plus.google.com says

    Greetings! I’ve been reading your site for some time now and finally got the
    courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Texas!
    Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!

  9. HillaryGLord says

    Hello There. I discovered your blog using msn. This is certainly an extremely well written article.
    I’ll make certain to bookmark it and revisit to read even more of your useful info.
    Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly return.

  11. JuttaPMaines says

    Your thing is unique in comparison to other
    folks I actually have read stuff from. Thanks for posting if you have the opportunity,
    Guess I’ll just bookmark this site.

  13. CaseyPHuba says

    Magnificent site. A lot of useful info here. I’m sending it to a
    couple of buddies ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thanks to your sweat!

  15. Jennifer says

    I decided to leave a message here on your What’s So Important About Good Digestion? – Total Wellbeing page instead of calling you. Do you need more likes for your Facebook Fan Page? The more people that LIKE your website and fanpage on Facebook, the more credibility you will have with new visitors. It works the same for Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. When people visit your page and see that you have a lot of followers, they now want to follow you too. They too want to know what all the hype is and why all those people are following you. Get some free likes, followers, and views just for trying this service I found: http://brt.st/5pFF

  16. corburt erilio says

    I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.

  17. corburterilio says

    I was just seeking this information for some time. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, finally I got it in your website. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this kind of informative sites in top of the list. Normally the top web sites are full of garbage.

  18. corburterilio says

    We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with valuable info to work on. You’ve done a formidable job and our whole community will be thankful to you.

  19. jgconsulting says

    I just like the valuable info you supply for your articles.

    I will bookmark your blog and check again right
    here regularly. I am somewhat sure I’ll be
    informed many new stuff proper right here! Good luck for the following!