By Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD
You may eat a healthy diet. You may take all the right nutritional supplements. But if you can’t digest all those nutrients and transport them to your cells, they’re not doing you much good. Robust digestion is crucial to bone health.
We tend to think that unless we have a bowel-related disease, a few digestive symptoms are “normal.” But even mild digestive issues can harm our nutrient absorption, and when these problems are chronic, real nutritional deficiencies can develop. Of the 20 bone-building nutrients you need every day, calcium is particularly vulnerable to poor absorption.
Digestive problems can have many causes, but the most common causes are:
- Unidentified food allergies or sensitivities. Many women have a low-grade allergy or sensitivity to certain foods. Because the allergic response in these cases is more mild or delayed compared to an acute allergic reaction, they can go unidentified for years. You may have occasional gas, bloating, diarrhea, intestinal cramping, headaches or irritability without connecting your symptoms to a specific food or ingredient. Some of the most common culprits are sugar, wheat (gluten), coffee, eggs, milk, corn, nuts and shellfish.
- Intestinal flora imbalance. Healthy digestion depends on millions of microbes that reside in your intestines. These tiny bacteria help break down nutrients for digestion, as well as manufacture certain vitamins, support your immune system and metabolize hormones. But these “friendly flora” are in competition with harmful bacteria that also seek to colonize your GI tract. If your diet is low in fiber and high in sugar and fat, or if you frequently take antibiotics, harmful bacteria can get the upper hand while the good guys die off by the millions.
If you have frequent or occasional digestive symptoms, it’s time to figure out why. Not only can you solve your symptoms, but you’ll also ensure that the nutrients you eat are reaching your cells, including those in your bones.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to heal your GI tract. We’ve had great success helping women heal their digestion and get the most from their nutrition by making simple and practical changes to better their digestion and get the nutrients they need.
Here are my top 10 steps for better digestion
1. Drink hot water and hot herbal teas for better digestion
Both help detoxify the body and build digestive strength. Simmering a few slices of ginger root in boiling water makes a ginger root tea that stimulates digestion. Ginger in food has the same effect, as does candied ginger root eaten after meals. Other herbs that promote good digestion and make excellent herbal teas are chamomile, peppermint and cinnamon.
2. Eat freshly cooked foods
Freshly cooked foods are the most nourishing and are free of molds or staleness. It’s better to eat a simple, freshly cooked meal than a complicated one made of leftovers.
3. Chew your food well and eat at a moderate pace
Ideally, you should chew each mouthful some 30 times, breaking the food into small particles and allowing the salivary enzymes to begin their work digesting the food. Try putting the fork down between each mouthful and swallowing one bite before taking another as a way to slow down if you’re accustomed to “bolting” your food.
4. Eat simply
Mixing many different types of foods taxes the digestive system. Experiment with simple meals of just two or three different foods.
5. Eat cooked foods instead of cold or raw foods
As traditional Eastern medicine explains, food must be “burned” in the “fire” of digestion. Cold and raw foods must be “heated up” more than cooked foods and as such they dampen and weaken the fire of digestion. People with weak digestion would do well to eat no or little raw or cold food or drinks. This means favoring cooked vegetables and fruits over raw produce, and using hot soups, casseroles, or grain and bean dishes in place of sandwiches or snack-type meals. Avoid cooling the “fire” with cold drinks or ice water during meals.
6. Eat in a peaceful and relaxed environment
If you do a little comparative test, you will note that you feel better and your digestion is smoother when you eat in a quiet, peaceful environment. Avoid watching television, reading, working or arguing with others when you eat. You will see the difference.
7. Eat fruit between meals, not with meals, and choose cooked fruit
Raw fruit dampens the digestive fire, especially during the winter when we are already cold. As such, those with weak digestion might find that eating raw fruit with meals causes intestinal gas and bloating. Cooked fruit is a fine dessert, and you can still use raw fruit for snacks — but know that even as an occasional snack, fruit might be a problem if your digestive fire is smoldering rather than blazing.
8. Avoid overeating
Excessive intake of food greatly burdens the entire digestive system. Ancient Ayurvedic medicine recommends consuming the amount of food that will fit into two cupped hands at any meal. Practice moving away from the table while you are still a bit hungry.
9. Sit still and relax a few minutes after eating
Digestion is an amazing process — it turns tofu enchiladas into blood and tissue cells. Resting a few minutes after eating gets this very complicated process off to a good start by allowing your body’s resources to focus fully on the digestive engine.
10. If all else fails, seek professional help to determine the source of the problem
If these simple self-help steps do not resolve your digestive problems, you should consider consulting both a physician and a nutritionist. A nutritionist can help you figure out if probiotics and other nutritional digestive aids would be useful. Your physician can investigate the possibility that a medical problem is affecting your digestion.
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