Today’s article is a follow-up on the series “Foods for health” and although your GI tract is not a distinct organ, it still represents a vital system of the body. In this article I’ll share with you how it influences both your immune system and vitality, and how to enhance all three.
Some people prefer to eat while watching TV or doing other activities at the same time. Nonetheless, this habit usually leads to not paying attention to the way they eat, and increases the risk of acid reflux, as well as feeling bloated or “stuffed” afterward.
An important aspect you need to know is the digestive process begins by the time you have the first bite of your meal. Some of us don’t take the required time to properly chew it, and just shove food into our mouths. This is a faulty step, as the specific enzymes that are found in the saliva are not found in any other part of the GI tract. Their role is to break down the food before it reaches your stomach, and even some of the nutrients are absorbed through saliva.
What you should do: leave any other activity aside when you decide to have a meal. Pay attention to your eating habits from the very beginning, and make sure that the food is properly chewed before you swallow it.
Once the food reaches your stomach, the acid continues to break it down so it can smoothly reach the small intestine. Depending on what you’re eating, the amount of time spent in the stomach differs. For instance, fruits take up to 15 minutes, while meat spends 2-4 hours in the stomach.
What you should do: there are two primary factors that influence the way your stomach processes the meals – the gastric juice and the way you combine foods. If you drink water or tea before or during a meal, the gastric juice dilutes and decreases its capacity to decompose the bolus.
Regarding the combinations, you should go for foods that take a moderate amount of time for digestion. Therefore, having a fruit for dessert is not the best option if you had meat or whole grains before. Moreover, eating meat and simple carbs (such as potatoes, white rice, white bread or pasta) might turn out to be an unhappy choice, as both of them require a lot of time for the entire process.
In the third phase, the bolus enters your intestines, where it will spend most of the time. If the digestion went smoothly in the first two stages, then this last process shouldn’t cause stress for your body. However, more often than not, the habits we have during mealtime lead to an improperly digested bolus. The most common issue is that the meals are too rich in simple carbs and fats, which put stress on the entire GI tract.
If you’re feeling tired or have a weak immune system, then most likely your intestines are filled with toxins and fat that no longer allow the nutrients to be absorbed into the blood stream and further into the cells.
What you should do: if there are any changes you want to do after reading this article regarding the way you eat, do them. Be it a healthier food combination or quitting drinking water during meals, the keyword for a better digestion is “mindfulness.” After every meal, try to observe how you feel and what has changed.
Bonus tip: you can leave the food on the plate if you feel you’ve appeased your hunger. Every other bite you take from that moment on will put stress on your digestion.
Take care of your body and you will help it take care of yourself!