Before we can start, lets get clear on symptoms of unhappy digestion: these can include bloating, gas, mild abdominal upset, constipation or diarrhea. This article is specific to mild symptoms, seek medical attention is symptoms are severe or chronic.
Address Your Diet
Take a good hard look at what you are eating. Foods containing white sugar and white flour, aka many processed/packaged foods are inflammatory for everyone’s gut. If you are eating these foods daily you are likely damaging your gut wall, gut flora and setting your gut up for failure. Focus on eating whole, unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruits, healthy protein and fat source, and don’t forget about water! Water intake becomes important when we see constipation, bloating and gas – if there isn’t enough water to soften stool it will have a hard time traveling through the digestive system.
Food Sensitivities
Put simply, these are foods that cause inflammation in the gut. These foods are different from person to person and can be identified using an elimination diet, where common inflammatory foods are removed for a period of time and reintroduced to identify the culprits, or food sensitivity blood test, which identifies IgG inflammatory markers in the blood for specific foods. Both have benefits and limitations, so if you suspect you may have a food sensitivity but are having trouble identifying the cause, discuss with your naturopathic doctor to determine which tool is right for you.
Change Your Behaviours
I love these tips because they are free and require little effort.
1) Eat slowly – allow your body time to digest your food properly
2) Chew your food – chew each bite 5-10 times to help your digestive system breakdown the food as much as possible before it even reaches the stomach
3) Avoid overeating – this is a big culprit for bloating, practice eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full
4) Cook your vegetables – cooking vegetables modifies the structure of the fibre making it easier for the digestive system to further breakdown. Make note of how you feel after eating vegetables raw and decided if cooking them would be a better route for you.
5) When you have to go… go – this is another major factor that comes into play for gas, bloating and constipation. A lot of people do not want to go at work, or school or in public places in general. Either work the psychological route and conquer this fear or find a private bathroom because frequent holding can cause long-term damage to the GI system.
6) Turn off the TV – eat with family or friends and make meal time an enjoyable part of your day. Eating a lot of meals alone? Try mindful eating, in this practice, time is taken to use all of your senses with each bite of food. Your full attention is invested in the meal to see, smell, feel, hear and taste the food you are eating to gain a new perspective and greater appreciation for your food.
The Mind-Gut Connection
I am not going to go into too much detail here, this is a large topic for a future post. But I will say that your brain and digestive tract are strongly linked organs, disturbance to one can cause disturbance of the other. Poor diet and stress levels affects the microbiome (bacteria) living in the gut, this bacteria uses nutrients from food to create neurotransmitters, hormones and inflammatory markers that travel to the brain and affect your mental health. Stress can also impact gut health through the production of inflammatory immune cells and hormones that can negatively impact the gut and digestion.
