Discover how your digestion works, why sometimes is slowed down and what habits and natural remedies can help you improve it.
Digestion is the group of processes, whereby the ingested food is transformed in the digestive apparatus into simpler substances. This enables the substances to go into blood circulation, and then, to the cells.
Why a good digestion matters
Food digestion is key: it transforms the complex molecules of food (nutrients) that cannot pass through the intestinal mucosa into many, simpler molecules that do pass through. The objective is clear: thanks to different mechanisms, nutrients can cross the intestinal barrier and reach blood circulation and all the cells of the organism. This enables cells to carry out their corresponding functions.
How digestion works
Food digestion starts in the mouth, while we chew the food. Chewing helps breaking the outside of food, while saliva helps breaking the inside of food. Then, the stomach and the small bowel complete digestion thanks to the action of gastric and pancreatic juices, bile and other intestinal secretions. When this process is not done correctly or slowed down, we suffer from slow digestion.
Why we have bad digestions
Bad or slow digestion can be caused by diseases of the digestive tract, but also by bad habits such as:
- Bad nutrition (abundant meals, with an excess of fats and deep-fried foods, fast food, industrial sweets, alcohol, etc.). This kind of food overloads the stomach, so it needs more time to digest food well.
- Eating fast: when we do so, we not only don’t chew carefully, but there is no time to send the brain the signal of being full, so we tend to eat more.
The symptoms of a slow digestion
- Flatulence: they are mainly caused by the intake of air when we eat. They cause occasional pain and abdominal distension.
- Heavy stomach: it comes along with gastric inflammation after eating, burping, etc.
- Heartburn: It’s that burning feeling that goes up to the throat, caused by the passage of gastric acids thought the oesophagus.
What you can do to improve your digestions
- More meals, but lighter. Try having your meals at the same time every day.
- Eat while sitting, slowly and carefully chewing the food. Don’t let stress conquer your meals.
- Do not lie down just after eating.
- Walk 20-30 minutes daily, especially after meals. Stimulate bowel movement to help a better digestion.
- Listen to your body and learn identifying what foods causes you discomfort and try limiting or avoiding it.
- Add probiotics to your diet. They help maintaining microbial balance in the digestive system.
- An infusion or herbal tea after meals can also help: anise, chamomile, lemon balm, licorice and boldo are also some helpful plants for slow digestions.
