3 Ways To Instantly Improve Digestion
A healthy digestive system and improving your digestion are crucial to maintaining life. Food contains the building blocks that build and maintain our body’s cells, tissues and functions on a daily basis. The digestive system’s job is to take in food, break it down into nutritional molecules, absorb and utilize that nutrition, then get rid of what doesn’t serve us through the bowel movement.
In Chinese medicine, the organ systems responsible for digestion are called the Spleen and Stomach systems. The Stomach is responsible for receiving the food and transforming it into chyme, providing the Spleen with the basis to convert and distribute nutrition to the whole body. These organs must work harmoniously for digestion to be healthy. If the Stomach fails to receive food, the Spleen can’t transform and distribute nutrition. If the Spleen cannot transform and distribute nutrition, the Stomach will not have the nutritional basis to receive food and turn it into chyme.
Signs of a healthy digestive system include a decent appetite, formed stool that’s easy to pass, and the absence of symptoms such as acid reflux, bloating, fatigue and abdominal pain.
How can digestion be improved?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) provides a framework for human behaviour to promote longevity and vitality. Guided by TCM philosophy, a simple, practical guide prevents disease and improves digestive health. Through thousands of years of observation, we have time-tested advice on eating to maximize digestive efficiency and reduce our food’s chance of causing illness.
Consuming food and drink is an essential guarantee of health and longevity. Therefore, regulating the diet is one of the most critical factors in maintaining health and preventing disease. It is important to note that “diet regulation” is not the same as “restrictive eating,” where we look at certain foods or activities as good or bad. With any diet advice, it is vital to build a reflective awareness of the messages of your body and intuitively choose the best routine for your unique situation.
1. Improve your digestion by chewing your food
Chewing your food is one of the best ways to improve digestion naturally. Digestion begins in the mouth with the mechanical breakdown of food through mastication. Chewing breaks down food so the body can extract all the possible nutrition from it effectively. Your spoonful of pasta also is mixed with saliva by the tongue, moistening the food with a glycoprotein called mucin. Thoroughly mixing each bite of food with saliva makes the tummy happy. Saliva also includes two main digestive enzymes, which further prepare it for chemical digestion in the Stomach. Salivary Amylase starts breaking down carbohydrates into simple sugars, and lingual lipase starts to break down dietary fats right there in the mouth.
Chewing also helps you eat meals more slowly, increasing more effective nutrient absorption and facilitating the maintenance of a healthy weight.
Not chewing food properly may be leading to a plethora of digestive problems, including bloating, heartburn, acid reflux, malnutrition and indigestion.
Action Steps: To get started in the art of chewing, count your chewing of each bite and chew your food at least 36 times or until it easily slips down your throat. Notice that you need to chew particular food for more time than others. For example, soup doesn’t need to be chewed, whereas a burger may need 40-50 chews.
For people who cannot chew their food correctly, thoroughly cooking food will break it down outside of the Stomach. Soups, stews, congees, porridges, pudding are all great meal choices for people who cannot thoroughly chew food.
Fun Fact: Chewing your food also releases hidden flavour as digestive enzymes break down the food in our mouth.
2. Eat at regular meal times.
It’s not just what you eat but how you eat that matters.
Eating at regular dining hours is considered a cornerstone of maintaining good health. It ensures nutrition is available regularly throughout the day. Skipping mealtimes can lead to low energy, irritability, irregular blood sugar, and more. Paul Pitchford in his book, Healing with Whole Foods writes: “The three meal per day plan is perhaps most practical for the greatest number of people. When one has grown up with the rhythm of three meals, it is best to stay with this rhythm until the body signals it is time for a change.”
Modern research is just beginning to discover the importance of adhering to our natural rhythms by investigating how circadian rhythm governs physical, mental, and emotional health.
Classic Chinese medical texts have pointed out the importance of eating meals on time as early as 2000 years ago. According to the Chinese medicine classic, Lu Shi Chu Qiu: “One is sure to be safe from diseases if he keeps regular dining hours.”
Action Step: Generally, a good rule of thumb is to eat three meals a day, roughly 5 hours apart. Make sure to eat breakfast within 1 hour of waking up. Also, eat and drink when you feel hungry or thirsty. Try not to eat a large meal right before bed because lying down right after eating is detrimental to health. Chewing your food will help you eat more slowly, facilitating a feeling of fullness before you find yourself overeating.
3. Go for a walk after eating to improve your digestive health.
Eminent physician Sun Si Miao was an accomplished author and physician to the emperor around 650 CE. His biography said: “he stunned even the emperor with his longevity and youthful appearance,” which illustrated his wisdom in maintaining health and vitality.
In his famous book, he wrote: “According to the principles of health care, one should not lie down immediately after having a big meal or keep sitting all day, because this will result in damage to one’s life.” Another book wrote: “Since food stays in the stomach after a meal, it is necessary to walk a distance of a few hundred steps with the intent of helping circulate the Qi and the food essence, and of letting the stomach massage itself to aid digestion.”
One thousand years later, modern research is confirming the wisdom of these ancient Chinese physicians.
According to a study published in 2005 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, people whose dinner to bed interval time was less than 3 hours were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of developing Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Studies in 2007 published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology and 2013 published in Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology confirmed that having over 4 hrs from when you finish eating dinner to when you go to bed significantly reduces your chance of developing acid reflux and heartburn symptoms.
Several other studies published have indicated that walking after dinner can reduce the risk of developing esophageal, gastric and colorectal cancers down the road.
Action Steps: Try to finish eating your last meal at least 4 hours before you’re ready to go to bed. A walk after dinner will help aid digestion. Alternatively, if walking after supper isn’t in the cards for you, consider practicing self-massage to assist digestion. Rub the abdomen 108 times in a counterclockwise motion.
The digestive system works mainly on autopilot with a cascade of internal activity telling your body to process and digest food. External factors such as chewing your food, eating at regular mealtimes, and going for a walk or self-massaging after meals will significantly improve digestive health and increase nutrient absorption. If you’re suffering from digestive problems such as acid reflux, GERD, or other digestive complaints, try implementing these lifestyle modifications to improve your symptoms.
As you can see from the 3 tips, improving your digestion can easily be incorporated into daily life seamlessly. However, we understand that holistic treatments work to enhance these practices by improving digestive function, reducing inflammation, balancing the autonomic nervous system and regulating the immune system. Integrative medicine helps correct underlying homeostatic imbalances that may be contributing to gastrointestinal issues.
For further support, we’re always available to help by booking a free consultation on our website.
