Let’s Talk about “Digestion”
It’s Not a Taboo Topic—It’s a Critical Function!
The health conversation is almost always about “what to eat” to stay healthy or improve our health. That is where everyone who eats, sells, and advises about foods feels most comfortable. But what is rarely discussed, and is vastly more important, is the topic of our digestive systems that process the food we eat, along with this question: Are our digestive systems healthy?
Clearly, the key to healthy nutrition is a tag team between what we eat and how well it is digested and absorbed. Improving our digestive system by making it more efficient and less inflammatory can vastly improve our digestion, can decrease the volume of food we need (because our body will be getting the nutrients it needs from fewer calories), and can help us feel lighter and more comfortable by eating less. Here are tips to improve your digestion and reap these rewards.
Start with a Detox
I know I harp on this a lot, but the only way to really start to fix your digestive system (or to know if it needs fixing) is by doing some sort of detox for a minimum of 10 days and up to 3 weeks. In my case, I learned that my digestive system had been bombarded with inflammatory food for decades and needed to heal. Once you eliminate all the possible irritants (i.e. inflammatory substances) to your system (think processed carbs, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, and so forth) and heal your gut and feel great in the process, you can slowly reintroduce certain foods and drinks to see which ones are causing any kind of discomfort, bloating, constipation, or other problems. These are all signs that those foods are causing inflammation in your digestive system and should be avoided to maintain its health. If you know what foods are irritants to you, you can fix your gut without reaching for the antacid! The detox will also reduce any inflammation of the gut lining, making the breakdown of food and the absorption of key nutrients a more efficient process.
“Feed” Your Microbiome
A lot of our modern eating habits kill much of the good bacteria inside us (our microbiome) that help us digest food. And overeating processed food promotes the growth of yeasts and bad bacteria, which can crash any digestive comfort. In this case, you and your gut have to work harder to give you the nutrition you need. Good bacteria survive on eating fiber and breaking it down (think plant fiber, not Metamucil).
In his fascinating book Rewild: You’re 99% Microbe, It’s Time You Started Eating Like It, Jeff D. Leach studied the diet culture and systems of the hunter-gatherer Hadza people, an indigenous ethnic group in Tanzania. He found that the quantity and variety of bacteria in their guts are vastly greater than what most people have in theirs, especially those of us in Western cultures. Short of a fecal transplant, the best way to have a robust digestive system like theirs is to increase the volume and variety of probiotic bacteria inside you as much as possible and give them plenty of fiber to eat, so they can reproduce on their own.
In my own practice I take probiotic supplements and eat as much kimchi, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods as possible. I also don’t wash lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes or peel vegetables (provided they are organic and haven’t been sprayed with pesticides). There are trillions of healthy bacteria on the surfaces of those foods, ready to help you and your digestive system.
Enjoy a Well-Rested (and Empty) Digestive System
Our digestive systems were meant to rest daily (for example, 8-12 hours) as well as go for much longer periods with little or no food than our modern life dictates. These were the ancestral rhythms we evolved from and what our bodies were used to for millions of years. Getting adequate sleep and surviving without regular mealtimes was a way of life.
Modern life has changed all that with our “need” for three square meals a day, plus between-meal snacks. Our digestive systems don’t have time to process the increased amounts of non-nutritious, sugary, fatty and salty foods we keep eating. The results have been to increase digestive problems as well as provide the starting point for many diseases like diabetes, heart attacks, cancer, and dementia, which may have always existed but are now rampant. In fact, diabetes is now considered a modern epidemic.
A steady habit of allowing for a 12-hour daily interval, or intermittent fast, is probably a good idea for anyone serious about fixing their digestion as well as their health. This daily rest for your digestive system is a surprisingly easy habit to develop. Simply don’t eat anything (or drink anything other than water) between about 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
Digestive Health Goes Beyond “You Are What You Eat”
As Gary Taubes says in his famous book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It, “You are what your body does with what you eat.” It’s important to think of our bodies as the source of our health, not only what we consume. Yes, it’s true that we need to adhere to a nutritious diet with high-quality foods. But keep in mind, too, that a healthy, low inflammatory, well-rested digestive system needs less food. Our bodies, and the digesting and healing they do for us, are the real miracles here, not the packaged products that are promoted as “healthy,” despite their shockingly high levels of sugar, bad fat, salt and empty calories.
