A healthy digestive system is important because it determines the absorption of nutrients that our body needs, and the elimination of toxic wastes. The process of digestion actually starts from the time you put in food into your mouth. Your teeth grind the food into very small pieces so that you won’t have a hard time swallowing. Saliva, and the enzymes present in it, turns the chewed food into a bolus, making it easier for you to swallow. Then, the bolus of food will travel down through your esophagus going to the stomach. Here, bile acids and other gastric juices will mix with food and the wave-like, propulsive action of the stomach, known as motility, will help in this process as food is being pushed from one section of the stomach to the next.

Actual digestion happens when the macromolecules in the foods that you have eaten are converted into smaller molecules. Big molecules cannot penetrate your body’s membranes so there is a need to convert them into smaller ones. Once the conversion is over, the small molecules can now be absorbed into the system. Absorption allows the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals contained in the food that you have eaten to be utilized by the body. Without absorption, the essential substances will go to waste and will be simply excreted. The cells in the body use these absorbed nutrients, vitamins and minerals in order for them to function well. When your body has problems with absorption, no amount of eating could make you healthy. What good will eating do when your body could not even use the nutrients found in your food?

Causes of Poor Digestion

If you are one of the many people who are suffering from poor digestive processes, it would be best for you to know the reason behind your ordeal. Some causes may be physiological and others can be attributed solely to you. Physiological causes include having low levels of stomach acids, the lack of enzymes needed for digestion, or an imbalance in the normal flora of the gut. Intolerance to certain types of food, or simply eating too many foods in one sitting can also disrupt your normal digestive process.

Your inability to cope with stress can also cause poor digestion. Ayurvedic medicine believes that there are a lot of stress receptors found in the gut than anywhere else in the body. This explains why when we are stressed out, we feel butterflies in our tummy.

The Dangers of Poor Digestion

Poor digestion could cause malnourishment. This means that although you may be eating a lot, you still do not receive the nourishment from food because your body cannot absorb it. Having poor digestive processes can also cause impairments in bowel movement. You may experience constipation, or diarrhea. In cases of constipation, the difficulty to move your bowels will cause the toxins to accumulate inside your body. These toxins need to be flushed out because it causes harm as it may leak into your blood stream and wreak havoc. It can also significantly lower the function of the immune system making you more susceptible to illnesses.

Aside from all these, the financial impact of poor digestion does not go unnoticed. It would be comparable to simply throwing all your food away because you are buying food and then eating it, but your body could not use it anyway. Nutrients enter your body but are not utilized. It has become a waste.

Foods for Healthy Digestion

In order to help your body, you need to take in foods that could help in your digestive processes. These foods are natural, safe, effective and inexpensive.

• Ginger

  Bastyr University’s Center for Natural Health says that ginger helps in the process of digestion by stimulating faster food movement from the stomach going to the small intestine. Ginger products such as ginger tea and ginger root all exert the same beneficial effects. For the longest time, ginger has been used as a form of natural remedy for the treatment of digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, gas, indigestion and diarrhea.

• Whole Grains

  Whole grain foods are rich in fiber thereby helping promote healthy digestion. It helps by removing waste and flushing it out of your body. An added health benefit when eating whole grains is that it cuts your risk of developing colon cancer, helps you maintain your ideal body weight, controls blood glucose levels and it also helps reduce high cholesterol levels in the blood. Examples of whole grains include whole oats, whole wheat, quinoa, millet and buckwheat.

• Beets

  Beets, both red and green, can help solve your constipation issues because they are rich in fiber, encouraging constant movement of the toxic waste materials through your intestines. Red beets have magnesium and potassium, and green beets contain calcium, iron and beta-carotene. These nutrients are important in order to maintain a healthy lining of the digestive tract as well as the muscle fibers in your gut. The muscles fibers are the ones responsible for peristaltic movement – the wave-like contraction that stimulate bowel movements.

• Sweet Potatoes

  Sweet potatoes, as well as the Yukon variety, are rich sources of fiber, especially when they are eaten with their skins on. Furthermore, these are also excellent sources ofmanganese, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and complex carbohydrates. Sweet and Yukon potatoes have also been found effective in the management of inflammatory bowel disease, as well as duodenal and peptic ulcers.

• Avocadoes

  An avocado is considered to be one of the richest sources of dietary fiber. One medium sized avocado is said to boast of 15 grams of fiber. It also contain healthy, raw fat which is important in ensuring your digestive tracts health because it stimulates the liver, gall bladder and pancreas to function well. It also helps in the conversion of beta-carotene into vitamin A. This vitamin is very, very important to the mucosal lining in the gastrointestinal tract.

• Cod liver oil

  Cod liver oil is an excellent source of vitamin A which, as previously mentioned, is important in order to maintain the health of the mucosal lining in the GI tract. It also has vitamin D which helps boost the function of the immune system.

Sources
drbenkim.com
livestrong.com 
eatrightontario.ca
examiner.com
thedigestivesystem.net
livestrong.com