Problems with digestion range from being mildly annoying, to extremely painful and worrying. Poor digestion leads to poor absorption of nutrients triggering further poor health.
Making the choice to eat nutritious food that will be easy for your body to digest, is a priority. It is equally important to avoid food that disagrees with your body. Naturopathic guidance will help identify foods that aggregate or cause digestive problems; these vary with each person.
The next step is getting the food digested. This should be easy; surely just putting it into our mouths will be enough? However the skills for eating well are being lost as so many of us eat “on the run”, or at the same time as doing other tasks, such as working at a keyboard, or driving, or simply rush the meal or snack to dash to the next daily task.
You may remember being told to chew food twenty times. The wisdom behind this practise is that the digestive enzyme amylase present in saliva helps breakdown carbohydrates for digestion and absorption into the body. If this somewhat obsessive counting and chewing worries you; relax.
A relaxed body will be better able to produce all the enzymes needed to breakdown our food and absorb the nutrients we need. Food that is only partially digested will cause fermentation in the gut, resulting in painful “trapped wind”. If you relax and take time with your meal you will be chewing more anyway.
Undigested carbohydrates put a greater strain on the pancreas. Key nutrients which support the pancreas are GTF Chromium and Magnesium.
I recommend the Entire Katoa Food State range for high absorption, low dose and low toxicity; available locally at www.entirekatoa.co.nz
Contact us to book your naturopathic appointment with Bay Health Clinic; phone us on: 07 571 3226 or email us at: ask@bayhealth.nz
Original Article October 2014
Copyright Jaine Kirtley
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