Our gut health is vital to both our immune health and our brain. There are simple steps that you can incorporate daily that can make positive impacts for you and your families digestion. Start a practice of doing these daily and you can experience not only better digestion but also improved energy and sleep.
1. Choose the right foods. Our foods should be whole foods. Non-processed and organic as much as possible. Our bodies are meant to process foods and animals from the earth. We gain nutrients and vitamins from freshly grown vegetables and fruits; along with pastured grass fed meats.
2. Chew your food. It is important to chew each bite of food 15-20 times. For most of us we tend to eat way to fast. When we stop to chew our food well it activates our natural digestive enzymes so that we break down and process foods well to benefit from the nutrients.
3. Chill. It is important to eat in a relaxed environment. We should not be eating your lunch in front of a computer TV or checking messages on cell phone. This relaxed state allows the vagus nerve to be activated so that we rest and digest. Unfortunately in many school environments lunch hours are short not allowing for children to eat slowly. Encourage these habits with breakfast and dinner at home to create this habit.
4. Cherish your food. Being grateful for the food we have has shown to help our vagus nerve so that we digest properly. When we are grateful for our food we feel both physically and mentally better.
5. Check yourself. It is important to look before you flush. Monitoring our bowel movements to note how they are formed, and if there are any undigested food particles. Our stool should look like a banana or snake sink and not float and be a light to darker brown color. For those with periodic digestive issues having a stool analysis is a way to note how your gut is doing and to keep an optimal balance of the beneficial bacteria.
6. Continue to move. One of the best ways to maintain optimal digestion is to move after a meal. The movement should be relaxed not high intensity. A leisure walk is the best. If you can on your lunch hour at work get outside and walk even if it is for just 10 minutes ideally if you can walk for 20 to 30 minutes that is optimal.
So I hope you find these tips helpful. “Happy Digestion; Happy Brain”
