Live Lean Nation, if you’re suffering from frequent stomach aches, bad gas, and bloating, you’re probably experiencing problems with your digestive system. So stay tuned, because this episode is for you.
Today’s video on digestive health is in collaboration with iHerb.com. Stay tuned to the end for an exclusive iHerb discount link on a great product to improve your digestive health.
Alright…proper digestion of food is of critical importance when it comes to your overall health.
Think about it…
What’s the point of eating healthy food if your body doesn’t actually absorb the nutrients?
So here’s a quick and simple high level ride to see what happens inside your body after your eat food:
Step 1: You put the food your mouth.
Step 2: You chew it up using your teeth. During this step the food gets hit with a rush of saliva to help with the digestion process.
Step 3: You swallow. The food makes the trip down a 10 inch long tube, called the esophagus.
Step 4: The food then hits your stomach, where it should be further broken down into a more easily absorbable paste like substance by your body’s natural enzymes and stomach acid. If your body is not sufficient in producing these enzymes the large food particle can create gas and bloating.
Step 5: Then it makes its way to a 22 foot tube called your small intestine. This is where the final breakdown of the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats takes place.
Step 6: The food hits the large intestine aka your colon. This is where a lot of your healthy gut bacteria lives and is the part where the body absorbs most of the nutrients.
Step 7: The leftover hits the rectum, where it gets stored until you go for a #2.
Step 8: Yep, it hits your anus, then hopefully the toilet bowl.
So now that you have a quick overview of how your food gets digested.
Here’s where the problems with digestion begin.
You’re not properly chewing your food.
As you learned, your intestines don’t handle large food particles very well.
Not only are you not going to benefit from the nutrition of the food you’re eating, but it’s also very likely to give you digestive problems.
So one simple way to improve your digestion is to chew your food for at least 15 bites or more to help properly breakdown the food and possibly release more of your hunger reducing hormones.
But in some cases, even when you do chew your food a lot, you may suffer from having low stomach acid.
Low stomach acid is more common than you think and may be caused by stress, inflammation, and aging.
So even if you are chewing 15+ times, the food may still be leaving your stomach without first being properly broken down.
This could also be a low thyroid function issue, which you should see a doctor about.
But if low stomach acid is the issue of your poor digestion, fortunately there may be a solution to enhance your digestive ability.They’re called digestive enzymes as they contain the essential enzymes to help your body digest and metabolize the food you eat.
Often times when we cook food, the heat may actually destroy the natural enzymes found within the food.
Or if you’re eating processed foods, the enzymes have probably already been destroyed. The lack of enzymes may be what’s causing your indigestion or gas.
So try improving your digestion by supplementing with a high quality digestive enzyme.
Taking a digestive enzyme with meals can assist your body in breaking down food in addition to supplementing your own production of these important compounds.
You should do your own research, but a brand that I’ve found is called Enzymedica. They have an advanced digestive enzyme formula called Digest Gold which is touted as America’s #1 selling digestive enzyme.
I got mine delivered to my door by ordering through iherb.com.
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If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure you subscribe as we upload new episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
I love you guys and keep Living Lean.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure you subscribe to my Live Lean TV YouTube channel as we upload new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
I love you guys and keep Living Lean.
Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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