HOW TO IMPROVE DIGESTION, NATURALLY AND QUICKLY
Do you experience abdominal cramps?
Are bloating, gas, or heartburn problematic?
Is it difficult to maintain a stable weight or shed those last stubborn pounds?
These can be signs of a digestive — or gastrointestinal — problem.
Gastrointestinal issues and the symptoms that come with them are incredibly common. A large study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology found that a staggering 61% of Americans had experienced at least one gut symptom in the week prior to the research. Heartburn, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation (in lowering order of prevalence) were frequent. Nausea or vomiting, trouble swallowing, and bowel incontinence were issues, too.
Note: If you have serious concerns, seek professional advice. For example, blood in your stools or coffee stained vomit.
However, for many of these issues, know that you can naturally and safely find relief.
Here are our top five tips…
Eat as nature intended
There are many reasons why nature knows best when it comes to healthy digestion.
For example, processed sugar-rich foods decrease your ability to maintain a strong gut wall; one that keeps harmful toxins in your gut, from where they will be expelled. Instead, ample sugar increases the permeability of this important barrier. This allows things that are usually blocked — like proteins and bugs — to pass through into your body instead of being eliminated.
The result?
A high-sugar diet harms the bugs (microbiota) that live within your gut. This can cause digestive symptoms. It also promotes systemic, low-grade inflammation and upsets metabolic regulation. This can trigger problems like weight gain, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and pain.
Artificially created trans fats are also problematic. Found in products like bakery goods and fried foods, stick butters and non-dairy coffee creamers, they increase the risk of a range of problems including intestinal inflammation. Intestinal inflammation increases digestive symptoms like an upset stomach, bloating, cramping, constipation, diarrhea, gas, and more.
Instead, eat as nature intended. Choose fiber-rich sources of carbohydrates like vegetables, fresh fruit, beans, legumes, and oats. Avoid refined sugar. Consume colorful, nutrient-packed greens, sprouts and sea vegetables. Opt for organic, when you can.
Practice mindful eating
Do you eat breakfast on the run? Scoot through lunch while sitting at your desk? Consume dinner as you watch the news?
Relaxation is key to digestive function. That’s why it’s called the “rest-and-digest state.” Yet these three examples involve eating in a stressed state; the non-digestive state. Mindful eating helps to lower stress.
In addition, slow, mindful eating tears food into smaller pieces, coats each morsel in the enzymes that promote their breakdown, and turns on digestive mechanisms further down the line. So, when you speed through your meal it’s like you’ve skipped a step.
Mindful eating, then, may improve gut health. So, what is it exactly?
According to an article published in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, “Mindful eating is the act of eating while being in a state of non-judgmental awareness, shifting one’s attention to the food and mind-body connection.”
To encourage this practice:
— Slow your eating speed
— Focus on your food
— Place your fork down between bites
— Meditate before a meal
— Remove electronic devices from your meal area
— Be present in the moment
Exercise regularly
Movement does more than build muscles and burn body fat; it positively modifies the gut lining and its microbiota and speeds up passage. It’s little wonder, then, that exercise has protective benefits. These include a reduction in the risk of colon cancer, diverticulosis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
What kind of exercise may help?
— Cycling
— Low-intensity exercise
— Walking
— Tai Chi
— Yoga
Prioritise sleep
Do you sleep for around eight hours per night, falling into slumber quickly and walking energized?
If not, your sleep could do with some improvement. Your gut may depend on it.
See, not only do you need a strong gut lining for digestive health, you need broad diversity in the bugs that live there. And it seems that the better your shuteye, the more diverse your microbiota.
Research published in the journal, PLOS One, found that, “Total microbiome diversity was positively correlated with increased sleep efficiency and total sleep time, and was negatively correlated with wake after sleep onset.” In other words, the gut bug mix becomes more eclectic when the quality and quantity of slumber improves.
Wondering how to boost your sleep?
You’ll discover our top 9 tips in our article, 7 Ways To Effectively Boost Your Metabolism.
Supplement with SuperGreens
In our first tip, we recommended eating as nature intended: nutrient rich, colorful, real produce, and organic. But it can be hard to get the goodness you need from foods that come in their original form.
To make this easy, we’ve created SuperGreens. It’s jam-packed with produce known to boost your vitality and gut health. Yes, real food, only broken down into an easy to consume product. Vegetables and fruit are mostly water. So, we’ve removed the H2O to formulate a highly concentrated, high-potency supplement… Just mix with your choice of fluid.
With our organic grass and greens blend, organic cruciferous vegetable blend, organic carotenoid-rich vegetable blend, organic sprouts and sea vegetable mix, organic fruit and vegetable blend, and digestive enzyme support, SuperGreens provides you with digestive rocket fuel.
That’s why Mariely A. says, “Love veggies but can’t consume all raw due to digestive issues. This supplement gives me energy, adds antioxidants to my diet, and has helped digestion… I love Onest products as I use a few.”
We think (know) you’ll love it, too!
The Takeaway
Digestive problems are incredibly common and can take a huge toll on your health and longevity. Heartburn, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, nausea, vomiting, trouble swallowing, and bowel incontinence are no fun!
But you can take steps to soothe your gut and restore intestinal health… without surgery, invasive interventions, or expensive treatments.
By choosing foods that come from nature, practicing mindful eating, exercising regularly, prioritizing sound sleep, and supplementing with SuperGreens, you can improve your gut health in the comfort of your own home; easily and affordably.