According to the Mayo Clinic on Digestive Health. Digestion is one of the critical functions that your body has to perform in order to survive. Food supplies the necessary nutrients that provide your cells with sustenance and energy, allowing your body to grow and develop, and to repair and maintain itself.
This is what I have come to know about healthy digestion:
1. What are you thinking while you are eating? For example if you are angry or sad your body is registering this and this will impact how your food is digested.
2. Be mindful of your conversation and the stimulus that is around you. ie. What are your distractions? Television, conversation that you are having with others or the conversation you are having with yourself.
3. Notice the portion of food you put on your plate and are you introducing different food groups? Do you sit down and eat or eat on the run? Do you eat at regular times throughout the day?
4. Intuition plays a key role for me. I eat 3 meals a day and snack in the mid morning and snack in the mid afternoon and also before I go to bed because I know my body needs this in order to sustain myself. I make it a habit to snack on fruits and veggies and cut back on sugar. It’s important to get the nutrients to sustain my mental and physical health.
5. I have tried many diets and concluded that it is important to trust what I know my body needs and this includes eating more meat on some days, drinking more water and introducing fruits and vegetables. Some days I crave Mexican food and I just go with it.
6. I believe evolution plays a key role. I am now 50 and menopausal and my eating habits have changed or better yet I remind myself to take better care of myself with my eating habits.
7. Best diet for me has been the Mediterranean diet. This includes reduction of carbs and sugars. Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and drinking plenty of water.
What I have noticed with this change of diet:
1. Better digestion and more energy.
2. Snacking before bed assists with digestion, increasing metabolism and maintaining blood sugar level.
3. Supplementation with vitamins and minerals is important. Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium is important to all of the organs. These minerals are excreted on a daily basis.
Anne LaMantia 