Tips for a healthy stomach

The stomach is the body’s food processor.  It takes about 4 hours for a moderate meal to be processed.  It takes 7 seconds for food to travel from your mouth to your stomach.  Your stomach can hold 1.5 litres of food and drink.

Chew each mouthful at least 20 times
Chewing produces saliva which start the digestive process efficiently, enabling the food to the broken down thoroughly.  Eating to quickly often means you don’t chew each mouthful enough and causes problems such as heartburn and indigestion.  Swallowing large lumps of food causes problems for the gut as undigested food ferments, creating toxins and gases that irritate the stomach lining; it also prevents absorption of nutrients and creates digestive problems.

Digestive enzymes
Digestive enzymes help to minimize indigestion, acide reflux, bloating and gas.  There are three main clasifications of digestive enzymes:

  • Amylases: which break down carbohydrates
  • Lipases: which break down fats
  • Proteases: which break down protiens

All three types are naturally found in raw fruits, vegatables, sprouted seeds, raw nuts and whole grains.  Most digestive enzyme supplements will contain all three plus some additional supporting enzymes.

Ulcers
For ulcers take deglycyrrhizinated liquorice (DLG) in a chewable form not a capsule as saliva makes it work more effectively.

Reference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1552833/

 

 

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