When we talk about digestion, the first thing most people jump to is the list of foods that help digestion. And though, yes, what we eat can greatly influence our digestion, there are so many other changes we can make to support our digestion.

When it comes to digestion and gut health, we are mostly concerned with nutrient absorption. How well can the body take what we feed it and do something with it!

If a person feels “bloated” or crampy after meals, they often connect their last meal to their symptoms and respond by trying to avoid that specific food or food group. Restriction not only makes eating less enjoyable (why stop eating something you LOVE?), it also can prevent us from consuming essential nutrients. Implementing simple habits that support gut health and optimizes digestion can prevent discomfort after meals and keep you from saying “no” to your favorite foods.

Here are my favorite tips to optimize digestion that does not involve changing your diet!

Chew

Digestion starts in your mouth! Our saliva contains digestive enzymes that help to break down the carbohydrates and fats in our food. Chewing food adequately is one of the best things you can do for digestion. Not only does chewing make food particles smaller and therefore easier to digest, but it also allows for more digestive enzymes to be released. The more breakdown from the mouth makes for an easier breakdown of food in the stomach. This helps with nutrient absorption, metabolism, and overall satiety (feeling of fullness).

Chewing correctly also helps us to slow down while eating. This gives the body time to digest better, keeps us from overeating, and allows us to better enjoy our meals!

Visualize

Similar to chewing, visualizing our meals also helps to promote digestion. If you’ve ever heard of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning, you know that after conditioning, a dog began to salivate every time a bell rang. Similarly, when we think about our meals, our salivary glands and gastric juices are activated. Hormones in the body are able to prepare the GI tract to break down food and support digestion before our forks even hit our mouths!

Taking a minute to think about the color, taste, and smell of our food before we dig helps to bring awareness to our food, helping us to enjoy each bite, while also helping to aid digestion and prevent discomfort after meals!

Take a Walk

Taking a walk can do wonders for your health, especially when it comes to digestion. Taking a short walk before or after meals helps increase gut motility. An active gut helps food to move down the digestive tract more easily, allowing food to enter the small intestine more quickly where nutrients can be absorbed. Taking an easy-paced walk after meals can also help prevent feelings of excess fullness, bloating and even reduce symptoms of GERD like heartburn or reflux.

Walking after meals can even help balance blood sugar. Balanced blood sugar is important for preventing the risk of diabetes, improving energy levels, improving sleep, enhancing mood - the list goes on.

Try taking a short, 10-15 minute easy-paced walk after bigger meals and see how it feels! It is a great way to help digestion and a short and effective way to get in extra steps or exercise.

Prioritize your Zzz’s

Sleep is essential. So essential that I have a whole blog post about it here.

Sleep impacts your digestion in so many ways. When we sleep, our digestive system still works, and how well our digestive system works while we are awake, depends on how well we sleep!

When we do not have a good quality rest, our hormones become imbalanced. The body produces more cortisol to make up for the little sleep. Too much cortisol (the stress hormone) decreases blood flow to the gut, which slows down digestion. When digestion is slowed, people can feel symptoms like heartburn, reflux, or cramping. This also decreases nutrient absorption, reducing our benefits from the food we consume. Increases in cortisol also lead to cravings, which can lead us toward eating less nutrient-dense meals or overeating, both of which can lead to digestive discomfort.

Sleep also influences our gut! Better sleep patterns are associated with more bacterial diversity in the gut. Gut bacteria help to break down food and create beneficial nutrients like some B-vitamins that are essential to metabolism.

While we sleep, our digestive system slows, so that it can repair and prepare itself for the next day. Having quality sleep helps the body to adequately repair the gut and support digestion.

Our sleep position can also influence digestion. Try sleeping on the left side when experiencing digestive discomfort. This helps food travel through the GI tract more easily by increasing blood flow and can help relieve symptoms of heartburn, bloating, or indigestion.