Do you know how the food you eat is broken down and assimilated? The process is called “Digestion”. If any problems occur to disturb this process then Indigestion may result.
Medical Literature calls Indigestion dyspepsia. Indigestion is one of the health problems facing mankind today. If you understand how the food you eat is broken down and integrated into your cells, you can understand how to overcome indigestion. Knowledge of this process will help you in choosing what to eat, how to eat, and when not to eat.
Quoting from the book “Health Power“ by Hans Diehl and Aileen Ludington–" Digestion is the process by which the body breaks down food into its major constituents, which are proteins, fats and carbohydrates.” p 92. So digestion is what follows the swallow. So digestion carry’s the food’s energy to the body. Our gut, i.e., gastrointestinal organs, digests each in a methodical manner. There are different chemical environment in the gastrointestinal tract. Your stomach is acidic, while the small intestine is alkaline for example. That means the methodical manner of breaking food down that is observed is not just mechanical but chemical. Chewing your food in your mouth is a very important process in digestion or indigestion.
How can we describe indigestion then? One can say it’s the opposite of digestion but then it goes a little further; it is pain or discomfort in the stomach associated with difficulty in digesting food. So you have such symptoms as heartburn- burning or pain in the upper part of the stomach, stomach ache, and upset stomach. It is called dyspepsia. There is hyperacidity, acidity where it should be alkaline and super acidity where acidity should be active. Indigestions often have underlying problems such as gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), ulcers or gall bladder disease
This means that each of the constituent part of our food is digested at different rates. Simple carbohydrates (sugars) are digested very fast. Fats take a longer time in digestion and proteins and complex carbohydrates (starches) fall somewhere in between.
This fact made some to come to the idea of eating starchy food at one meal and protein food at a different time to help with rates of digestion. Does this help?
There is no provision for this idea in nature. The reason being that all plant foods and some animal foods are combinations of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Take beans for example, it has quite a large amount of protein, but corn has a good amount of fat. If you want to eat only pure carbohydrate in a meal, then you will have only white sugar or the starchy residue that is left when you remove gluten from white flour. A pure protein meal could be egg whites. For a fat meal you would need a few tablespoons of butter or cooking oil. These pure foods in this sense do not occur in nature, they can only be manufactured. So it is not possible to find such in natural foods. And if you try eating the manufactured as just described, that will be recipe for disaster.
The stomach is very well able to handle these different food constituents and does not need you to eat only one at a time. Sugars and starches of the carbohydrates become glucose, fats become fatty acids and proteins become amino acids. The blood can pick up these smaller substances from the intestines. Note carefully that it's only part of the digestion that occurs in the stomach. Digestion actually starts from the mouth. Keep in mind that there is order in the process of digestion. First carbohydrates digestion starts in the mouth with the saliva and continues in the stomach. Protein digestion begins in the stomach and continues in the intestines. Fat is largely digested in the intestines.
Foods do have degree of acidity and alkalinity, but the digestive organs handle the situation very well. The stomach has three basic functions. It breaks down food particles to a more uniform size by muscular action. It brings food mass to the needed consistency by adding or absorbing fluid. It also brings its contents to the necessary degree of acidity by secreting acidic digestive juices. Therefore giving the food the required acid medium for foods that need to be so. When the stomach content goes into the intestine however, they become alkalinized by the juices that the pancreas secrets. The digestive process is actually completed in the intestines.
Problems starts when digestion is slowed down.
Foods not properly chewed and mixed with saliva slows digestion. Especially starchy foods need to be chewed and mixed with saliva. The enzymes that digest starch are produced in the mouth. If the food has not properly mixed with these digestive juices the stomach is given too much load to cope with.
Foods high in fat slow down digestion. The body cannot digest fat until they become alkaline and broken down by the intestinal juices. Just as you need soap to break down grease in your hands before you can rinse off with water. If the fat is not too much the body has protective mechanism to protect the fat till it gets into the intestine. Then the time of digestion will not be slowed down. But if the amount of fat in a meal is too large, it may need 4 to 5 hours or longer to pass through the stomach.
It is necessary to balance your meals to enhance timely digestion. How do you do this?
Since your body can process adequately three or four kinds of whole plant foods with maximum efficiency and minimum stress choose simple plant foods. A more complex rich food meal takes longer to digest and takes a higher energy price from the body.
When you eat between meals or if you drink large amounts of fluid during meals you disrupt the orderly digestive processes and stress the stomach. You wouldn't experience digestive problems if the stomach is given simple meals, if it's allowed time to digest the food and is time to rest before adding more food. Preferably, meals should be four to five hours apart. Instead of having one big meal a day it is better to spread it to two or three times a day.
Here is where snacks is an issue. Do you consider snacks as healthy?
Snacking is basically unhealthy so the two words are not congenial bedfellows. Take a drink of water instead of snacking. Water is needed for digestion and it is best taken two hours after the meal. Water requires no digestion. It simply passes right through giving everything a good rinse. If you must absolutely have something more, then fresh fruits or some raw vegetables will be ideal. That’s only when healthy snacks can be healthy.
If you frequently have indigestion and you have seen a physician and serious problems have been ruled out it may then be your eating habits that are causing the problems.
So find answers to these questions:
1. Do you have regular eating times? Your body thrives on a regular schedule, not only of eating, but of waking, sleeping and exercise.
2. Do you often eat between meals? When new foods show up in a stomach that is already working, digestion must slow down until the system deals with the new food.
3. Are your meals spaced four to five hours apart? This gives the stomach time to work at its own pace. Allowing foods from one meal to be completely digested before introducing another.
4. Do you drink coffee? Even the decaffeinated ones still contain substances that irritate the lining of the stomach. Too much of this substance can send the stomach into trouble.
5. Do you eat right before bedtime? The stomach like the rest of the body needs rest. A meal of snacks late in the evening forces it to work overtime.
Some people when they start a high fiber diet do experience gas. Some have problems with beans.
Cook beans very well, for some remove skin, soak before cooking but replace with fresh water before cooking.
