9 ways to improve digestion

Did you know, depending on if you’re healthy and the food type, it can take between 24-72 hours for what you eat to leave your body as stools after it enters your mouth? A lot of important things happen in your body during that time!

We all know that we need to eat and drink regularly for our bodies to function well but how do our bodies harvest the goodness from our food and drink?

It all starts with digestion.

Digestion is the vital function of breaking down carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals from the food you consume. The process allows your body to use the food for a wide variety of functions including energy production.

Digestion: The process

Your digestive system is like a bus route, it’s a long continuous muscular tube starting at your mouth and ending at your anus in your bottom with different “stops” at digestive organs attached along the way. These “stops” include your mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, large intestine, and anus.

An infographic y Evergreen Life with how to improve your digestion tips and an outline of the different stages of digestion - stage 1 cephalic phrase, stage 2 gastric phase and stage 3 intestinal phase/

It’s while on this journey that your food and drink are broken down into their most basic forms, such as glucose from sugars, amino acids from protein, or fatty acids from fats. Next, they’re absorbed into your bloodstream in your small intestine with vitamins and minerals and then these nutrients are deployed to cells throughout your body.

Why optimum digestion is so important

Without these nutrients your body couldn’t function. Put simply, these nutrients are helping to support energy production, body structure, and regulate chemical processes in your body. In fact, in just one minute it has been estimated that about 60 million chemical reactions take place in one part of the cell structure called the ribosomes alone. Each of those reactions needs specific nutrients!

If your body isn’t digesting food properly, it can impair your ability to absorb nutrients, making it harder to heal and perform well. So, here are some tips to make sure you’re getting the most from the nutrient dense food you eat and how to improve your digestive health.

How to improve digestion

You can improve your digestive health by focusing on two main areas:

1. how you eat

2. what you eat (and drink!)

How you eat:

How we eat is often overlooked when considering how to improve our digestion. The time, manner, speed of how we eat our meals as well as what we do afterwards, all have an impact on our ability to digest well. If we’re not digesting well then we’re not taking advantage of all the wonderful nutritious food we’re eating and we may experience some uncomfortable side effects.

1) Stop and smell the roses

A child smelling red roses in a garden, representing the concept of pause and enjoy your food before eating for healthy digestion.

In this case, pause and enjoy your food before eating. Relish those appetising smells. There are three responses your body has to digesting food: cephalic, gastric and intestinal. The cephalic stage begins even before you pop any food in your mouth. It’s in this stage, that seeing, hearing, and smelling food (even thinking about it) triggers the release of gastric acid in your body to ready your digestive system for its incoming meal.

In fact, just as your sense of taste can help your brain detect different nutrients in the food you’re eating, food aromas may be able to tell it what nutrients the incoming foods contain before you eat them.

So, this means that not only can the scent of food induce cephalic phase responses, such as activating digestive enzymes, hormones and saliva that are all essential to digestion, nutrient-identifying signals may also prepare your body for the digestion of a specific food and the unique composition of nutrients it contains.

2) Chew slower

A sheep chewing grass.

Are you prone to wolfing your food down? Savouring it, and chewing in a more gradual, mindful, and relaxed state can improve your digestion. For example, chewing increases the surface area of food, helping enzymes, such as salivary amylase and lingual lipase, work more efficiently in breaking it down.

Digestive enzymes not only help with digestion in your mouth but also aid digestion later, particularly in the gastric phase of digestion, when they pass into your throat and travel to your stomach, where other digestive enzymes also get to work.

Chewing also induces the production of hydrochloric acid in your stomach that regulates stomach acid to help with food breakdown.

The benefits don’t stop there. In a small study, slower eating was shown to increase feelings of fullness and reduce hunger by suppressing the hunger hormone ghrelin, which can make it easier to stop eating if you choose to.

Speaking of hormones, chewing has been found to signal the release of key hormones, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which plays an important role in regulating blood sugar levels.

The impact of not chewing enough

Eating too fast may mean your body hasn’t had time to send and receive hormonal messages in readiness for your food. What’s more, clinical experience suggests that a lack of digestive enzymes may cause bloating and gas.

Try this…

Chewing is a part of the digestive process that’s within our control. One way to make sure you chew slower is to bite until the food you’re munching on is liquified and has lost its texture. Aim for it to resemble baby food or pulp. Another tip is to put your knife and fork down between bites and breathe between mouthfuls to encourage a slower pace.

3) Support your gastric (stomach) acid production

Apple cider vinegar pouring into a spoon.

We mentioned above that the gastric phase is the second stage in your body’s response to food. It’s at this stage when swallowed food and semi-digested protein sparks activity in your stomach. At this time, your gastric acid facilitates the change of a substance called pepsinogen, made by cells in your stomach, into a protein-digesting enzyme named pepsin, which is key for properly breaking down protein.

If your stomach persistently fails to produce enough gastric acid, this can affect your ability to properly digest and absorb nutrients, such as vitamin B12. Incompletely digested food and nutrients can lead to the accumulation of bacteria and even small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

Some over the counter and prescribed drugs can influence your gastric acid production.

Symptoms of low gastric acid, which can sometimes be caused by stress, include bloating, gas and reflux, amongst other things.

Warning in a circle with a green border

Symptoms of high stomach acid production can be similar. This means that in some people, the following tips may exacerbate symptoms. If that occurs, you should stop using the natural remedy and consult your doctor.

Natural ways to increase stomach acid

Raw apple cider vinegar

Finding a solution to your low gastric acid production will depend on what’s causing it, but raw apple cider vinegar could help boost your stomach acid levels.

A fermented liquid made from crushed apples, bacteria, and yeast, raw apple cider vinegar may trigger a rise in gastric acid levels because its acidic properties introduce more acid into the digestive tract. The thinking behind this is, as prolonged low gastric acid is bad, supplementing with extra acid must be good. However, whilst there’s anecdotal evidence, little formal research has been done to confirm this as a form of treatment.

So, perhaps one to experiment with and see if works for you? Raw apple cider vinegar is also rich in enzymes that can assist in breaking down food – another bonus!

If you give it a try, start with diluting half a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar with a small amount of water before your meal. If you’re worried about the vinegar softening the enamel on your teeth, drinking through a straw and having the apple vinegar with water can reduce exposure. After some time, if you tolerate it well, you could work up to a maximum of two tablespoons per day. You can also try adding it to salad dressings, marinades and fruit smoothies to see if it helps you. Lemon juice may also work in the same way.

Warning in a circle with a green border

Please check with your doctor if you have kidney disease before trying to take raw cider apple vinegar.

Digestive bitters

Bitter herbs or digestive “bitters” can offer another natural and safe way to stimulate stomach acid if required. Bitters have long been used by Nutritional Therapists and Naturopaths to promote better digestion. Whilst little research has been done in this area, it’s thought that they work by helping to stimulate the production of gastric acid, bile, pepsin, and digestive enzymes.

They can be from one or two of the following herbs or a combination of many:

  • Dandelion
  • Fennel
  • Gentian root
  • Ginger
  • Globe artichoke
  • Golden seal root
  • Hops flowers
  • Milk thistle
  • Peppermint
  • Wormwood
  • Yellow dock

Most studies have shown that, if you want to stimulate gastric acid, your best bet is to taste the bitterness of the digestive bitters you’re having. You can do this by weaving bitter foods into the start of your meal, or by trying digestive bitters. If you’re not a fan of extreme bitter tastes, the discovery of bitter receptors throughout the gastrointestinal tract, as well as in your mouth, means tasting the bitterness, although ideal for optimal digestive effects, may not be essential. You could experiment and see what works for you.

Digestive bitters can help stimulate the early digestive system (cephalic phase) and prepare the body for the later stages of digestion. Some bitters have been shown to increase gastric juices and bile production in animals and there’s a general understanding that they do the same in humans. Bile is produced in your liver, which, after being stored in your gallbladder and sent to your small intestine, plays an important role in breaking down fats.

4) Go for a post-meal stroll

People on a walk after a meal to support healthy digestion.

Gentle exercise can help digestion after eating. Activities such as a short leisurely walk after eating does your digestive system a lot of favours during the gastric phase.

Walking after a meal was found to accelerate gastric emptying (the speed at which food moves from your stomach to your small intestine), which can be useful for people with slow transit times who often experience irregular bowel movements. A study also suggested that a 10-15 walk after eating could alleviate abdominal bloating symptoms in both men and women.

Try this…

A good balance might be to wait 10-15 minutes for your stomach to “settle” and keep the exercise you do immediately following a meal gentle. Be mindful that intense exercise after eating can have a negative impact, possibly resulting in sickness, vomiting and diarrhoea, particularly after a very big, heavy meal.

5) Eat in a relaxed state – no screens!

There’s a theory known as the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad. The idea suggests that consuming food in a mindful state – that is, eating while being in a state of awareness – shifting focus to your food and the experience of eating – may have the following effects:

An infographic explaining the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad.

While research in this area is limited, we’ve seen and heard anecdotal evidence to suggest that mindful eating can help regulate the severity of IBS symptoms, a condition which has been linked to stress.

We also know that mindful eating is likely to be an effective way to help regulate the stress response for optimal digestive function. So, whilst there has been little research in the area of mindful eating, you may want to try it for yourself and see how you feel.

The impact of stress

Despite being good in some situations and essential to our survival, stress can, in some cases, lead to either over-eating or under-eating, depending on the nature of stress, severity and the person.

Ever wondered why your stomach sometimes feels clenched and unsettled when you’re anxious? Experiencing stress can disrupt the delicate balance of digestion too. In some, stress can slow digestion down, resulting in bloating, pain and constipation. In others, it can have the opposite effect, triggering diarrhoea and more frequent bathroom visits. When stress is long-term and/or severe, it can spark long-term alterations in how the body responds. The hormone corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) plays a key role in your body’s stress response, with two CRF receptor subtypes, R1 and R2, increasing colonic motor activity and slowing gastric emptying, respectively, when you experience prolonged or extreme stress.

What’s going on in your nervous systems

Your body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls all the automatic bodily functions, such as breathing and digestion, is separated into three parts:

1. the Enteric Nervous System (ENS),
2. the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and
3. the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS).

The SNS implements the “fight or flight” response in your body, which is triggered in stressful situations that you regard as being harmful to you, whilst the PSNS handles the “rest and digest” response. You can see how your digestive system is impacted when your SNS system is activated below.

An infographic describing the difference in the impact of the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system on digestion.

Eating on the go or while working on your computer are all conducive to consuming food in a stressful state. And although we may think of watching TV as relaxing activity, it can keep your mind distracted from the mindful eating described above.

6) Stop eating whilst you’re still a little hungry

A caterpillar eating a leaf.

This might seem a bit contradictory, but it can take a while for your brain to know you’re full. This is because your stomach and intestines are lined with a type of cellular receptor called stretch receptors, which are activated when you eat. These smart stretch receptors detect when your gut expands to a certain threshold and send signals to the brain via their host cells to tell you that you don’t need any more food. These signals work together with other signals like those that tell your brain you’ve received enough nutrients from food.

This amazing process takes time and can make it easy to overeat, straining your digestive system. When you think you’re still a little peckish after having a sizeable meal, your body can actually be full and satisfied.

According to the British Nutrition Foundation, these signals to your brain that indicate you’re full are induced by:

  • belief regarding how filling the food or drink will be.
  • sensory experience like the taste, smell, texture, and appearance of the food or drink you’re eating.
  • expansion of your stomach.
  • hormones, which are released while food is being digested and absorbed. These hormones include leptin and peptide hormones, such as anorexigenic peptides, which lower food intake (orexigenic peptides increase it). These specific peptide hormones help send signals to the brain that are then transmitted back to the gut to stimulate the intestine to release glucose, suppressing the desire to eat.

It’s commonly thought that it takes 20 minutes after eating for your brain to register that it’s full. Allowing this time may be especially important as we age because ageing may be linked with resistance to these signals, possibly contributing to the explanation of middle-aged obesity and overeating.

Try this…

A good tip might be to take a leaf out of the people’s of Japan’s Okinawa book, where the saying: “Eat until you’re 80% full” originated. There, people use this mantra as a way to control their eating habits. Tellingly, they have one of the lowest rates of heart disease and cancer and long life expectancy. See if it works for you!

7) Drinking water while you’re eating

The stomach, part of the digestive system, within the human body.

The jury’s still out on whether drinking while eating hampers the digestion process. Some research suggests that drinking water with your meal can dilute the gastric acid in your stomach. Whilst this might be harmless for healthy individuals, if you’re living with a gastric infection where your stomach function is already impaired and has a low gastric acid pH level as a result, or if you have reduced gastric acid production, it might be helpful to consider only drinking between meals.

A glass of water with cucumber, herbs and lemon slices.

It’s also worth noting, that while you may be drawn to fizzy drinks or coffee, the benefits of making natural water your favourite drink can’t be denied. How much you need to drink to feel your best will depend on things like how much exercise you do and how hot it is, but it has been advised to drink between 1.2-1.5L a day.

Some evidence indicates an association between lower fluid intake and intestinal constipation. Drinking plenty of water can also help replenish fluids lost if you suffer from bouts of diarrhoea.

Try this…

If you find water a bit boring, why not try adding a slice of lemon, lime or cucumber to your glass to add extra flavour to your water?

8) Bon appétit!

Take time to really enjoy the food you eat and give yourself a chance to engage with the eating process. Cooking from scratch can help you feel closer to the food you consume – many people find there’s often nothing more satisfying than eating something you’ve grown and/or cooked yourself! Interestingly, while there’s much advice on what we should be eating as part of a healthy lifestyle, the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population 2014, steps to a healthy diet touched on how we eat, including:

Illustrations describing some of the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population 2014.

This highlights, at least to some extent, the value of taking part in the planning, creation and enjoyment of meals to improve our relationship with food. Have a play and explore what works for you and your family.

Try this…

Why not have your meals with friends, family members or colleagues? Making mealtimes a social experience, brightened with laughter, catch-ups and chatter is great for your wellbeing and can do wonders for your children’s health and wellbeing too. Your friends and family can also help remind you to keep things like your eating habits discussed above in check!

What you eat:

‘You are what you eat’ often rings true. The final tips will focus on what you put into your body – which, of course, can have profound impacts on your overall health and wellbeing.

9) Fill up on fibre

A couple cooking a meal together at home.

One way to boost your digestive health is to regularly munch your way through soluble fibre. Unlike insoluble fibre which travels untouched through our digestive system, soluble fibre is broken down in our large intestine and acts as a prebiotic, feeding healthy microbes in your gut. Healthy sources of soluble fibre include vegetables (broccoli, carrots), legumes (peas, beans, and pulses), nuts, and seeds, fruits (berries, pears), wholegrains (oats, barley, rye), and herbs and spices (ginger, fennel etc).

Overall, fibre helps to keep our digestive systems healthy, bulking up stools, making them easier and quicker to pass. A study into the effects of fibre in the management of chronic constipation showed that soluble fibre may help increase the number of times you ‘go’ per week and may increase wind.

Warning in a circle with a green border

If your bowel movements become more or less frequent for some weeks without apparent reason – consult your GP.

It’s important to see your doctor if you experience:

-blood in your stool

-significant unintentional weight loss

-persistent vomiting

-dark or black stool that may be a sign of bleeding inside your stomach

-persistent bloating

-difficulty swallowing

-unexplained loss of appetite

The Evergreen Life app offers more wellbeing tips, questionnaires and information on a wide range of topics – from gut health to sleep to happiness – to help you stay in control of your health and wellness. Why not download the app today?

Reviewed by:

Anna Keeble MA BA Wellbeing Expert

Dr Claire Marie Thomas MRCGP DFSRH DTMH DipNLP MBChB BMedSci Medical Expert

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Jayna Shepherd

Jayna Shepherd is a Content Writer at Evergreen Life. As a BA Journalism graduate, Jayna enjoys the challenge of learning about cutting-edge wellness research and translating that into digestible, chatty plain-English to benefit our app users and content readers.