A healthy gut is the best friend of ideal health. All the habits that you have can affect the health of your gut, once the gut goes out of rhythm it can affect the whole of your body. Your digestion will be interrupted, which might restrict the body from getting the right and required amount of nutrients from the food, and can also influence the role of other organs and organ systems. The role that proper digestion has in all these can not be avoided. So, how can you improve your digestion?
What Are The First 10 Best Ways To Improve Your Digestion Naturally?
When you want to know about the best ways to improve your digestion naturally, the first ten things that you can start doing are as follows. This can be done by anyone.
- Chew well
- Stay hydrated
- Sleep properly
- Cut down on junk foods
- Reduce sugar intake
- Take probiotics
- Drink herbal teas
- Take fibers
- Workout
- Say no to alcohol and smoking
Now, let us get into the details of each of these. There can be so many foods that help you progress in your journey of improving your digestion naturally, at the same time there can be some foods that can affect this negatively. What if the foods that do not help you happen to be your favorite foods? What can you do? Read ahead to find out.
Super Foods To Improve Digestion
What To Eat For Healthier Digestion?
There are foods that can improve your digestion. Eating these foods and making them a part of our daily diet can have a lot of benefits for you.
Here is a list of the superfoods to improve digestion.
- Green leaves – Contains fiber, folate, and vitamins such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and Vitamin K
- Babchi
- Fenugreek – Helps to flush out toxins
- Fennel – Reduces gas troubles, and helps in bowel movements
- Avocado – Contains potassium and fiber that can help the digestive system
- Kiwi – Contains fiber
- Ginger – Boosts the movements of the digestive system
- Peppermint – It helps to relieve nausea, reduce bloating, and ease stomach discomfort
- Olive oil – Can help bowel movements and ease constipation
- Legumes – Contain proteins and carbohydrates
- Bananas – Contain fiber and water
- Apples – Contain soluble fiber
- Brown rice – Whole fiber that supports the digestive system
- Quinoa – Whole fiber that helps in digestion
You can also try dietary supplements that contain these ingredients.
The Best Probiotics For Digestion
Some of the best probiotics for digestion are Bacillus Coagulans, Yogurt, Kefir, and Kombucha.
What Are Some Food Dishes And Recipes That Can Improve Digestion?
Smoothies are the best option when it comes to getting additional support for digestion. There will be multiple nutrients and all of them will be balanced. The fruits and nuts are added to the smoothies in a way that makes it easy for the body to absorb the nutrients.
Let us see what are some of the smoothies that can help you.
The Best Smoothies For Digestion – 3 Best Smoothies For Digestion
- Banana, Dare, and Hemp Kefir Smoothie
- Coconut Pumpkin Smoothie
- Peaches and Kale Smoothie Bowl
A Meal Plan To Improve Digestion
Breakfast options: Paleo egg wraps, Probiotic-rich coconut milk with fresh fruit, green smoothie with kiwi, ginger, and fresh orange juice.
Lunch options: Broccoli salad, Apple kimchi salad, creamy artichoke pea soup
Dinner options: shredded chicken, Chicken salad without mayo, baked salmon and asparagus
However, keep in mind that eating this food means eating it in healthy and generous amounts and you should never be taking too much of any of these foods.
What Not To Eat For Healthier Digestion?
Just like how you eat certain foods to improve digestion, you can also stay away from certain foods to improve digestion.
- White bread
- Saturated fats
- Caffeine
- Carbonated beverages
These might cause bloating and an uneasy feeling in your stomach. These are the general cases, and in your case, some particular foods might not be suitable for our stomach. Therefore keep track of what you eat, and how you feel after eating each food item. If you notice that some particular food is upsetting your stomach, then you can get the help of a doctor to know the reason for that, and with the doctor’s advice you can reduce the intake of such foods.
How To Fix Digestive Issues Naturally?
Sure, there is much additional help that you can get to fix your digestion, but what about the natural ways to do that? How to fix digestive issues naturally at home?
How To Fix Digestive Issues Naturally? Do’s And Don’ts
When you are trying to improve digestion naturally, there can be many practices that you can begin as well as some practices that you should stop doing. Most of the time you will be doing such things without knowing that they are causing a lot of damage to your healthy digestion.
Let us start by discussing the major do’s that you have to follow when you try to improve your digestion.
How To Fix Digestive Issues Naturally? Do’s
- Chew chew chew
The first step is to chew your food well. You should always be taking enough time to chew the food properly and then swallow it. When you chew the food well, it gets broken into small pieces, and getting ground by the teeth can make things easy for the digestive system.
- Drink plenty of water
Drinking enough water is the next step as you need to stay hydrated. Water is needed for the healthy functioning of all other organs as well. Drinking water can help to break down the food that you take in and fasten the digestion.
- Keep an eye on your stress levels
If you have high stress levels then it can be difficult for your digestive system to work properly
- Practice mindful eating
Always take the needed time to eat, being in a rush and just putting the food in the mouth and somehow swallowing it is not going to help you. Also, do not give your full focus to a TV show while you eat food. It is recommended to reduce screen time when you are eating food.
- Move that body
Moving your body and doing workouts can also support your digestive health. Moving can cause bloating. So, go for that morning run, and take your doggy out on a walk.
Related:- Do Antibiotics Ruin Gut Health? Know The Facts
How To Fix Digestive Issues Naturally? Don’ts
What if you are doing all the good things to support digestion but are not aware of the habits that might oppose all these good things? So when you have read about all the do’s on how to fix digestive issues naturally, you should also read about what you should stop doing to get the results. Let us see.
- Don’t overeat
Overeating can always be an issue. Only eat what you need. When your stomach tells you that it is full, you have to listen to the sign and stop eating. You can also try eating little meals a day, rather than eating a lot of food in just three meals.
- Don’t make late-night eating a habit
Late-night cravings can be difficult for many to manage. When you are awake at night and want to eat something, the majority of the time late at night cravings will be for junk food or sweets, you might be damaging your digestion. So, what happens if you have made this late-night eating habit?
What if you get hungry at night and the processed snacks and sugar treats happen to be your favorite ones?
How to manage late-night cravings?
- Eat a proper meal
- Sleep early
- Keep healthy snacks near you (kiwi, cherries, pistachio)
- When you crave something late at night, drink a glass of water
- Reduce the intake of processed foods
Processed food is the real enemy of digestion. It will take a long time to digest these floods, and it will be difficult for your stomach to deal with all the toxins that reach it.
- Avoid alcohol
Alcohol can never help digestion, especially, when it is a habit. The alcoholic beverages that you drink can have a lot of chemicals that can affect the natural health of the gut.
- Quit smoking
Cut on your frequent smoking breaks. It might take some time to completely quit smoking, but you can try starting today.
- Don’t skip a healthy amount of sleep
Not getting enough and good sleep at night can have a lot of impacts on your digestion. When you sleep, your body gets the time to rest, and it is during this time that the digestive system repairs all the damage that had incurred to it, and its tissues. When you sleep, the digestive system also helps in the health of good bacteria and optimizes the gut microbiome.
- Lower sugar intake
When excess amounts of sugar reach inside your body, it will be harder for it to get broken down and it will stay as such in the stomach. Further, when it gets to the intestine, the movements will be so slow that the bad bacteria will feed on it and can cause gas formation.
These are small things that can have bigger impacts on you over time. You might not be able to start doing all these all of a sudden. So as we always say, start small, and win big.
How To Keep Stomach Healthy And Clean?
Most of the time the toxins enter your stomach through the food items that you eat.
- Drink Water
Try drinking Flaxseed water and fennel water.
- Herbal Teas
You can also try various herbal teas for this. You can try green tea, ginger tea, and related. These are some of the teas that can make your digestion faster.
- Cook Your Food Yourself
When you cook for yourself you can decide what to add, how much to add, and what not to add.
- Limit Caffeine
Excessive amounts of caffeine intake can challenge healthy digestion.
- If you are not sure about whether a food item in your house has gone bad do not take the risk of eating it.
- Eat food from good quality restaurants.
- You might not be aware of this, but unclean water can also make your stomach unhealthy.
- Another important thing to take care of is that many of the cosmetics that you use if they get inside the body can cause your stomach to upset and also it might not be easy to flush such things out.
Read More:- How Does Lack Of Sleep Affect Gut Health? Causes, Symptoms & Remedies!
To Take Away
Keep in mind that everyone will have occasional digestive issues and that it is completely natural. If that issue gets repetitive or does not ease even after some time or is getting worse then you have to take things seriously.
When you take food after a long break or eat something that was not cooked well, it makes your stomach upset or you might experience diarrhea or constipation. Sometimes you might feel nausea or you might vomit. Therefore, you should be keeping a healthy lifestyle that consists of nutritional dietary habits and expert-recommended exercises.
Now you know the best ways to improve your digestion naturally. However, always get the help of your doctor when you find that you can not manage something on your own.
FAQs
Exercising daily, drinking water, and eating fiber can also help to naturally make digestion faster.
A probiotic-rich diet can help with this. Also, you can limit alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine.
There can be many signs of a healthy gut and three major ones can be regular bowel movements, not feeling bloated, and no upset feeling in the stomach.
Yes, honey can help with digestion, it contains some enzymes that can act as catalysts in the process of digestion.
If you feel that you took in too much food, then you can go for a walk, or take peppermint or herbal tea. While you sleep, sleep on the left side.