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Digestive Physiology meets Nutrition

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Digestive physiology meets nutrition along with awareness.

What do I mean by awareness? 

People talk a lot about how when their kids eat sugar, they go crazy. Well, lots of other foods can evoke many behaviours in the food they eat and their mood.

The most important thing is to become aware of the connection between eating foods and how you feel ( and behave). It is often the first thing I speak to a patient about keeping a food, mood ( and poop) dairy. It tells a lot. The body does not want to be sick and will do its best to make sure that doesn’t happen and give signs ( symptoms) to say, hello, I need some attention.

three carrots

 

I always like to begin with the foundation: digestive physiology; how is your digestion working? Many people focus on nutrition first, yet, how you digest your foods is an essential first step. When digestive physiology meets nutrition, a lot of health will happen!

1. CHOOSE FOOD WISELY

 Eliminate processed, simple carbohydrates and sugar from your diet. Eat more fibre-rich foods to help bulk up stools, keep you regular, and help the gut bacteria produce butyratic acid. It’s important to be gentle and slow to achieve long-term results. 

2. SET THE MOOD

 The digestive system runs on the parasympathetic nervous system – rest and digest and not the sympathetic nervous system, which is fight, freeze or flight. When you eat on the run or in a stressful situation, you are in a sympathetic mode giving digestion low priority (digestive juices are not secreting optimally) and not a good time to digest foods. 

3. CHEW YOUR FOOD

Indulge those taste buds. When you chew your food, saliva is released, helping to soften the food, adding to the breakdown of the food, and alerting the rest of the digestive tract that food is on the way.

Happy digesting,

dr. heather

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