Digestion
Digestion is the process that breaks down the food, converts it into energy, absorbs nutrients, and supplies throughout the body. There are several stages involved in digestion, such as ingestion, mechanical and chemical breakdown of food, nutrient absorption, and elimination of indigestible food.
In today’s lifestyle, people are having digestive problems because of several reasons. The main reason is eating too much junk food. Junk food affects digestion, and does not contain any vital nutrients, but has ingredients that damage the body.
Eating only carbs from morning till evening makes the stomach bloated and causes indigestion or constipation. Eating zero fiber or too much fiber can also upset the stomach.
Water plays an important role. Not only the water we drink directly, but the water content in our food makes a huge difference. Fruits such as watermelon, apple, oranges, contain water, vitamins, and minerals that are required for our body. Having water during a meal is not also not recommended because it may cause indigestion due to the dilution of acids.
Going to the toilet when the body calls for it is the ideal time for the excretion of undigested food. But people often tend to delay it which may cause constipation, rashes, and inflammation inside the anal area. Even going to the toilet right after eating food is also not right. (1)
Metabolism also plays an important role. Metabolism is the process of converting food into energy. People with fast metabolism may digest the food fast, similarly, people with slow metabolism may have slow digestion. Although metabolism and digestion may not have an absolute correlation.
Tips To Improve Digestion
1. Chew food properly: The first main reason is not chewing the food properly. People often finish their plate within 5 minutes without properly chewing the food due to which the digestive system gets confused. The nutrients and vitamins present in the food are also not absorbed properly due to this. You can try chewing food 32 times.
2. Drinking chilled Water: Coldwater or chilled water makes the blood vessels contract which slows down blood flow, which inturn results in improper digestion. Make sure you drink room temperature water most of the time. Have warm water 2-3 times a day to keep your digestion healthy.
3. Drinking water during/just after the meal: Drinking water during a meal reduces the concentration of the digestive juices in the stomach resulting in indigestion. So, drink water 30-45 mins after having food.
4. Having a bath right after a meal: Having a bath lowers the temperature in the outer part of the body. Our stomach requires enough temperature to digest the food which in this case the heat gets transferred from the stomach area to the outer part of the body. So, have a bath before your meals or an hour after the meals.
5. Improper time/skipping meals: People usually are busy in the modern lifestyle, due to which they either have their meals at improper times or skip their meals. This leads to a low metabolic rate which results in improper digestion. Even the cortisol levels increase which may cause stomach ulcers too.
6. Eating Junk/unfresh food: Junk food is the main thing to avoid or have in fewer quantities. Junk food slows down the digestive process, having junk food daily or more frequently may lower your digestion and metabolism. Junk food also lowers testosterone which results in low energy, low muscle mass, low sex drive, etc.