How to improve digestion and beat the bloat

culled from:beautyheaven.com.au

Do you love eating but hate the dreaded feeling of indigestion and bloating after you’ve devoured your meal?

Me too, which is why I got in touch with leading health practitioner and qualified naturopath, nutritionist, herbalist, nurse, and owner of Ultimate Detox Solutions (whew! That’s a lot of titles!) Michéle Wolff to shed some light on some things we can do to ease our digestion.

TIP #1: EAT FOODS THAT ARE EASY TO DIGEST

Foods that don’t digest so easily, unsurprisingly, put a lot of stress on your digestive system, says Michéle. Here’s her guide on how long different foods take to digest and how you can digest them best:
• Vegetables take 30-45 minutes to digest. If you incorporate leafy vegetables with every meal and add some bitter leaves (like rocket), you can help your digestion.
• Beans, grains and other starches take two to three hours to digest. Try and soak them the night before, this way they’ll digest better and you’ll avoid having too much gas in your stomach.
• Meat, fish and poultry take three or more hours to digest. If you add lemon or apple cider vinegar when marinating your protein, this will aid digestion.

Michéle also recommends drinking water in between meals. Make sure you drink before meals as drinking during meals will dilute your digestive juices.

Michéle also warns, that ice cold drinks can slow down the digestive process as your digestive muscles will contract and then the water isn’t absorbed as well. Warm or room temperature water will encourage digestion.

TIP #2: ADD HERBS TO YOUR COOKING

Certain herbs and spices can easily be added while cooking and will do wonders to ensure your food digests without a problem.  Michéle recommends throwing in dashes of the following to your meals:
• Ginger
• Cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Coriander
• Fennel
• Dill
• Oregano
• Thyme

TIP #3: EAT AT REGULAR MEAL TIMES

“It is important to eat regular healthy meals and eat at the same times of day,” says Michéle Eating similar food groups at similar times each day has a regulating effect on your digestive system. Regular healthy meals help regular bowel movements,” says Michéle. So you know what that means – no breakfast at midday and definitely no dinner at 10pm!

TIP #4: BE CONSCIOUS OF WHAT YOU’RE EATING

According to Michéle, eating too much is the number one cause of indigestion. She recommends putting your knife and fork down between mouthfuls of food to eat more slowly as your brain only signals the feeling of fullness 10 minutes after you’re actually full.

TIP #5: DON’T EAT LATE AT NIGHT

Michéle suggests that you should avoid eating after 7pm as your digestion becomes weaker from that time. She says: “At night your body needs time to rest and revive. When you eat late at night you don’t produce enough enzymes and other digestive juices to digest your food well. The food sits in your stomach and this can disturb your sleep, make you tired and bloated in the morning. It can also make you foggy in the head and grumpy.”