Do you have digestion problems? Here are some very easy ways to improve your digestion, and it ALL begins in your mouth.
Digestion Starts In Your Mouth
Digestion is one of the most important elements to maintaining good health, and what many people don’t realize is that digestion doesn’t begin in the stomach … it begins in your mouth.
Good digestion:
- allows your body to access the nutrients in your food;
- balances your body pH, beginning with your saliva;
- prevents IBS and other digestive issues;
- helps eliminate acid reflux;
- maintains your weight.
Simple Steps
Try these simple steps to improve digestion in your mouth:
- Tip #1 Don’t drink any fluids while you eat.
How many times do you see someone gulping a glass of iced tea, a cola, or ice water while they are chewing their food? Drinking while you are eating is a big no-no because it washes away your saliva, which washes away the enzymes needed to begin the digestion process.
It’s vitally important to allow your body access to the healthy nutrients that you eat. Good digestion allows your body the ability to assimilate all the nutrients that it needs to stay healthy.
And for those of you on medication, better digestion also helps your medicine work more effectively when it is assimilated more efficiently. This can also help keep your medicine dose at a minimum.
At first, you may notice that you have been washing away your saliva for so long that your saliva production has gone down. You might call this dry mouth.
Simply re-train your body to produce its own “liquid” when you eat, and give it some time to start producing enough saliva during a meal.
An exception is drinking a quality red wine during meals. Red wine contains digestive enzymes, so it will assist in the digestion process in the mouth.
Wait a few minutes after you have finished your meal to drink your water or iced tea. And as a side note, never drink a cola during meals because it’s way too acidic for proper digestion.
Just think acid reflux.
- Tip #2 Monitor the pH of your saliva.
Keeping your body pH balanced is very important, and this begins with the pH in your mouth.
Like with all pH concerns, when the pH in your mouth is too acidic, the nutrients in your food will dissolve before they have a chance to be used by your body. If the pH in your saliva is too alkaline, very little of your food will be broken apart or digested at all.
So make sure to test the pH of your saliva often, especially if you have digestion issues.
Maintain a saliva pH between 6.4 and 6.6. And here’s a tip within a tip:
Test your saliva before and after eating. This will really open your eyes to the state of your digestion that begins in the mouth.
- Tip #3 Eat smaller bites, and chew, chew chew.
Eat smaller bites of food.
The purpose of having teeth and a jaw is so you can break your food apart before it gets to your stomach. Your stomach is not meant to chew your food for you, so YOU do the chewing for IT.
When you chew smaller bites of food, you have made it possible for your stomach to access the nutrients in the food.
Your body doesn’t care what vehicle the nutrients are found in as much as it wants the nutrients. It wants the vitamins that come inside of healthy food, and as long as it is given the full spectrum of raw and natural elements needed to keep it healthy, it doesn’t know if that nutrient came from a piece of meat or from a carrot.
So, chew small bites of food for your stomach’s sake. This eliminates acid reflux and digestion issues, like IBS, which result from making your body work harder to break down undigested food stuff.
And remember that this digestion process begins in your mouth.
Try these very simple steps to improve your digestion. This should result in BIG changes.
Here’s to your health! (And, no more acid reflux!)
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only, and is educational in nature. The FDA may not have evaluated some of the statements. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please discuss with your own, qualified health care provider before adding supplements or making any changes to your dietary program.
