What Is Digestion?

Proper and efficient digestion of food is one of the first ingredients to super health!

If you are not breaking down and sorting out the nutrients and energy from your top superfoods, seaweeds, or wild edible greens, you are not getting their benefits.

Like we have mentioned, "You are what you digest."

So the key to a achieving higher states of health is to make sure you are tuned up in this region of the body to allow for maximum transfer of life-force from your foods.

Good Digestive Health:

You eat, you digest, and you eliminate!

When this occurs our "digestive fire" is working at it's optimum potential and you can feel it energy wise. Your bowel movements should occur on a regular basis (with ease) and be of a "ripe banana" type texture and shape.

Bad Digestive Health:

Over many years of abuse our digestive tracts become weak and breed a host of candida like imbalances that go on to further effect the health of the colon and other organs of the body. Of course the foods we eat and the way we eat them effect our digestive abilities. A whole onset of intestinal disturbances can reek havoc over time when our diets are highly refined, processed, and toxic.

My Personal Experience: As a teenager my digestive health was a chaotic mess. I could eat A LOT of food, but I never really felt like I was absorbing what I needed out of it. That's because I wasn't! And my low energy levels revealed it.

Now, many years later, my ability to digest what I eat has improved 100% because of a few simple rules I now adhere to that I discuss below.

It is sometimes difficult to break habits at first, especially addictions to low quality foods. But once you do, and things start to improve, you will never even consider other options because they just plain don't give the "life energy" you require to really "live."

Ways To Improve Digestion:

1) Food Combining

Food Combining Essentials: (Foods that are good combination's)

• Fruit----Leafy Greens or chlorophyll rich foods
• Protein----Non-starchy vegetables and seaweeds
• Fats----Non-starchy vegetables and seaweeds
• Starchy vegetables----Non-starchy vegetables, fats, and seaweeds
• Grains----seaweeds, fats, non-starchy vegetables

Fruit is best eaten alone or with chlorophyll rich foods and algaes, like blue green algae and marine phytoplankton. In fact, sometimes eating fruit with chlorophyll and green leafy vegetables is actually a good way to make a smoothie recipe. (ie: The "green smoothie.")

This is a great way to get your greens because the fruit adds a pleasant flavor to the green foods some people try to avoid eating.

PROTEIN AND FAT:

Nuts and seeds are a raw plant protein and fat source, depending on the particular variety.

Fat refers to the good fats like coconut oil or olive oil. Kefir also falls into this category.

One side note I would like to mention is that I have discovered for people who have a strong active digestion that some adverse food combining is OK.

Some of our superfood desserts combine goji, dates and super sweeteners with nuts and seeds. Or our shake elixir uses a similar combo. Sometimes I find that when foods are blended together that they become more digestible than when eaten together individually. It depends on your own level of digestive capacity really! For me, most of the time it works, but on occasion it's a NO GO.

There are schools of thought that say eating fat with fruit coats the cells and does not allow for sugar uptake, causing fermentation to occur. It is really up to you to decide what works best for your unique body type.

Starchy vegetables are potato, sweet potato, corn, and squash varieties.

Non-starchy vegetables are most of the other vegetables, leafy greens, garlic, etc. Seaweeds are a non-starchy sea vegetable. They don't really mix well with fruit, but they are one of those diverse foods that go well with most anything, as do most non-starchy vegetables.

GRAINS:

This category includes all grains. We like to eat those that are more alkaline in nature and gluten free, like quinoa, buckwheat and millet.

2) More Raw Foods

Raw living foods provide the natural food enzymes needed for proper digestion and break down of food. The high, pure water content in raw fruits and vegetables delivers nutrients and hydrates the tissues and the digestive tract.

Raw fibrous food gives your stomach muscles the work out they need to remain toned. Just like any other muscle, when you use it, it grows stronger.

When I first began including more raw foods in my diet, my digestive capacity improved significantly. It was not an easy start however. My stomach rejected the idea at first, but then over time became stronger. My indicator of increased digestive strength was when I was finally able to easily digest raw celery!

3) Eat Slow

Like your mother probably told you, "chew your food well." Chewing your food slowly effectively breaks it down into more digestible parts and mixes it with enzymes in the saliva.

In addition, eating your food in a mindful way helps you to appreciate it more, enjoying the taste, smell, colors and textures more fully. When you love your food, it loves you back with perfect delivery of nutrition.

4) Spicing Food

Adding herbs and spices to food is a great way to boost "digestive fire." It is common practice in Ayurvedic medicine as a way to get stomach stagnation moving again.

Hot spices, that warm the body, are a great thing to add when eating more raw foods for the first time. They are also great in colder climates to help the digestion of heavier foods.

5) Fermented Foods

Other fermented beverages, like kombucha or coconut kefir, provide a refreshing drink in between meals and aid digestion.

Search our site map for recipes or check out the book Cultured: How to Make Healthy Fermented Foods at Home!

6) Acid-Alkaline Balance

It is important to make sure you are providing your system with the right ratio of acid foods -to- alkaline foods. Refined and processed foods are WAY acidic to the body. Too much acidity in the blood causes excess heat and inflammation resulting in an variety of health issues. Acidity causes imbalance to intestinal ecology and destroys healthy flora needed for proper digestion and elimination of waste material.

Try to eat a balanced diet of alkaline and acid type foods. Meats, dairy, legumes, nuts and seeds and most protein and fat is acidic to the body. Raw fruits and vegetables are alkaline in nature.

7) Supplements

Trust me, when this region of the body system is performing at it's best, so will you!!

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