Digestion 101
By: Adrienne Roumasset, M.S., H.H.C
The amazing journey of food in, through, and out your body
Photo : DeMorris Byrd
A good first step to help support any aspect of your body, your life, or another person for that matter, is to strive to understand it. Once we know what makes something tick, we can be informed on how best to serve and help it. With the threat of COVID-19, a lot of people are wondering how they can protect themselves and their loved ones. Your first line of defense (beyond social distancing and a mask) is your immune system. A healthy digestive system fondly referred to as “our gut” is crucial to this defense as 70 percent of your immune system is in your gut. Healthy digestion, healthy immunity against foreign invaders.
In addition to immunity, digestive health is a critical element to just about every function of our body. Digestion breaks down carbohydrates to glucose, fats to fatty acids and proteins to amino acids. These molecules then serve as the building blocks for our cells, facilitate nutrient absorption, and provide energy for our lives. Full breakdown of food is necessary to extract the vital nutrients that nourish our blood, fuel our brain, and help synthesize our hormones. Not to mention that 90 percent of serotonin, that “feel good hormone” is made in the gut. So, healthy digestion also keeps us happy, content, and at ease.
So, let the learning and understanding begin! Read on to embark on a simplified journey of your body takes all the yum yums and turns them into the essential fuel in your tum tum:
DIGESTION 101
Your digestion starts before you even take a bite. This is called the cephalic or “brain phase”, and includes smelling, looking at, tasting, and even just thinking about the food. If you walk into a restaurant, think about what you are going to make for dinner tonight, your brain sends a signal through your vagus nerve (hyperlink) to your stomach to prepare for food.
The most important thing to do at this stage, is relax. Our nervous system has one of two modes, and you cannot be in both at the same time. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), commonly known as “fight or flight” sends all the blood to the arms and legs, an evolutionary trait that goes back to when the things stressing us out where literally fighting or fleeing tigers. In the SNS, digestion is put on hold as it is not crucial to your survival. Unfortunately, things like arguing during the meal, reading a stressful email, scrolling through your phone, can activate the SNS and compromise digestion. Alternatively, digestion can be optimized by activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) known as your “rest and digest” system. Sitting, breathings giving gratitude and putting your whole attention on your meal activates the PNS, and puts you in a relaxed and ready to digest state.
Then the food is in your mouth. Woo hoo!!! Enzymes in your saliva begin to break down the carbohydrates. The biggest key here is CHEW. Not chewing properly is like standing at the starting line for a 150m race and leaning down to tie your shoe as the race begins. Your just not going to catch up. A good rule of thumb is to chew each bite AT LEAST 30 times. Saliva also has antimicrobial, antibacterial and antiviral properties that are designed to neutralize whatever undesirables may have come in with your food. Have fun with it. Eating is pleasurable, so go slow and savor.
To summarize what we’ve learned so far: SIT – RELAX – CHEW- ENJOY-BREATHE. Worth emphasizing, since the rest of the process is out of your conscious control.
Dooown the esophagus the food goes, a pipe that goes from your throat to your stomach. The smooth muscle that lines this pipe, and your entire digestion system for that matter, pumps in order to push your food into the stomach. Being hydrated is important to optimize this step so that enough mucus can be produced so it slides smoothly. But note – drink your water between meals, not at meals as it may hinder proper absorption.
Next that yummy bite of burrito, or apple, or steak, or chocolate pie (I’ll let you choose your own adventure) enters your stomach. Your stomach releases Hydrochloric Acid (HCL), which is one of the most acidic substances on the planet. Like saliva, HCL has antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, so that one of its main job is to neutralize everything. The HCL breaks down chemically whatever you didn’t break down in the mouth, breaking off vitamins and minerals in our foods so they are available later on. Unfortunately, many people have low HCL, which can lead to malabsorption. Don’t be fooled by acid reflux, which counter to popular belief (and antacid commercials) which is often a symptom of not HCL that is too high, but too low (reference?). HCL also helps secrete pepsin, which begins the process (after chewing) of protein digestion. Overall, the main function of the stomach is to sort, mix, and get the food prepared so it can be slowly fed to the small intestine.
So now here we are, in the small intestine, which is not exactly small with a surface area of almost 2700 square feet (don’t ask me how that works!). The top 12 inches are incredibly important – this is where important digestive enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver and gallbladder are sent. Different enzymes are needed to break down fats, carbs, and proteins. As a result, deficiencies in different enzymes result in one person having trouble digesting fats, while another may have difficulty digesting protein or certain fibers, etc. Low digestive enzyme production, along with low HCL, is also common. As the food (now in very small particles) moves past the first 12 inches, it is moved through the almost 20 feet of remaining length. As it moves, it continues to facilitate digestion and absorbs, absorbs, absorbs those nutrients as the particles move along.
Until… behold!!! We make it to the large intestine, fondly referred to as the colon. Although we have bacteria all through our gut, the majority of the now famous (relatively, if you’ve been following medical research) microbiome is housed here. The microbiome includes trillions of microorganisms and over 35,000 strains of bacteria. Functions and implications of a healthy microbiome are vast and include stimulating the immune system, breaking down toxic chemicals, synthesizing key nutrients, and breaking down complex fibers. Recent research has discovered that dysbiosis (imbalance) of healthy gut microbiomes are associated with a range of chronic diseases from gastrointestinal inflammatory and metabolic conditions to neurological, cardiovascular, and respiratory illnesses (J. Durack and S.V. Lynch 2019).
But…lets lighten the mood for a minute as we get to the main function of the colon – to make poop. As what’s left after digestion and absorption moves through the colon (i.e. left over debris we couldn’t digest, preservatives in your food, dead skin cells from the upper gut, dead bacteria, probiotics) it is compacted into our stool. I think we all know how that story ends.
So, suffice to say, that a number of dysfunctions and imbalances in this digestive sequencing can cause digestive distress, and if they are not dealt with, can result in chronic disease later in life. But don’t let that scare you. I know from experience, that so-called subtle symptoms like fatigue, low libido, brain fog, diarrhea, can be corrected when we learn about how our own unique body functions and get familiar with its weak points and strong points. It may be that you can cure your gut woes simply by stopping the habit of eating at your desk or listening to the news and slow down and chew. Or you may have any number of imbalances – dysbiosis in the large intestine, small intestine bacteria overgrowth (SIBO), leaky gut, candida, impaired gut motility, food intolerances, or a deficiency in digestive enzymes of HCL. Like many things, it starts by listening to your body and committing yourself to serve it’s needs.
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