4 Key Steps to Overcome Digestive Disorders

The increase in dietary changes has moved many people away from a diet of fresh, wholesome food to eating a diet consisting of highly processed, packaged and fast, takeaway meals. This is having a compromising effect on your digestive system.

Digestive Disorders can Lead to Disease

Digestive disorders can commence with the first signs of indigestion, gastric reflux, and irritable bowel then can lead to Celiac and Crohn’s disease which can lead further to stomach and bowel cancer. So, it is vital that you become what I call mindful of the foods you eat.

When your digestive system is compromised with unhealthy food and lifestyle choices this makes you vulnerable to undesirable weight gain and diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Having a clear understanding of the role that food plays in maintaining a healthy digestive system will help you stay well-nourished, improve your metabolism, and maintain a healthy weight so that you will never have a weight problem.

1: Make Food your Best Friend

Let’s get started with making food your best friend, to provide you with the support needed to prevent and overcome ill-health and disease. Give your body the nutrients for optimal health and vitality. 

Studies show that as a nation we are becoming nutrient deficient and malnourished, due to the fact that processed and manufactured foods are being consumed as the major dietary choices rather than home-cooked, fresh meals that include a large percentage of vegetables and salads. Therefore, your health is being compromised. Obesity and disease are becoming a norm in everyday life.

2: Optimal Health Begins with Optimal Nutrition

You may or may not have heard of digestive enzymes. Yes, you can buy them in a bottle, but an easier, healthier, and less expensive way is to incorporate them with the food that you eat each day. Incorporating these foods into your daily diet will improve your energy, help you to lose or maintain a healthy weight and decrease pain by decreasing inflammation. Easing to eliminate digestive problems such as excessive bloating, fluid retention, indigestion, heartburn, and reflux.

Foods with naturally occurring digestive enzymes are raw, uncooked foods that contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes. Enzymes are catalysts that aid in digestion. They refer to a group of proteins that break down and digest nutrients. Digestive enzymes begin in the mouth when saliva interacts with food. Although the enzymes convert food into usable nutrients, the enzymes remain unchanged. Some foods with naturally occurring digestive enzymes, such as yogurt, with active, live cultures, break down lactose, which makes yogurt a possibility for those who are lactose intolerant.

Fresh fruit — According to Jonny Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” papaya and pineapple are the best sources of foods that contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes. Papaya contains the naturally occurring digestive enzyme papain, which helps to digest protein. Pineapples contain the digestive enzyme bromelain, which acts as an aid for ingestion. Pineapples also contain multiple anti-inflammatory enzymes. Mangos, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries, and grapefruit also contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes.

Raw vegetables — Vegetables contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes, especially green, leafy vegetables. Wheatgrass juice contains approximately 30 different enzymes. Aloe Vera juice, mixed bean, and seed sprouts all contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes. “Shiitake mushrooms contain enzymes and vitamins that do not normally appear in plants,” according to Jonny Bowden. Parsley, kale, broccoli, celery, cabbage and beets, and beet greens are excellent choices for raw vegetables that contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes.

Raw foods — Raw, uncooked fruits and vegetables contain enzymes necessary for digestion. Natural, digestive enzymes are destroyed through the heating and cooking processes. Good choices of foods that contain digestive enzymes are fresh apples, figs, pears, cherries, peaches, strawberries, and apricots.

All of the bell peppers including red, yellow, green, and orange, as well as tomatoes, are excellent choices. According to Patrick Holford, author of “The New Optimum Nutrition Bible,” grapes, honey that is raw and unpasteurized, soybeans, and sweet potatoes contain naturally occurring digestive enzymes. In addition, apple cider vinegar contains a surprisingly high number of nutrients and enzymes.

Probiotics — Fermented foods. If you have digestive problems, it will be almost impossible to permanently eliminate them unless you improve the balance between bacteria that is beneficial and disease-causing or bad bacteria that exist naturally in your digestive system. One of the most effective ways to do this is by eating foods that are high in beneficial bacteria called probiotics specifically traditional fermented foods these probiotics can be found in the following foods:

1. Yogurt: One of the best probiotic foods is live-cultured yogurt, especially handmade. Look for brands made from goat’s milk that have been infused with extra forms of probiotics like lactobacillus or acidophilus. Goat’s milk and cheese are particularly high in probiotics like thermophilous, bifudus, including bulgaricus and acidophilus. Be sure to read the ingredients list, as not all yogurt is made equally. Many popular brands are filled with high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and artificial flavors and are way too close to being a nutritional equivalent of sugary, fatty ice cream. Traditional Greek-style yogurt or an organic one like Paris Creek preferably plain as you can add the fruit or vanilla flavoring yourself.

2. Kefir: Similar to yogurt, this fermented dairy product is a unique combination of goat’s milk and fermented kefir grains. High in lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria, kefir is also rich in antioxidants. Look for a good, organic version at your local health food shop.

3. Sauerkraut: Made from fermented cabbage (and sometimes other vegetables), sauerkraut is not only extremely rich in healthy live cultures but might also help with reducing allergy symptoms. Sauerkraut is also rich in vitamins B, A, E, and C.

4. Microalgae: This refers to super-food ocean-based plants such as spirulina, chlorella, and blue-green algae. These probiotic foods have been shown to increase the amount of both Lactobacillus and bifidobacterial in the digestive tract. They also offer the most amount of energetic return, per ounce, for the human system.

5. Miso soup: Miso soup is classed as a probiotic food: Miso is one of the mainstays of traditional Japanese medicine and is commonly used in macrobiotic cooking as a digestive regulator. Made from fermented rye, beans, rice, or barley, adding a tablespoon of miso to some hot water makes an excellent, quick, probiotic-rich soup, full of lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria. Beyond its important live cultures, miso is extremely nutrient-dense and believed to help neutralize the effects of environmental pollution, alkalize the body and stop the effects of carcinogens in the system.

6. Roasted or plain almonds: These are actually classed as pre-probiotic and work wonders having a few between meals.

7. Pickles: Believe it or not, the common green pickle is an excellent food source of probiotics.

3: Catabolic Foods the Super Foods for Prevention of Disease

You may have also come across these foods being known as catabolic foods and superfoods. It is all about providing your body with adequate nutrition with fresh food. These foods are readily recognized by your body as optimal fuel. They support and improve your gut microbiome, and help in losing, maintaining, and stabilizing a healthy weight without dieting or counting calories. It is not rocket science, it just takes making positive changes in how you think and feel about the food you eat. 

Click here to learn how catabolic foods can help you with healthy weight management.

4: How Catabolic Foods Support Healthy Weight Loss

Catabolic foods are the so-called “negative calorie” foods that require your body to burn more calories than the food actually contains. For example, an apple contains around 85 calories and the body requires 99 calories to digest the apple. The end result is that you actually burn 14 more calories than you ate. Eating a wide range of catabolic foods, unlimited fresh vegetables and fruit, with moderate quantities of lean, healthy protein, and unrefined carbohydrates.

Catabolic foods are broken into two categories: high-grade and low-grade. Low-grade catabolic foods have a lower ratio of calories vs. calories that are required to burn them. Therefore, high-grade catabolic foods are more effective than low-grade catabolic foods. It is no secret that fresh, healthy non-processed food burns more calories to digest than it contains.

High-Grade Catabolic Foods

List of fruits:

• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Grapefruit
• Oranges
• Plums
• Strawberries
• Lemons
• Raspberries
• Limes
• Pineapple
• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon
• Pears

List of vegetables:

• Artichokes
• Parsley
• Asparagus
• Cucumbers
• Peppers
• Tomato
• Broccoli
• Eggplant
• Celery
• Sweet potato
• Radishes
• Zucchini
• Brussels sprouts
• Leeks
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Lettuce

Low-Grade Catabolic Foods

List of fruits:

• Apples
• Apricots
• Cherries
• Grapes
• Honeydew melon
• Peaches
• Nectarines
• Tangerines

List of vegetables:

• Green beans
• Cauliflower
• Peas
• String beans
• Chives
• Garlic
• Pumpkin
• Beets
• Corn
• Onions
• Red cabbage
• Dill pickles
• Turnips

Other catabolic foods:

• Crabs
• Lobster
• Flounder
• Mussels
• Clams
• Frog legs
• Shrimps and prawns
• Cod
• Tuna

Keeping Healthy Eating Simple

Eating a diet where its main foods are fresh and unprocessed with limited cooking processing will lead to a healthier you. These foods are low in calories and high in fiber, antioxidants, and nutrients.

It is important to include an extensive range of fresh, lean meat, chicken, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy if you are not allergic, or coconut-based products if you are, and fresh, filtered water every day.

When working toward losing weight, patience is a must. Do not get caught up in fad diets as this can actually lead to weight gain in the long run due to damage to your metabolism. You may lose weight in the short term, but in the long term, it will lead to health problems and often nutritional deficiencies.

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