Digestion - the physical process
When it comes to increased health and wellness, it’s not just what we eat, but how we eat. Digestion is the process by which food and drink are broken down into their smallest parts so the body can use them to build and nourish cells and to provide energy.
Chewing leads to smooth digestion and greater assimilation of nutrients by initiating the release of digestive enzymes that are essential to break down food. Digestion actually begins in the mouth, where contact with our teeth and digestive enzymes in our saliva breaks down food. Most of us rush through the whole eating experience. We eat while distracted—working, reading, talking, driving and watching television. We swallow our food practically whole. Amylase is an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of our carbohydrates into sugars. Amylase is present in human saliva. The more we chew, the more accessible the carbohydrates and our other nutrients becomes, so we can eliminate one possible reason for craving those after-meal sweets or requiring second helpings. Chewing reduces digestive distress and improves assimilation, allowing our bodies to absorb maximum nutrition from each bite of food. More chewing produces more endorphins, the brain chemicals responsible for creating good feelings. It’s also helpful for weight loss, because when we are chewing well, we are more apt to notice when we are full. Typically when we eat our goal is to eliminate the hunger signal and feel satiated. The real reason for the hunger signal is because the body needs nutrients. The feeling of being satiated is really the body not requiring any further nutrients at that time. This can explain why shortly after eating, when food should no longer be a consideration, many will still feel that need. That is a signal from the body that it still needs nutrients, as the ones that were consumed were not properly assimilated. In fact, chewing can help promote healing and circulations, enhance immunity, increase energy and endurance, improve skin health and stabilize weight.
Food moves from one organ to the next through muscle action called peristalsis. The first major muscle movement occurs when food or liquid is swallowed. Although you are able to start swallowing by choice, once the swallow begins, continued peristalsis becomes involuntary and proceeds under the control of the nerves.
The stomach has three mechanical tasks. First, it stores the swallowed food and liquid. To do this, the muscle of the upper part of the stomach relaxes to accept large volumes of swallowed material. The second job is to mix up the food, liquid, and digestive juice produced by the stomach where hydrochloric acid kills most contaminating microorganisms and begins mechanical breakdown of some food. The lower part of the stomach mixes these materials by its muscle action. The third task of the stomach is to empty its contents slowly into the small intestine. Depending on the amount of food you have consumed and which ones, this can take up to 2 hours to complete.
The main hormones that control digestion are gastrin, secretin, and cholecystokinin (CCK):
•Gastrin causes the stomach to produce an acid for dissolving and digesting some foods. Gastrin is also necessary for normal cell growth in the lining of the stomach, small intestine, and colon.
•Secretin causes the pancreas to send out a digestive juice that is rich in bicarbonate. The bicarbonate helps neutralize the acidic stomach contents as they enter the small intestine. Secretin also stimulates the stomach to produce pepsin, an enzyme that digests protein, and stimulates the liver to produce bile.
•CCK causes the pancreas to produce the enzymes of pancreatic juice, and causes the gallbladder to empty. It also promotes normal cell growth of the pancreas.
The stomach empties the food and enzyme mixture into the small intestine. Small, finger-like structures called villi, each of which is covered with even smaller hair-like structures called microvilli improve the absorption of nutrients by increasing the surface area of the intestine and enhancing speed at which nutrients are absorbed. Blood containing the absorbed nutrients is carried away from the small intestine via the hepatic portal vein and goes to the liver for filtering, removal of toxins, and nutrient processing. The liver, produces yet another digestive juice—bile. Bile is stored between meals in the gallbladder. At mealtime, it is squeezed out of the gallbladder, through the bile ducts, and into the intestine to mix with the fat in food. The bile acids dissolve fat into the watery contents of the intestine, much like detergents that dissolve grease from a frying pan. After fat is dissolved, it is digested by enzymes from the pancreas, and the lining of the intestine to break down the carbohydrate, fat, and protein in food. Other enzymes that are active in the process come from glands in the wall of the intestine.
Finally, the digested nutrients are absorbed through the intestinal walls and transported throughout the body. The waste products of this process include parts of the food that don’t break down, known as fiber, and older cells that have been shed from the mucosa. These materials are pushed into the colon through peristalsis, where they remain until they are expelled.
Together, nerves, hormones, the blood, and the organs of the digestive system conduct the complex tasks of digesting and absorbing nutrients from the foods and liquids you consume each day.
No lesson on digestion would be complete without an understanding on the production of gas and how your actions can be responsible for this occurrence.
There are 3 basic reasons that gas is over produced in the digestive tract. One reason is that undigested food, which ferments is the main culprit. Fermentation is the start of gas production in the body. Since there are many different steps in the digestive process it is important to detect where that is occurring. This answer can be different for each individual but we start with the most obvious culprits as we problem solve this issue. If your food is not properly chewed, as corrosive as we imagine all the enzymes and digestive juices are, they cannot do their job properly if the teeth and the saliva have not properly completed that first step. Saliva also makes the food more alkaline, which can create less gas. Any foods that are not thoroughly chewed will not break down properly. The end result is that the nutrients that are supposed to go to nourish the cells cannot be accessed. If our hunger signals and cravings stem from needing nutrients, this is a big culprit. The immune system can also see the undigested food as an intruder and attack it. That can translate to a sensitivity or allergic response eventually of certain foods as the immune system can become hyper vigilant at meal time.
Through digestion we are attempting to not only nourish our bodies, but also strengthen our immune system to take care of anything that can bring adversity and compromise our good health. If your immune system is sidetracked with undigested food, it is not available in full force to deal with some of the invading microbes and free radicals that are part of the equation for dis-ease and ill health. When problem solving it is always best to note the most obvious and the easiest to correct. Chewing ones food would be the obvious. An admission of eating too fast is often conveyed as a flippant or casual remark. It can only be due to the ignorance of the digestive process and not really understanding, as Hippocrates said “food is thy medicine”. Rather than wait for dysfunction and seek either pharmaceutical or herbal repair, this process can be minimized or eliminated once the realization that a balanced eating strategy along with a digestive track that functions optimally, will not only put you way ahead of the game, it is the game!
Before we can consider whether there is a dysfunction in the stomach, enzyme production, peristalsis, vagus nerve, or any other aspect of digestion, chewing should seriously be considered as a primary culprit for digestive issues.
The second most prominent reason for gas would be lack of beneficial bacteria also known as intestinal flora. For those that say they are eating yogurt and have that area covered, they are mistaken. Due to consuming processed foods, medicines, chemicals and refined sugars most people have either diminished, nonexistent or weakened colonies of these good bacteria. The over production of gas is frequently noted in this case. It is also important that these beneficial bacteria are properly implanted and require a healthy intestinal lining for that to occur. Taking a good quality probiotic with multiple strains that can implant would be the start of this process. Once a colony is implanted there are many foods and beverages that have prebiotic properties and can maintain this state if there is not continued adversity.
The beneficial bacteria, which is not only important in the digestive process is also a main feature as part of your body’s immune system to protect against microbes and free radicals that are prominent in everyone. The good bacteria are responsible for the eco-system in the body to support a healthy environment. If you do not have an adequate colony of implanted flora, the immune system is yet again, doing a job it should not have to do by attacking the microbes that the flora should be combating and eradicating.
The third reason for gas, which technically falls under the reason of undigested foods, can come from ingesting foods that your system sees as irritating. Through overconsumption, improper combining with other foods considering your digestive weaknesses or having sensitivities to these foods, and some can be considered very healthy foods overall, they do not break down to digest, the immune system attacks them and you do not get the nutrients from them.
The preferred scenario is that a healthy internal environment, which is acquired through optimal digestion, a colony of properly implanted good bacteria and a balanced PH, is bottom line, what is desired to achieve and maintain perfect health. Unlike purchasing an item and then owning it, this is something that has to be achieved and then maintained on an ongoing basis through education, knowledge and insight into the signs and signals as you learn to read your body from noticing cause and effect of your actions. Since the body is always in a state of flux, this is an important and empowering skill to have that can only translate to other areas of your life.