1.Chew your Food Properly:
Digestion is easy if food is chewed well.
We love to eat. But many people do not chew their food properly. Many people do not know about the benefits of chewing food well. If food is not chewed properly, it causes digestive problems. When in a hurry, many eat food without chewing it properly. Experts say this practice needs to be eliminated. According to research, each bite should be chewed at least 30 to 50 times.
Benefits of chewing food well:
Digestion improves with proper chewing, preventing problems like bloating and gas.
Food breaks down more effectively, making digestion easier and allowing the body to absorb nutrients better.
According to various studies, chewing food well contributes to weight loss. How? Chewing food slowly signals the brain that the stomach is full and needs to stop. If you eat quickly and don’t chew well, this signal does not reach the brain, leading to overeating and weight gain.
Chewing well enhances the taste and smell of food.
Eating quickly or hastily without chewing enough can cause problems such as:
Indigestion and diarrhea
Abdominal gas, bloating, and acid reflux
Abdominal pain, nausea, headache, discomfort, irritability, and intolerance
Malnutrition and weight gain
Tip: Drink water 20-30 minutes before or after eating to aid in complete digestion.
2.Fasting:
Initial evidence suggests that intermittent fasting may benefit your gut health, particularly by increasing the diversity of your gut microbiome and the “good” gut bugs that reside there. Certain foods may improve your gut health while intermittent fasting, as well as help support you during fasting periods.
Autophagy is the body’s self-preservation mechanism, eliminating damaged cells and promoting cellular renewal. Research suggests that fasting for 24-48 hours can be enough to jump-start this process.
Intermittent fasting helps improve our gut health. Now, let’s understand how to do it:
Following a consistent routine of eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the same time every day and abstaining from food during the rest of the day; restricting food intake for a few days (drink water, tea, coffee without milk; but avoid high-calorie foods); and on the remaining days, eat as healthy as you like. Eat normally for 5 days a week and limit food intake on the remaining 2 days to consume 500-600 calories per day. Drinking only water and black coffee are basic examples of ‘intermittent fasting’.
Fasting increases the release of growth hormone, which is important for growth, metabolism, weight loss, and muscle strength. In 2021, a group of researchers reported that fasting increased the diversity of helpful bacteria in the gut microbiome, including Christensenella species associated with longevity. Another important point is that ‘intermittent fasting’ induces autophagy in our body, resulting in the recycling of cellular components and allowing cells to shed unnecessary or redundant genes, potentially increasing cell longevity.
According to psychologists, fasting properly leads to a routine-oriented life. Consequently, various aspects of health come into play alongside food. By restricting food intake during fasting, it is possible to control bodily impulses and excitement, which may help in staying away from drugs and pornography. Additionally, fasting can offer protection from physical and mental harm. A 2021 study found that fasting can help reduce anxiety and depression in some cases.
3.Avoid smoking for gut health:
"Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcer, Crohn's disease (CD), and several cancers. The mechanisms proposed to explain the role of smoking in these disorders include mucosal damage, changes in gut irrigation, and impaired mucosal immune response."
5 ways smoking can impact your digestive health:
[BY-London Gastroenterology center]
We all know smoking is bad news for our lungs, heart and blood vessels – but did you know cigarettes can damage your gut and digestive health too? From bowel cancer to IBS, here are five of the key ways smoking can negatively affect your digestive health.
Smoking could throw your gut bacteria off balance
It’s becoming increasingly clear that our gut microbiome (that’s the term used to describe the trillions of micro-bacteria that live in our guts) plays a vast and vital role in our overall health and wellbeing. From stress and antibiotics to poor diets, lots of things can throw our sensitive microbiome off balance, and there’s evidence to suggest smoking can adversely affect gut bacteria too. The good news is, research has also found that after quitting smoking, your gut microbiome can flourish.
Smoking can cause or aggravate heartburn
Lots of lifestyle factors are known to make heartburn/acid reflux worse, including smoking. Chronic heartburn, known as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), can have a big impact on your quality of life, so if you do smoke then it’s definitely worth taking steps to quit. Other factors can also play a part but there are things that can help, so don’t suffer in silence.
Smoking can make IBS symptoms worse
Since there’s no cure for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), managing the condition through treatments, lifestyle changes and avoiding ‘triggers’ is really important for sufferers – and this includes not smoking. There’s a number of reasons for this: smoking can irritate the digestive tract, increase stress responses throughout the body (a big factor in IBS!), and as we’ve already mentioned, damage gut microbiome, among other things.
Smoking can increase the risk of digestive cancers
Cigarettes aren’t just a major risk factor for cancer of the lungs – there’s also lots of evidence that smokers are at higher risk of developing cancers of the digestive tract and organs, including oesophageal cancer, stomach cancer and cancers of the bowel and colon. Research suggests smokers may have a 17-25% higher chance of developing bowel cancer than people who’ve never smoked. Remember, it’s never too late to quit smoking and take steps to improve your health and if you are concerned about cancer, it’s always best to get any symptoms checked out early.
Smoking could increase your risk of stomach ulcers and colon polyps
Although not the primary cause, smokers could be at higher risk of stomach ulcers, which can be sometimes be very painful and lead to complications such as internal bleeding. Research also suggests smokers could be more prone to colon polyps, small growths in the large intestine or rectum. Colon polyps are actually very common and not always problematic, but certain types can cause symptoms or potentially become cancerous so may need to be removed.
