Before starting any venture, you have to prepare. When you cook a meal, this means going grocery shopping, and gathering the ingredients and necessary tools. If you’re a pro ballplayer, you train, practice, and suit up before a big game. And if you’re beginning a weight loss journey, you take steps to improve digestion before beginning a new diet, because there is a link between digestion and weight loss.
Exactly how does good digestion help lose weight? We’ll explore that question, as well as different foods you can eat and other ways to promote a healthy digestive system.
How Does Digestion Affect Weight Loss?
Your digestive system is more than just a means to an end (no pun intended). It’s where your body takes the food you eat and breaks it down into smaller nutrients that can be used for energy, growth, and repair. Anything that can’t be used is later expelled from the body.
But does digestion help weight loss? And does fast digestion cause weight loss? While the type and amount of food you eat play a big role in weight loss, how your body processes that food also factors into the equation, even more so than people may think. Not only does an efficient digestive system make you feel better, but it allows your body to effectively use the nutrients you’re giving it. Taking steps to improve your overall digestive system can help you utilize nutrients more efficiently, which can aid in weight loss.
There are ways you can prep your system and really take advantage of the digestive method for fat loss. Think of it this way—in the same way that you wash your pots and pans before cooking a new meal in them, doing a digestive system detox will clean and improve your gut health before you begin a new health regime. This is one of the best ways to improve digestion and get the most from your diet.
RELATED: How To Improve Digestion Quickly
What Causes Poor Digestion?
Your gut is constantly full of bacteria, both good and bad. One cause of poor digestion happens when the bad bacteria is more prevalent than the good bacteria. Some things that kill good bacteria are antibiotics, preservatives, pollutants, artificial sweeteners, and food irritants. When the bad bacteria outnumber the good, your system gets out of balance, which makes it so you don’t absorb nutrients effectively. It can also lead to other problems including gas, bloating, upset stomach, and more. This article explains everything you need to know about good gut bacteria.
We’ve all experienced some type of digestive problem at one point or another, and given the fact that our modern diets aren’t geared towards supporting gut health, poor digestion is more common than ever. Your digestive system has bacteria living in it, some of them help aid in digestion, and some hurt digestion, but as long as they are in balance, the body can usually handle digestion relatively well. However, anything from medication, stress, a lot of processed foods, and more can easily tip the scales of your gut health towards too much bad bacteria and not enough good. That imbalance leads to negative symptoms like poor gut health, gas, bloating, irregularity, constipation, diarrhea, and more. Fortunately, there are many things we can do to restore the natural balance of our gut microbiome, but keeping it from getting out of balance in the first place is the real key to long-term wellness.
How Do You Fix Poor Digestion?
One of the secret tips of digestion is to clear the slate and give yourself a fresh start. Doing this requires a colon cleanse. Believe it or not, cleansing your colon isn’t as intense as it sounds. There are several non-invasive, natural ways to do a colon cleanse that range from changing your diet for a period of time to taking a colon cleansing supplement like Xyngular Flush.*
Probiotics also play a big part in improving digestion naturally. There are many digestive benefits of probiotics, but one of them is their ability to help good gut bacteria regenerate. While probiotics don’t completely flush your digestive system, they do aid in cleaning it up and improving general gut health.
Poor digestion can be a pain. Literally. It can cause bloating, gas, cramps, and other uncomfortable problems. But poor digestion and its symptoms don’t have to be a long-term part of your life. Remember those good bacteria we were talking about earlier? You can add more good bacteria to your digestive system through probiotics, restoring the balance your body needs to function properly. Probiotics are simply live “good” bacteria that help your body digest food completely. They help break down food, absorb nutrients, and keep the bad bacteria from overpopulating your gut. There are tons of probiotic foods called fermented foods. Fermented foods include yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso soup, kombucha, and even pickles. Simply consuming food that is full of the good bacteria that your gut needs can help with your long-term gut health.
How Can I Improve Digestion?
Once you’ve cleaned your digestive tract, it’s important to keep it running smoothly. Here are a few tips to help your digestive system feel its best.
Eat Real Food
Processed, fast, and fried foods, as well as foods that are high in sugar or fat, including fatty cuts of meat, all take longer for your body to digest. Does faster digestion help weight loss? In a way, yes. Slow digestion can leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable as food sits in your stomach. On the other hand, an efficient digestive system allows you to quickly process foods, take the nutrients your body needs from them, and get rid of the waste. Real foods move through the digestive process more quickly and leave you feeling better in the long run.
Get Enough Fiber
Another reason why real food like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are good for you is that they have fiber that improves digestion and keeps your insides running smoothly. If you’re wondering how to improve digestion, getting enough fiber is one of the best ways. Your body can’t process fiber, so instead, it acts as a scrub brush and takes food remnants with it as it passes through your system. Fiber also helps you feel full, so you tend to eat less overall.
Stay Hydrated
Drinking plenty of water is another digestive method weight loss technique. Water is essential in the digestive process as it helps food work its way through the digestive system. As an added bonus, drinking water between meals will help curb your appetite.
Take Probiotics
As we mentioned earlier, your digestive system is full of good and bad bacteria. Probiotics boost the number of good bacteria hanging out in your digestive system. The more good bacteria you have, the better your digestive system functions. Taking probiotics on a regular basis can help keep the bacteria in your gut balanced.
Get Moving
Learning how to help digestion can be as simple as taking a stand, literally! Even the basic act of standing upright allows gravity to help your digestive system. Movement in general helps stimulate the digestive tract and increases the processing time as your body uses up energy from the food you eat. That’s why it’s important to make time for movement every day. Even a slow walk around the block can help reduce bloating and improve digestion.
Kick Bad Habits
Smoking and drinking alcohol or caffeine can interfere with your digestive system. Smoking has been linked to acid reflux, ulcers, and Crohn’s disease. Alcohol can interfere with the stomach’s acid production and can delay your stomach’s emptying process. Finally, caffeine can irritate your stomach, and too much caffeine can even have the same effect as a laxative. For these reasons, it’s best to limit, or better yet, eliminate these from your diet. You’ll see the benefits in your digestive and other systems.
Stress Less
Some poor digestion and weight loss struggles can be linked back to stress. Sure, stress is a natural part of life, but if you find yourself stressed out more often than not, it may be time to make some life changes. Chronic stress can lead to pain, bloating, bowel discomfort, and more. It’s also been linked to both diarrhea and constipation. Finding a stress-relieving outlet, a support network, or managing stress before it starts can all help keep stress from going straight to your stomach.
What Should I Eat to Improve My Digestion?
When we’re considering what to eat, we often make decisions based on taste, convenience, or calorie and nutritional values. But considering how well our body uses the food is just as important. For example, a low-calorie food that is full of artificial sweeteners is hard to digest. If you’re looking for foods to improve digestion, avoid processed, fatty, and fried foods, and opt instead for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Food to help digestion includes real foods that provide the fiber most of us are missing from our diet, and are full of other nutrients our body needs, in a form that we can easily absorb.
Learn More: What Is A Low Carb Diet And How Does It Boost Weight Loss?
Our Favorite Foods to Improve Digestion
Is there such a thing as digestive superfoods? In a way, yes. We know that not all food is created equal, but it’s not as simple as bad food and good food. There are standout digestion-promoting foods, even among other healthy diet choices. If you’re looking for foods that help digestion, you can start by learning about these 10 foods:
Yogurt
High-Fiber/Low Fat Beans and Lentils (black beans, baked beans, lima beans)
Fruit (apple, pear, raspberries)
Dark Green Vegetables (artichokes, broccoli, green beans, green peas, split peas)
Whole Grains (brown rice, whole-wheat spaghetti, barley)
Chia Seeds
Kombucha
Beets
Salmon
Bone Broth
Not only are these foods good for digestion, but they are also foods that are high in vitamins and other nutrients your body needs.
Tackle Poor Digestion with Xyngular Complete Probiotic
Poor digestion isn’t just a medical issue, it’s a lifestyle issue. Not only are you uncomfortable because of the digestive issues you are facing, but you might not be able to eat your favorite foods or attend social gatherings because of embarrassing gas or stomach upset. Your ability to live life to the fullest is diminished by your unhealthy gut, but it doesn’t have to be.
Xyngular Complete Probiotic can help you live a life where you don’t have to worry about finding the nearest bathroom at every social event, or having to deal with digestive discomfort. This powerful probiotic supplement blends 11 unique strains of healthy bacteria to aid your digestive system not only with your gut health, but with mood support, weight loss, and immune system help.* Now you’re ready for a life free of digestive worries, and Xyngular Complete Probiotic can help! Login to your account, join Xyngular as a member, or contact a Xyngular representative to start enjoying your new, healthy life today!
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