Improve Digestion: 7 Surprising Foods [Ultimate Guide 2024]

Learning to improve digestion can make you feel better and happier. This is especially true if you’re one of the 30% of people dealing with digestive issues.

Doctors often suggest taking medicine to mask the problem, like anti-acids or digestive tops. But these don’t solve the issue.

The real solution is simple: eliminate unhealthy products and eat beneficial foods to improve digestion.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• How severe digestive problems are?
• What factors contribute to you having a healthy digestive system?
• What are the conditions needed to improve digestion? and
• What are the 10 foods that will help you recover your digestive device’s health?

Digestive problems in modernity

Let’s start with a reflection:

Why don’t we realize we’re on the wrong track?

It’s believed that our modern world leads us to eat poorly.

Yet, some people still don’t believe it.

But the truth is, digestive problems are more common than ever.

They’ve increased in the number of functional digestive disorders in the United States in recent years:

• And this is only until 2004.
• The trend continues. This graph shows the number of digestive enzymes in recent years and the projection for the coming.
• Modern food is failing. We are not choosing correctly what we put in our mouths and end up with digestive problems and need to take absurd supplements.

It’s not just about looking at data. You can see it yourself in everyday life.

Here are some symptoms you’re probably living with that you’ve come to normalize with:

• Belly swelling.
• Acidity.
• Abdominal pain.
• Diarrhea.
• Constipation.

All these inconveniences have become part of our daily life.

But this apparent “normality” hides a severe problem.

👉 The digestive system has a significant influence on our immune response.

In many cases, the digestive system’s lack of regulation is the precondition for developing an auto-immune disease.

But not just this.

👉 Digestive problems affect our mood.

It is no coincidence that 70% of neurons outside the central nervous system are concentrated in this system.

But if you suffer from these symptoms, it is not a good sign that you have to learn how to improve digestion. It will be possible to know what a healthy digestive system looks like and see if this is your case.

Characteristics of a healthy digestive system

These are the characteristics of a healthy digestive system:

1. A healthy digestive system may feel real hunger.

• Hunger is the digestive system’s way of informing us that it is ready to work. If you’re not hungry or feel like eating sugary cereals, one plate of pasta is that your stomach isn’t prepared to face the food.
• One technique so you know when you’re starving is to put a plate of spinach in front of you. With real hunger, you won’t hesitate to eat it. Without real hunger, you’ll reject it.

1. A healthy device does not feel filled after 20 minutes of eating.

• Stomach bloating is one of the signs of stopping eating but having that feeling of fullness for a long time can be a drag. The best thing would be that after 20 minutes, you will stop feeling full or full.

1. You wouldn’t have to notice digestion.

Learn how to improve digestion

Mainly 4 factors:

1. Have a layer of sturdy mucus filled with microorganisms, enzymes, and immune cells that protects our digestive system and feeds our gut fleets.
2. The integrity of your intestinal barrier: That is, the bonds between cells, known as tight junctions, will prevent large proteins and other foreign substances from entering the bloodstream.
3. Sufficient microbial diversity: abundant and diverse microbes help maintain gastrointestinal motility, support the intestinal barrier’s integrity, synthesize essential vitamins such as B12 and K2, and are necessary for the proper functioning digestive system.
4. Proper stomach acid: stomach acid is critical for good digestion and is also an antiseptic that functions as a chemical entry barrier for pathogens entering food.

The context for improving digestion

Although you’ll find out later about the 10 superfoods that will help you improve digestion, it doesn’t matter if you eat these foods every day if at the same time you don’t generate the right context for your digestive system to function normally.

To generate this context, you must follow these tips:

1. Eat food and not edible products
2. Avoid cereals as much as possible, especially those that carry gluten, some legumes if you notice that you swell too much, and dairy.
3. It leaves room between meals so that the digestive system can recover from work and eliminate any leftover food left out there.
4. Guide yourself through real hunger and not social conventions or your brother-in-law’s advice.
5. Sleep well at night, as it is the longest time we spend regenerating the intestine, and sleep disturbance is a disruptor of feelings of hunger and satiety.

👉 Eating substances that boycott the digestive process affect your intestinal wall or alter your microbiota, and this won’t allow you to digest well and improve digestion.

The 10 superfoods to improve digestion

• There’s nothing super about these foods.
• This is the tabloid term used by many people in the fitness and health industry but not to help you but to sell more.
• I have used this term as an excuse to list some foods that will gradually help you improve digestion.

Bone broth

• It has been used as a medicinal food in almost every culture, including our own. Many of us remember Grandma’s little ass from when we were cold.
• Bone broth is rich in glycine. Glycine helps stimulate stomach acid production, protects against gastric ulcers, seals the intestinal lining, and reduces harmful microbes’ overgrowth.
• Glutamine, another amino acid in bone broth, helps maintain the intestinal mucosa and intestinal barrier integrity.
• Besides, gelatin in bone broth helps draw fluid into the gut, improve intestinal motility, and support healthy bowel movements.
• Finally, this gelatin appears to have specific anti-inflammatory effects by reducing the impact of the release of proteins produced by pathogens known as lipopolysaccharides.

Chucrut and Kimchi

Fermented Foods

• Fermented foods originated as a way for our ancestors to preserve food before refrigeration was available.
• The fermentation process removes antinutrients, like phytic acid, which can lower the nutrient value of plant foods.
• These foods are also natural probiotics. They contain beneficial microorganisms that offer health benefits when eaten.
• Fermented foods are rich in bacterial species.
• 28 different bacterial strains have been found in sauerkraut.
• He believes that improving diversity in our gut, as complex as it is, is crucial at this time.
• Studies show that eating kimchi can increase healthy bacteria that produce short-chain anti-inflammatory fatty acids (AGCC).

Kefir

• Kefir is a fermented and probiotic drink.
• To make kefir, we add the kefir strain to milk.
• If dairy doesn’t work for you, you can use coconut milk or water instead.
• The kefir grains are a mix of fermented yeasts, bacteria, proteins, lipids, and sugars.
• Kefir is well-studied for its intestinal and digestive benefits. It’s rich in bacteria with antibacterial properties.
• Some of these bacteria can help regulate the inflammatory response in the intestines. They might even help treat colitis.
• A study found that drinking kefir daily can clear out H. pylori bacteria in two weeks. This bacteria causes stomach ulcers.

Kombucha

• Kombucha is a fermented drink made by adding a SCOBY to black or green tea with sugar and fermenting it.
• While there are no human studies on its digestive benefits, kombucha has antimicrobial properties. It has cured stomach ulcers in mice.
• Kombucha is a good source of glucuronic acid and has antibacterial properties.

Cooked and Cooled Potatoes

• Cooked and cooled potatoes are full of resistant starch, a type of fiber that isn’t digested in the small intestine. It then gets fermented in the large intestine.
• This resistant starch feeds the bacteria in the colon, like butyrate, which is a key energy source for the cells lining the colon.
• These bacteria also help make immune cells.
• Other foods high in resistant starch include green bananas and cooked and cooled white rice.

Ginger

• Ginger has been used for centuries in Oriental medicine to help with digestion and nausea.
• It helps with gastric emptying by stimulating the production of hydrochloric acid.
• Ginger can also prevent gastric ulcers.
• But remember: Herbal medications, including ginger, should be used with caution and not overconsumed.

Licorice

• Licorice has been used for its medicinal properties for thousands of years. In Chinese medicine, it’s often used to balance out other treatments.
• Licorice root can soothe stomach problems like food poisoning, stomach ulcers, and heartburn. It can also help repair the stomach lining and restore balance.
• Studies have shown that glyceric acid in licorice has antibacterial properties and can help with bacterial overgrowth.

If you like licorice or take it as a supplement, make sure it’s the deglycyrrhizinated kind. This type doesn’t have the compounds that can cause side effects like water retention, high blood pressure, and heart rhythm problems.

Hinojo

• Hinojo has essential oils that are anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and diuretic.
• It can help with digestive issues like slow digestion, bloating, stomach spasms, and loss of appetite.
• Both the fruit and the root and leaves of hinojo can be eaten. It can even help improve symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome.

Raw honey

• Raw honey can reduce inflammation in the stomach (and has many other health benefits).
• In animal studies, honey has been shown to prevent and cure stomach ulcers.
• Honey can also reduce inflammation in the colon as well as or even better than steroids.
• However, honey is high in fructose, so it’s best to eat it in small amounts, no more than 10 ml at a time.

Fiber

• This is not a specific ingredient but is in many foods.
• And then why is it on this list?
• Fiber isn’t food for you but for microbes. Eating a variety of veggies and fruits helps feed your gut flora. This also gives you different nutrients that are good for you.
• Eating a mix of vegetables and fruits, like seasonal foods, can really boost your digestive health.

Final reflection

These foods can help with your digestive issues.

Improving your digestion comes from proper nutrition. Check out our guide on healthy eating.

Another key to better gut health is reducing stress in your life.

Here are three ways to do this:

1. Sleep well.
2. Try meditating and spending time outdoors.
3. Engage in sports.

If you’re short on time, our training APP offers a personalized workout plan. You can do it at home, no gym needed, in just 15 minutes a day.