GLUTEN, LACTOSE, EGGS INTOLERANCE? WHAT IF FOOD WASN’T THE CULPRIT?
Have you ever wondered why you became “sensitive” to gluten while you were used to eat lots of bread and pasta in the past? Or why you feel bloated or totally exhausted after certain meals that you don’t seem able to finish up your day? Hippocrates said, “You are what you eat” … well, far from me to argue with him but this is only partly true. You actually are what you ABSORB!
A sub-optimal digestion results in malabsorption syndrome and subsequently leads to essential nutrients deficiencies, which leave the door all open to develop many health problems!
Let’s have a look closer to your digestion …
Food starts being digested in the mouth where many digestive enzymes (eg. amylase) break it down into smaller pieces. Chewing 20 times every single bite is not just a nutritionist tool to bother you. It truly is important to leave sufficient time for those enzymes to do their job. It may sounds too easy to make a difference and kind of annoying, but believe me, it works! Try mindful eating, focus on this delicious food you are chewing and you will get used to it super quickly! Bonus part: your stomach will feel full a bit faster with less of the food ingested = Ideal to anticipate the “Christmas feast” extra kilograms! Then comes the stomach, where all the food is fragmented into micro-particles so it is well absorbed in the gut. The perfect acidity level in your stomach is crucial to digest food properly: not too low/not too high. Be extra careful with antacids which always impact your digestion capacity when taken on the long term. The liquid formed in the stomach called chyme and containing all the nutrients your body needs is then sent to your small intestine to be introduced to many more digestive enzymes and then absorbed through the gut walls to go right into your blood stream for the final destination = CELLS where needed or the colon to form the stool if not needed. Stool reflect perfectly your digestion so having a stool test is an excellent way to see what has been absorbed by your body and what hasn’t. We can confirm nutrients malabsorption syndrome through this test. (Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to learn more about the test)
How do we develop food sensitivity reaction?
If food arrives in your gut in a much bigger size than it should be due to lack of digestive enzymes or low stomach acidity for instance, your gut will not be able to digest this size of the food. It will automatically “complain” with gas, bloating, diarrhea, reflux, etc. to quickly remove that food! Resulting in leaving your body totally exhausted and your cells absolutely food-less! Those bigger undigested molecules of food can also pass through the gut wall and will be recognised as “pathogenic” in your blood stream which will develop immune reactions (eg. food intolerance). Your digestion is like a little fabric whose aim is to fragment, absorb, and metabolise every nutrient from the food you eat. It is a teamwork involving many actors. If anyone is not doing the job properly, it would impact the rest of the team and conclude to negative results. That simple!
Often digestive enzymes are suspected to be deficient. Low stomach acidity can also be a cause. Your gut bacteria also play a massive role if in dysbiosis.
So first eating well is crucial but making sure you digest well is equally important!
Everyone being a unique picture that explains why for similar symptoms, causes can be drastically different from a human body to another. So make sure you address your digestion at the very origin first so you can feed your cells optimally. Hippocrate also said “Everything starts with the gut”, well I guess I fully agree with this one ;)
Gut health is one of my favorite topic, so stay connected to find out more about this super exciting science and do not hesitate to share/comment or contact me to discuss your own digestive issues.
“Dr. Laure Hyvernat”
The content provided in this article is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for medical consultation.