Why Do I Have Indigestion?

Do you sit down in the sunshine, take 5 deep breaths, and honor the beauty and aroma of the food you are about to eat, or are you throwing a protein bar in your mouth while working at the computer? 

‍

This may be why you have indigestion.

‍

If you start to focus on these 5 important steps, you will improve your digestion naturally and may need fewer quick-fix, over-the-counter medications.

Digestion Starts with the Senses

If you wait for digestion to start with chewing, you are missing the main event. Digestion starts before your food even touches your mouth. It begins with the five senses that prime your body, preparing it for the digestive process.

‍Sight

The eyes are a critical first step in starting the digestive process. Seeing a gorgeous ripe peach being sliced into can make your mouth water or watching a plate of steaming food pass you by might make your stomach growl. Seeing food stimulates the brain and triggers the production of saliva full of digestive enzymes that start breaking down starches. Next time you consider eating, notice if your mouth is wet with saliva. If you wait until your mouth is wet, giving you consent to put food in, then you may digest the food better.‍

Smell

The aroma of food plays a powerful role in digestion. When you smell something delicious, the olfactory system sends signals to your brain that it’s time to eat. This activates saliva production and even starts to release gastric juices in your stomach. Ever noticed how your stomach growls when you catch the scent of your favorite dish? If you wait until your stomach is growling or creating stomach acid to break down food, then you may have less indigestion. If you suffer from acid reflux, you may be skipping these first 2 steps.‍

Sound

Though it may seem unrelated, the sounds of food being prepared or eaten can heighten your anticipation for a meal. Hearing sizzling fajitas on their way to the table gets me excited about dinner! Processed snack companies hire scientific teams to find the right crunch because they know we have an addiction to that crispy sound. I mean… do you crave a soggy potato chip? The anticipation of the right sound prompts your digestive system to get ready and can enhance the enjoyment of food. Many of us skip this step as we eat in front of the TV, and this can disrupt the natural digestive process. ‍

Touch

The texture of food is very influential over your digestion and we see this heightened in people with sensory issues. The sensation of food in your mouth—whether it's crunchy, soft, smooth, or chewy—affects how you chew and how long you savor each bite. Proper chewing is essential for breaking down food and mixing it with saliva, making it easier for your stomach to process. This step should be started young by allowing our children to touch a variety of foods with many different textures from the soft jammy center of a ripe fig to the fuzzy peel of a fresh Romano bean.

Taste

Taste is the sense most directly connected to digestion. Once food enters your mouth, your taste buds start to analyze the flavors—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. This not only enhances the eating experience but helps the body produce the right enzymes for each type of food. Most of us eat plenty of sweet foods, but we fail to include enough bitter flavors. Bitter greens and bitter citrus juice can help promote better stomach acid which helps chemically break down your food more completely and initiates the downward movement of food to the small intestine. If you have reflux, this process is most often due to a lack of stomach acid and a lack of the signal to release the food down into the small intestine.

Saliva Kickstarts the Digestive Process

We are often told to “chew our food,” and “chew more times” but the digestive process is not only dependent on this mechanical breakdown of the food. There is a chemical breakdown that begins in the mouth, thanks to the salivary glands. These tiny, often overlooked glands play a crucial role in chemically breaking down food and preparing it for the stomach. Salivary glands are small organs located in and around your mouth and throat that produce and secrete saliva to moisten food and to use enzymes that speed up the breakdown of food.

When we eat before our mouth has had a chance to receive the saliva, or ahem… before your mouth was wet and giving you consent to put food in it, we may suffer from heartburn or undigested food in the stomach.

Saliva is so important, it does more than just keep your mouth wet - it’s loaded with substances that aid digestion. The most important digestive enzyme in saliva is amylase, which starts to break down carbohydrates right in your mouth. As you chew, amylase starts to convert starches into simpler sugars, jump-starting the digestive process before food even reaches your stomach. You can see this in action when you chew on a cracker or piece of bread for a long time - the starches taste sweeter as they are broken down into maltose molecules.

Mechanical Breakdown or Chewing

To maximize the benefits of saliva, it’s essential to chew your food thoroughly. The longer you chew, the more time saliva has to break down starches and carbohydrates and prepare your food for digestion. Proper chewing also ensures that saliva fully coats your food, making swallowing smoother and giving your digestive system a head start. Have you ever eaten something so dry that you practically choke to get it down? Next time, try using the 5 senses, wait until your mouth gives consent, and then chew until the food feels wet enough to slide down your throat with ease.

‍

So what happens when this beautiful process goes wrong?

‍

The Domino Effect of Digestion

When things go wrong and we miss the first 5 steps… any number of things can happen. We may experience dry mouth and have trouble swallowing from a lack of saliva. We may have heartburn or acid reflux from undigested food being churned in the stomach and coming back into the esophagus instead of moving down into the small intestine. 

‍

If that undigested food does make it down to the intestines, we may have bloating from the large particles fermenting and creating gasses. If the food continues down to the large intestine rapidly we may have stinky gas and see food in the stool. If the food never gathered enough saliva and enzymes along the way, it may not signal a downward motion and it will sit too long in our colon. If this waste is not exiting the body every day, then no matter how “normal” your doctor says it is, you have constipation.

‍

The main problem with constipation is that food waste has toxins that can be recycled into the body, cause inflammation, and lead to brain fog, allergies, anxiety, and headaches.

‍

If you suffer from indigestion, try using your 5 senses and enjoy your food slowly. You may notice less of the irritating symptoms mentioned above and be able to use less over-the-counter quick fixes that may have debilitating side effects down the road.

‍

Meet with me to discuss your indigestion concerns by scheduling a free 15-minute consultation. You can also follow me on Instagram for mindfulness and nutrition tips to improve your health.

‍