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Digestion

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Digestion is intricate and complex and yet relatively robust. And it is intimately

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connected to how you feel and function each day. From your energy to the fat you sourc
burn, the texture and appearance of your skin to whether you have a bloated
tummy or not, right down to your mood. Digestion is responsible for so much that
goes on inside us. Below are some signs and symptoms that your body may be
giving you to tell you that your digestive system needs some additional attention.

Signs and symptoms

• Reflux and/or indigestion. • Gut pain (all gut pain needs to be

• Recurring bad breath.
• Recurring bad taste in your mouth.
• Recurring diarrhoea.
• Recurring constipation or
fecal impaction.
• Intermittent bouts of diarrhoea
and constipation.
• Bloated, abdominal distension.
• Excessive wind (based on
your perception).
• Offensive odour to flatulence.
• Pale stools.
• Black stools (this must be
investigated by your doctor first).
• Frothy stools.
• Poorly formed stools (put simply,
the ideal stool looks like a sausage).
• Food visible in stools.
• You feel stressed regularly.
investigated by your doctor first).
• If you have travelled and had
diarrhoea (and this has ceased),
but you haven’t felt the same since.
• Your tummy makes noises and you
can hear them, particularly at night.
• Unexplained fatigue (other causes
ruled out).
• You feel lousy/worse after eating.
• You regularly overeat.
• You burp/belch a lot; even water
sometimes makes you burp.
• You feel like you are becoming
sensitive to foods, or more and
more foods.
• You experience what I refer to as
“incomplete evacuation”.
• You rarely feel hungry (and this is
not due to overeating).
• You feel hungry. You start eating
but then you feel full very quickly.
• You feel “addicted” to
some foods.
• You take medication regularly.
• You have taken antibiotics
many times.
• You have been diagnosed with
depression (at least 80 percent of
serotonin is made in the gut).
• Your bowel habits are unpredictable.
• Your skin is congested, breaks out
easily and unpredictably, or tends
toward redness/inflammation.

• You tend to experience low moods.

Solutions
Digestion is central and essential to every process in our body. Although digestion
is not one of the nine factors in this course, I wanted you to understand this
process first, as it is the base from which we’ll build. So, whether your focus is
weight loss, optimising your health and wellbeing, and/or improving
a challenging gut, understanding your digestive system is a crucial step to
achieving long-term, sustainable weight loss.

• Slow down! Chew your food.

• Eat real food. Avoid processed food. Provide your body with what it has the
equipment to digest.

• Include fats and/or proteins with each meal. You are less likely to be hungry
again quickly and more likely to easily eat less total food across the day than if
you simply eat carbohydrates on their own.

• If you worry that you don’t eat enough vegetables for optimum health, focus on
increasing your intake of plants. Whole foods are best. Or you can juice pure
vegetables. Or make smoothies so you get the whole plant. You might prefer
to use one small piece of fruit in these drinks initially for taste but aim to reduce
the fruit content over time. Or if you travel or are busy, and making smoothies is
not going to happen for you, use an organic green drink powder (usually made
from ground-up vegetables) available from health food stores.
• Eat less. Reduce your portion size by one quarter, especially in the
evening if you overeat, and see how you feel.

• Wake your stomach acid up before eating by using lemon juice in

warm water or apple cider vinegar (ACV) before meals, breakfast
in particular.

• Drink water between meals, not with meals.

• Use the strategies in this course to ensure efficient bowel evacuation.
• Omit a food you feel you cannot live without for a trial period of four weeks.
The first four to seven days will be the most difficult but persevere. The results
may be enormously worth it.

• Use a herbal anti-parasitic if your digestion challenges began after a gut

infection. This is best guided by an experienced health professional.

• Working with a wonderful traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner can

also assist you to heal your gut.

• Apply food-combining principles if this appeals and utilise the zigzag principle if
that makes it more sustainable.*

• Try aloe vera juice to start your day if you have a particularly irritated gut.
• Bone broth contains substances that can assist with healing gut
integrity. It’s a very nutrient-dense food.

• Look at your food while you eat it. Do not read or watch TV while you eat.
• Eat in a calm state.

*For more information on food combining and zigzag strategies please see my
book Accidentally Overweight.