Digestion is influenced by several factors. The time of eating, sleeping time, psychological pressures, dehydration, nutritional deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies, work stress, enzymatic disorders, chewing patterns and excessive eating.
Despite all the causes, the climax is that your body does not get sufficient nutrition at the end of the day. Improper digestion is the major cause of many diseases. Where the major results of improper digestion are constipation and diarrhea, the nutritionists say that liver, kidneys and even heart are influenced by the digestive disorders. The metabolism suffers the most in such cases, and so the skin!
Principles of Optimized Digestion
Eating Time
Divide your eating time into 6 panels, rather than 3 major meals. Consume lots of fruits and fresh vegetables in the morning, and for the rest of the day, divide your portions of meal in a manner that your last meal has completed 5 hours before going to the bed.
Adopt Good Post-meal Habits
You eat a good portion of raw food and then jump directly into the bed? Or go for a walk? Even a slow walk? Well, all such habits are simply bad for the meal just taken in the stomach. Our body takes at least 20 minutes to digest the meal, for which the position of the body should not put pressure on the stomach for better functioning. Also, don’t drink while eating. Rather, eat water, as described earlier. Maintain a gap of 1 hour for exercise before and after the meal.
Water Intake
Dehydration is one of the major causes of digestive disorders. Water intake should be based on 30 minutes before meal and 1 hour after the meal.
Make Good Food Combinations
Everyone is not a nutritionist, but this e-book has already provided you with lots of basic understanding about the foods so that you can make good combinations of the foods. Other guidelines include the following;
- Keep the fruits and vegetables separate from each other.
- Eat one type of food at one time. The type of food might depend on proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins, etc.
- Don’t mix starchy vegetables with fruits.
- Raw vegetables and concentrated foods make good combinations.
- Keep nuts and dry fruits as a separate meal.
Sleep Well
An 8 hour sleep at night detoxifies the body and strengthens its metabolism. Detoxification ensures a proper digestion throughout the next day.
Stop Stress Eating
Stress and depression are one of the basic reasons of excessive and unidentified eating. People eat any type of food while they are stressed. You should make sure that you do not eat while you are stressed. Write on a chart sheet or a big paper ‘NO STRESS EATING’ and place it somewhere near the refrigerator or in kitchen. Here is a stress release exercise also.
Sit on the floor with a straight back. Put a slight pressure with one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest. Consider yourself in a glowing light. Consider yellow or white color for light. Take a deep breath and exhale it out in a manner that your stomach moves out but your hand on the chest does not move or moves a little. Continue for 1 minute, and your stress will be relieved!
pH Maintenance
People familiar with chemistry know about the pH balance. However, for the unfamiliar people, it can be easily defined as the level of alkalies and acids in the bodies. PH is calculated on the pH scale. The pH scale is comprised of 14 points. If the reading comes from point 0 to point 6.9, then the liquid is acidic, and if the reading comes from point 7.1 to 14, then the liquid is basic or alkaline. However, the reading at point 7 indicates that the liquid is neutral.
The pH level in the human body is represented in terms of the pH level of the blood, which should be 7.4 ideally. However, a range of 6.8 to 7.8 is also acceptible. If the pH level of the blood falls out from the ideal range, there are problems in respiratory system and metabolic activities. The metabolism is a key to maintain a clean and clear skin. Disturbed pH level in the blood fails to strengthen the skin in fighting against the external and internal harmful bodies, and finally results in infections, including acne and Candida.
Symptoms of A Poor PH Level
- Leg cramps
- Loss of energy
- Low body temperature
- Gastritis
- Hives
- Teary eyes
- Stress
- Sensitive teeth
- Frequent infections
- Dry skin
- Brittle nails
Test For pH Level
The best way to test the pH level of the blood is blood test in a certified physician’s laboratory.
A home test is done through saliva and urine. Just when you wake up in the morning, collect the saliva in your mouth and spit it in a bottle. If it contains too many bubbles, then the pH level is acidic. However, if the bubbles disappear after 30 seconds or 1 minute, then the pH level is alkaline.
The urine test is also done in the very morning. Let the urine flow and take sample until a lot of urine has been dispatched from the body. Urine with too many bubbles and yellow color is acidic, and urine with slight bubbles and slight yellow color is alkaline.
However, for both the home tests, it is highly recommended that the samples should be taken to the laboratory to get accurate estimates.
Treating Disturbed pH
Following is the list of raw foods with which one can treat the disturbed pH levels. However, the treatment and the intake of foods should be based on the levels of pH and the requirement of alkaline or acidic foods.
Very Highly Alkaline Foods
- Dates, raisins, Dandelion greens, banana and Swiss chard.
Highly Alkaline
- Avocado
- Carrot
- Peach
- Sour grapes
- Yellow bananas
- Chives
- Plum
- Pomegranate
- Raspberries
Medium Alkaline and Alkaline
- Blueberries
- Eggplant
- Bamboo shoots
- Apple
- Agar
- Chestnuts
- Cherries
- Cauliflower
- Mango
- Lettuce
- Lime
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Grapefruit
- Gooseberry
- Apricot
- Melons
- Guava
Highly Acidic
- Sugarcane
- Wheat grain
- Barley
- Honey
- Dry lentil
- Artichoke
- Walnut
- Millet
- Soybeans
Medium Acidic and Acidic
- Pecans
- Egg yolk
- Dry coconut
- Chestnuts
- Sweet grapes
- Dry beans
- Asparagus
Recommendation
For a balanced diet, one should take in 35% of the acidic food and 65% of the alkaline food.
