Health Article: The Rest and Digest State!

HOW YOU EAT IS AS POWERFUL AS WHAT YOU EAT!
By Brittany Wood Nickerson, Practicing Herbalist

Our digestive system takes in and breaks down food and experiences. It is through the process of digestion that bits of food are transformed into vital nutrients – complex chemical processes work to extract vitamins and minerals, break down fats into lipids, and proteins into amino acids. A well functioning digestive system has the wisdom to break down, absorb and utilize the nutrition it needs from the food we eat and let go of the parts and pieces that it does not. When digestion is not working well, one can eat the healthiest, most pure, organic food in the world, but not absorb any of the nutrients. In fact, improperly digested food (whether of poor or high quality) over time can lead to larger health concerns. We spend so much time focusing on WHAT we eat in our culture, I think we often forget to look at HOW we eat and whether or not our body is able to process and assimilate nutrition from that food.

Our digestive processes are integrally connected to our nervous system. The enteric nervous system, which has almost as many neurons as the spinal cord, runs the length of our digestive system from our mouth to our anus. The enteric nervous system is responsible for the secretion of digestive enzymes, bile and other fluids, the movement of peristalsis and the opening and closing of sphincters that allow food to pass from one digestive organ to another. The enteric nervous system is often called a second brain because it contains neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that are responsible for communicating and thinking. Tissues that contain these “communicating and thinking” neurons and neurotransmitters (the same as those found in the brain) surround the primary organs of the digestive system – esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine – and are responsible for much of its functioning. When our senses are stimulated (the smell, sight or taste of food are a few examples), the enteric nervous system is triggered to begin the digestive process.

That being said, our digestive processes are influenced by all the same factors that influence our nervous system and to all those things that relax and worry us. When the body is stressed out, anxious, sad or angry, these emotions trigger our sympathetic nervous system, initiating the fight or flight response – when the body is in this state it goes into survival mode and digestion slows way down. On the contrary, when we are relaxed, happy and at ease, the parasympathetic nervous system is active; this is the rest and digest state. When we are in the rest and digest state, the enteric nervous system functions optimally and there is better digestion, absorption and elimination.

If you want to get the most out of your food, to digest properly, the body has to be in a relaxed, parasympathetic dominant state. Otherwise, the enteric nervous system, which makes all these amazing digestive processes work, will be impaired and sluggish. The most important first step is to make space to eat and digest. Making space to eat might include taking a few deep breaths before meals or taking a quiet moment to shut your eyes and soften into your body. A quiet moment of reflection such as this can help to lower the stress response. One of the other important ways that we can make space to enjoy and appreciate the food we eat is to practice gratitude – even if we are just eating a quick snack or a meal on the go. You can express your gratitude toward the food you are eating, those who prepared it or grew it, or to something else entirely. Giving thanks is an act that stimulates a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state, enhancing the digestive process.

There is ancient wisdom in saying grace before meals, as practiced by many cultures around the world.

Digestion is about breaking down, absorbing, processing and letting go of far more than just the food we eat. Supporting healthy digestion is also about acknowledging how we process experiences, emotions and energy. The state and health of our digestion can have a direct impact on our emotional state and vice versa. If you have an irritated, inflamed gut, you will feel irritated in your life. If you have sluggish, slow digestion, you will feel slow, unmotivated and perhaps depressed in your life. Supporting your digestion (including the ways we prepare and consume food) will positively influence how you feel, perceive, respond, react and initiate in your life. Supporting digestion is a broad topic, but here are a few straightforward suggestions to get you started!

Lifestyle and Dietary Suggestions to Support Better Digestion and Absorption:

1. Don’t eat late at night.

2. Eat regular, balanced meals and don’t snack when you are not hungry.

3. Don’t go for long periods without eating, do not suppress or ignore your hunger.

4. Have a bowel movement every day.

5. Do not drink cold liquids with meals.

6. Do not drink more than 6 – 8 oz. of liquid with meals.

7. Give thanks for the food you are eating, for those who grew it and prepared it and for anything else you want to honor.

8. Take a quiet moment before eating to relax and take a few deep breaths.

9. Chew slowly and mindfully.

10. Prepare and eat your food with love (no matter how simple or elaborate the meal).

11. Got bitter? Bitter is the most metabolically active of all flavors, it stimulates the entire digestive process, supports absorption and elimination and is excellent for liver health. Bitter foods include bitter lettuce, radicchio, dark leafy greens like dandelion greens and kale, and herbs like gentian, elecampane, angelica, artichoke leaf and dandelion root.

12. Support your digestive fire with carminative spices. Carminatives increase metabolism and the absorption of nutrients. They also help to relieve gas and bloating. All culinary herbs are carminative, so start cooking with herbs and spices!

13. Eat fermented foods. Fermented foods are full of probiotic bacteria that help support the health of our colon. They support absorption of B vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins and folic acid and play a large role in immunity. Healthy probiotic flora have also been linked to mental and emotional health. Fermented foods include: sauerkraut, kim chi, kombucha, plain yogurt, kefir, sour cream, crème fraiche, buttermilk, lacto fermented pickles, miso, raw apple cider vinegar.

Brittany Wood Nickerson is a practicing herbalist. She grows herbs, keeps a homestead, sees clients, runs an herbal school and writes zines at Thyme Herbal in Amherst Massachusetts. She will be teaching Daily Nourishment at HERBSTALK on June 8th.

Brittany can be found at Thyme Herbal: www.thymeherbal.com

This article was originally posted at: http://herbstalk.org/2013/06/the-rest-and-digest-state-how-you-eat-is-as-powerful-as-what-you-eat/

READ MORE HERE: Rest & Digest By Brittany Nickerson

Book Review: Coping with Heartburn, GERD, SIBO, and IBS

Coping with Heartburn, GERD, SIBO, and IBS
Fast Tract Digestion by Norman Robillard
Reviewed by Rosalind Michahelles, Certified Holistic Health Counselor

For anyone puzzled about GERD (Gastro-esophageal reflux disease) or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) – puzzled despite reading books and seeing doctors, Fast Tract Digestion by Norman Robillard may help.

This ‘alphabet soup’ of digestive ailments is very likely one brew connecting different symptoms that vary according to where you feel the distress. Excessive and painful belching oresophagus is called GERD. If the symptoms are intestinal cramps, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, and flatulence – it may be either SIBO or IBS. (N.B., IBS differs from IBD, inflammatory bowel disease, in that IBD is considered an autoimmune disease and a more serious problem.)

Robillard maintains that GERD stems not so much from the stomach as from the small intestine when there is overgrowth of bacteria normally only found in the large intestine. When e-coli, clostridium, and other bacteria not associated with the small intestine manage to migrate upstream past the ileocecal valve, they cause troublesome fermentation. These very same bacteria in the large intestine may not be problematic; but they don’t belong further up. This “premature” fermentation produces a lot of gas which then forces its way up into the stomach or down into the colon, causing distress in either case: belching and reflux or bloating, cramps, and flatulence, as the case may be.

How to avoid this inappropriate fermentation? Avoid resistant starch and sugar alcohols. What is resistant starch? It is starch in the form of amylase, found abundantly in some carbohydrates. The book helps identify them, as it does with the sugar alcohols, aka polyols, often used as non-carbohydrate sweeteners in processed food, including supplements, toothpaste, chewing gum, etc. In trying to avoid sugar and fructose, manufacturers have turned to polyols with names like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol.

Naturally, with such a list of unfamiliar elements, it’s hard to imagine what’s OK to eat and what isn’t. Fast Tract Digestion does include food lists at the end, though they are not exhaustive. Here’s what the author says is safe: meat, fish, cheese, eggs, nuts, fats and oils. It’s in the fruit and

an acidic return of food from the stomach to the

vegetable realm that the going gets tricky. Robillard describes how to identify the “fermentable potential” of food, but it doesn’t seem easy to do. It’s not enough to look at the carbohydrate content because some carbs – e.g., glucose – is absorbed in the stomach and never gets to the small intestine.

A small irony in following Robillard’s lead here is that high glycemic food, that is food that turns quickly into blood sugar, may be easier for those with SIBO for the very reason that its carbohydrates are digested quicker and therefore aren’t lingering long enough in the digestive tract to cause trouble. So the white rice many abandoned in favor of the ‘healthier’ whole grain brown variety may, in fact be better for you. If you have secretly preferred white rice, here’s an opportunity to rejoice – if you have SIBO.

A positive note in this sea of possibilities is that there is potential for reversibility if the intestines heal and if enzymes needed to break down the difficult carbohydrates flourish again. Can supplements help? The author recommends probiotics, those that should be dominant in the small intestine: lactobacillus acidophilus, and bifidobacterium bifidum in particular as they “are very efficient at breaking down oligoaaccharides such as lactose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose ….in the small intestine.” A diet ample in fermented vegetables and in yogurt with active cultures should also help in this department.

Chapter 8 takes on the competition – other dietary approaches to heartburn and GERD and IBS. There are two that most resemble the Fast Tract diet. One is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet published by Elaine Gottschall in her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. This differs in allowing honey and a number of high-fructose fruits and in eliminating all starches, whereas Fast Tract eliminates as much fructose as possible and distinguishes among starches. (The GAPS diet developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride takes the SC diet a bit further.) The other similar approach has the odd acronym FODMAPS: fermentable oligo-, di-, and monosaccharides and polyols. Based on the research behind this, Patsy Catsos has published IBS-Free At Last. This diet limits lactose, fructose fructans like wheat and onions, polyols from apples and plums etc., and galactans like legumes and some members of the cabbage family. However, according to Robillard, it is deficient in failing to take resistant starch into account.

How should a sufferer tackle this conundrum? One is to buy the Robillard book and use his three appendices to help you navigate. The first includes meal plans and recipes. For more individualistic people who want to make up their own combinations, Appendix B provides 30 pages of common kinds of food and their fermentable potential. The last appendix is a template for

a food journal to track what food produced what results. Here is a rough idea of what to expect:

MEAT & FISH – allLEGUMES – noneSOUPS – miso, brothCRACKERS – rice cakes, crackers COOKIES – shortbread

FLOUR – buckwheat (i.e., no bread)RICE – jasmine, Asian stickyPOTATO – waxy, Yukon goldVEGETABLES – all leaves and stalks, no rootsDAIRY – cream, yogurt, some cheeses: ricotta, cream cheese, brie, Gouda

NUTS – almonds, cashews, walnuts FRUIT – stick with berriesSUGAR, HONEY, etc. — none

The more drastic approach is to consider what all of the books mentioned above recommend and then eliminate all potential hazards before slowly testing different ones by adding them to your diet for a few days. The basic diet would thus have no grains or added sugars, no starchy vegetables (think roots), nothing in the onion or cabbage families, nothing with dairy in it, no legumes. For a couple of weeks, your diet would resemble the Atkins diet – meat, fish, eggs, fat and oils, leafy vegetables, and the occasional berry. Tea and coffee, if taken black, would be OK. This is a tall order! But the research will pay off if you can avoid what makes you sick and even heal your intestines, to boot. Pharmaceutical alternatives tend to have side effects, which tailoring your diet to your own requirements would not have. Be brave! You deserve to feel well.

References:Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Elaine Gottschall, Kirkton Press, 1994. Fast Tract Digestion, Norman Robillard, Self Help Publishing, 2012.Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Natasha Campbell-McBride, Medinform Publishing 2004.IBS-Free At Last, Patsy Catsos, Pond Cove Press, 2008.

Rosalind Michahelles is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor in Cambridge. For questions about this essay or related issues please call 617-491-3239 or visit www.nutrition-matters.info