Did you miss me? I sure know that I’ve really missed you!

Today we are celebrating ONE glorious month since the opening of www.TanyasCafe.com and with things settling down and my team rocking the show, I’m officially back to writing you weekly updates. Boom!

To celebrate in true nutritional style, I’ve got some tips for improving a serious problem to so many of us- zee digestion.

Many continuously wonder why they are buying so many supplements but aren’t seeing any improvements. Or why they are eating the healthiest foods, only to end up frustrated because the chubster weight and the lousy energy are still there.

Think about this: if you are eating the greatest foods and supplements in the world, but your digestion is out of whack, you are not absorbing any minerals, so you are actually becoming mineral deficient. If all those supplements/ vitamins/ minerals don’t come out the other end whole (!!), they pile up inside of your gut and actually begin aggravating you- bloating, inflammation, yeast overgrowth, bad bacteria, parasites and acid overload are usually the first signs of a more serious disease. Clearly this is a biggie that needs your immediate attention.

HOW DO I TEST MY DIGESTION?

You’ve read the above, you nodded, you probably don’t need to be told that something is up with your digestion. Yet still a little proof wouldn’t hurt and could just be the motivation you need. Drink 125ml of freshly juiced beetroot and see if the colour of your stools changes. If it ain’t brown, but contains pink pigments, the beet’s nutrients didn’t get assimilated.

WHAT CAUSES A DIGESTION DISORDER?

To improve your digestion is to increase the level of hydrochloric acid in your stomach. Too much stress, alcohol, years of bad diet and overeating can really dry out the hydrochloric acid and when it isn’t present to break down all the foods that land on it, there’s nothing to dilute the calcium, zinc, iron, B vitamins etc etc and therefore there’s no way for them to be carried to the cells of your body that are longing for them.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF POOR DIGESTION?

Amongst hundreds, here are the most common: hair loss, adult acne, multiple food allergies, heartburn, iron deficiency, undigested food in your stools, bloating, constipation and yeast infections.

HOW DO I IMPROVE MY DIGESTION?

1. The 20/40 rule!

For my long time followers and those who’ve completed the Acid Alkaline Breakthrough, this is the one rule you’d remember me drilling harder than any others. Your body was designed to have everything it needs for good digestion, please don’t dilute the hydrochloric acid in your stomach with liquids when you are eating solids. Remember the 20/40 rule, which is about drinking liquids at least 20 mins before a meal and 40 minutes after a meal.

2. Chew Chew Chew Chew Chew Chew Chew.

Remember to chew. We take our god given skills for granted and more often than not, just gulp down the food and swallow it too fast. This stresses your whole system, because your stomach just wasn’t prepared for what was about to hit it and the food just sits there in one bit chunk aggravating your beautiful body, next is bloating, followed closely by heartburn. When you begin to chew, the brain registers this jaw moving action and sends signals to your stomach to start preparing. The stomach (it’s a muscle) begins pumping the hydrochloric acid and by the time your foods reaches it, there is enough there to break it down further fast.

3. Sip a little and often.

Rather than a lot and fast. Allow me to paint you a picture: you go for a run and get so thirsty that you rush to a water tap and almost choke on the buckets of water you never thought you’d see again. Your system gets flooded and flood can only mean one thing- panic. Your body goes into panic, but its instant reaction is to defend you and settle the panic, so it sets into action to get rid of anything which set it off in the first place. In this case, it’s the buckets of water, which it quickly rejects and gets you to pee almost immediately. With that, water wasn’t assimilated, so your cells never got a chance to become hydrated.

4. Eat fibre.

There is soluble and insoluble. We need both and the RDI is 30g, but we only consume about 7-12g, sometimes less. Cooked food has little to no fibre in it, but chia, flaxseeds, psyllium husks, apples, prunes, greens, sprouts, seeds, peas, oats, beans and veggies have plenty. Fibre is also negatively charged, while toxins, medications and excess sugars are positively charged, so fibre will absorb them and release them out of the body like nothing else.

5. No starchy foods with protein.

Digestion of each requires a different part of your digestive tract and when you overload the system with this serious food combination, it doesn’t like it and it’s not gonna play nice. Ask yourself which you’d like to have more- a starch (potato, pasta, root vegetables, rice) or a protein (beans, eggs, fish, nuts, seeds), then eat that on its own with plenty of raw salad greens. If you still want the other, give the first 40 minutes to digest, then enjoy the other one also with raw salad greens.

6. Eat fermented foods.

When your digestion is not 100%, eat foods that are pre-digested. Sauerkraut, kimchee, home pickles and kombucha are all examples of pre-digested foods, because they’ve gone through a fermentation process and were partially broken down. Better yet, make these yourself with additional probiotics to better your intestinal flora, boost pH levels and aid with the assimilation of nutrients.