Improving Digestion

One of the biggest detractors we’ll experience to our everyday quality of life is poor digestion (i.e. bloating, pain, acid reflux, constipation, flatulence and diarrhoea). These things really tend to put a downer on your day. 

We don’t often discuss it, but the vast majority of us experience these symptoms on a near-daily basis, especially those over 30 and especially when we eat the wrong foods. The great news is that by keeping a watchful eye on your diet and getting in tune with how you feel, you may be able to start doing some detective work on what is causing these problems. 

Of course, stress plays a role, as do more chronic health complications and medications, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some real low hanging fruit right in front of you that could unlock a lot more freedom for digestive discomfort. Remember that you have a unique digestive system so take any preconceived understanding of the health merits of a given food out of the equation; if you can feel that it makes you feel bad, it doesn’t matter how ostensibly healthy it is. For example, I struggle with garlic, I always have, so I don’t eat it. I also know that it has numerous medicinal properties, but for me, the discomfort is not worth the particular health merits, I can seek them elsewhere from foods that are better tolerated. 

In a similar vein, if you are sensitive to histamine you may struggle with spinach for example, or if you don’t tolerate salicylates well you are likely to struggle with berries, so this is worth consistently keeping an eye on. 

Tip: Make a note of foods that seem to always have been present when you experience discomfort when we come to review your meal plan at the end of your training block we can start to take these out of future plans