Let’s pretend we’re in a coaching conversation for a moment. We’ve built a solid rapport, your functional test results are in, and you’re still experiencing gut symptoms. On your treatment notes, your practitioner has suggested you pay closer attention to your digestion.
Be present with your meal. Slow down. Chew thoroughly.
Yawn.
Not nearly as exciting as the data on those test results, right? And honestly, you’re probably too busy to slow down. Lunch is squeezed into whichever micro moment you offer it – perhaps while in transit, or you might create a physical space at a nice spot outside, but you choose to use this time to also catch up on your social feed. Dinner is eaten in front of a screen or absentmindedly (and let’s face it, most of the time you just want to wrap it up and chill).
And here we are, ready to chat about digestion. It’s one of my favourite chats, because I’m a visual person, and I imagine all of the parts of the digestive process – what happens, when and how. And you just told me that you saw some actual food in your poop. To which I will ask with a gentle smile, “If you chewed your food well, how could you have food particles in your poop?”.
Let’s take a step back. Why are we paying attention to digestion? Do you have symptoms like bloating, gas (up or down stream), tummy pains, changes in your bowel movements, fatigue, skin issues, or do you experience reflux, heartburn, or indigestion? By the time your body is giving you this feedback, we most certainly need to bump this chat up to the top of the coaching menu.
Here’s the cool thing: Sometimes, it can feel like what’s happening in your body is totally out of your control, like your gut is rebelling against you. But when it comes to digestion, you have a lot of influence over how it all works and what your body pays attention to.
And now, let’s dive into my digestion story.
The first step in digestion: It starts before you eat
Take a moment now and think about your favourite, yummiest food or meal. A warm croissant, a ‘just out of the oven’ cookie, a big roast, fresh veggies…. Go there now. Does your mouth produce saliva just at the thought of it?
That’s the first step in digestion. Mental preparation. Your body doesn’t know if that food is on a plate in front of you or not, but nevertheless, it’s begun the process of preparing for its arrival. The digestive forces have been dispatched!
There are two key parts to digestion:
- Breaking down (catabolising)
- Taking up (absorbing/metabolising)
Breaking down involves firstly chewing, then all of those enzymes and digestive secretions that further break down your food. After spending time in the stomach being exposed to stomach acid and enzymes, it is ready to be dispatched for the next step. In the production line of digestion, what is expelled from your stomach at this stage is called chyme. This thick, semi-liquid substance consists of finely broken-down food particles, small enough to allow for optimal absorption in the intestines.
I like to think of this breaking down process as happening above the ribline. If you pop your arm across your mid ribs, you can think of the breaking down section of digestion happening above this invisible digestive equator.
Part two is absorption. Nutrients are moved into your system for distribution and utilisation. That happens from your small intestine down. That long, narrowish sausage-like section that is covered with microvilli – shag carpet-like in appearance. The villi create the pathway through to your bloodstream, where that broken-down food’s nutritional properties get ferried across for uptake and use.
Part three, not included in this story, is of course excretion – the garbage system taking out the trash. If you can’t use it, you should lose it.
Now, let’s talk about the key question: What happens if you don’t chew your food properly?
When it comes to digestion, you have ONE opportunity to have a massive impact on the whole process of digestion. Chewing. It is also the only conscious, voluntary part of digestion because beyond the mouth, it’s all a mix of mechanical and chemical processes – with digestive enzymes, pancreatic enzymes, bile, and hydrochloric acid all playing key roles in breaking down what you consumed.
The more thoroughly you chew your food, the more you’re setting up the rest of your digestive system for success. Once you swallow, it’s up to the gastric gods to continue the breaking down of your meal.
I often think of the stomach a bit like a washing machine. You know when you overfill it, cramming towels or sheets or a footy team’s worth of clothes into the machine? The water can’t contact all surfaces, the cleaning agents don’t get where they need to, and your items come out less than squeaky clean. Well, same with your stomach.
Why rushing your meals disrupts digestion
Here’s what happens when digestion is rushed:
- Eating too quickly: When you don’t chew your food well, the enzymes and stomach acid can’t fully break down the food. Larger pieces of food stay in the stomach longer, leading to indigestion
- Overeating: If your stomach is too full, there’s no room for the digestive juices to do their job. Your body struggles to break down the food properly
- Distraction or stress: Eating while distracted (hello, screens!) or stressed tells your body to focus on the “fight or flight” mode, not digestion
I once coached someone who had an ileostomy bag (after a bowel removal, this acts as a replacement large colon and sits externally), and this person also exclaimed they could see whole food appearing in the bag. When I asked if they were chewing properly, they admitted they hadn’t been. Once they focused on chewing more thoroughly, the issue improved.
And then there was a man in his 30s, with a range of symptoms. He’d made great progress, and one day we were chatting and he said something like “I’m feeling so much better, but I’m craving sugar, I’m feeling a bit bloated, I’m also tired”. When I asked him how his mindful eating was going, he admitted he wasn’t paying much attention to it. So, I suggested an experiment:
“What if, for the next week, the ONLY thing you pay attention to is HOW you eat. Before you eat anything, slow down, take a breath, and give yourself the space to enjoy your meal. Place your cutlery down after each mouthful. Aim to be the slowest at the table”.
He agreed.
Not only did he do the above, but he thoroughly enjoyed using chilled music to further create a calming atmosphere. At our next call, he told me that every single symptom he had told me about had gone. No bloating, more energy, bowels were performing at gold medal levels, no more cravings. He enjoyed his meals more, finding he appreciated the flavours more, and he recognised fullness more easily. It was obvious that this one thing was a big deal.
The key here is the parasympathetic nervous system – the “rest and digest” mode. When you chew slowly and mindfully, you’re telling your body it’s time to digest, heal, and replenish. It’s important because the way you set the scene for digestion – what you watch, what you’re thinking, how you’re chewing- all tell your body what to expect. The slower and more thoroughly you chew, the more your body is able to take the fuel and convert it into energy, or growth, or healing.
It is simple, but not easy.
Deep, slow breathing is one of the most effective ways to stimulate the vagus nerve, your body’s “rest and digest” switch. A simple technique like the 4-7-8 breath – inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7, and exhale for 8 – helps your body shift into a calm, digestive state before meals. Practising this for just a minute before eating can support vagal tone and improve digestive function.
Slowing down, putting your cutlery down between bites, using a deep breath to ready the body for optimised digestion, chewing until you can’t feel any solid mass in your mouth – these are all ways to help your body with digestion. It won’t always be the complete story, but I promise you, your stomach and colon will thank you for the time and attention you give.
Hundreds of patients have told me why this is difficult. We live in a fast world. But we must pay attention to what our bodies tell us – the subtle and not so subtle feedback by way of symptoms and sensations.
If you’re up for the challenge, here are some things to consider when aiming for a focus on optimising digestion:
- Be intentional. Set up time to purely eat. Do not tack your mealtime onto another task
- Put your cutlery down in between mouthfuls. This makes a huge difference to the consciousness of how rapidly you’re filling your mouth!
- Screens off. For many, this is the clincher. Screens have been bundled into the pleasure experience of eating. For my dodgy digestive compadres, it might be time to reprioritise and give your system the best chance here
- Take a couple of breaths before you eat. Low and slow – through the nose, nice long exhale. What does this do? Tells your body to pay attention to the rest, digest, repair and reproduce branch of your autonomic nervous system (aka parasympathetic nervous system)
- Stimulate the vagus nerve. Gentle practices like deep breathing, humming, or even a short cold splash on the face can help activate the vagus nerve – a key player in calming the nervous system and supporting digestion.
- Don’t rush off as you swallow the last bite. The digestive experience goes beyond having food in your mouth. If you’re able, just cushion your meal time with a little bit of space to further enhance your digestive performance
As I always say, let’s just experiment and see how it feels.
If you notice no improvement after a week, move on and try something else.
But if you notice positive changes, then it’s great feedback that how you eat has an influence on your body’s ability to digest well.
