Healthy Digestion And How It Works
How Your Digestive System Works?
Sometimes we take the really important things for granted. Read on to understand how your digestive system works and how important healthy digestion is to overall health.
Digestion is something our bodies do every day, but rarely do we consider what’s going on behind the scenes. It seem obvious that when we decide to eat or drink something, this is usually in response to a normal body process – to satisfy hunger or thirst. But for most of us, food is more than just a fuel for life. Eating and drinking are social events, and we often choose when to eat and what to eat based on a variety of factors, from cravings for certain flavors to the convenience of eating at a certain place or a certain time. We enjoy thinking about dishes to prepare, discussing restaurants to try, and meeting up with friends to share a meal. All of this adds to the enjoyment of daily life.
Yet in making these everyday choices, we often forget to ensure that our bodies are well nourished, as nature intended. Without the proper nutrition, our bodies cannot survive. Proper nutrition means more than just a healthful diet – it also requires healthy digestion. Activia products are rare treats that satisfy both our need for improved digestion and our desire for delicious, convenient food.
The digestive system is the central hub that helps to maintain a healthy body. You need a healthy tummy and digestive system to keep the rest of your body nourished and healthy.
Your digestive system breaks down the food you eat in order to absorb valuable nutrients, and also flushes undesirable dietary components out from your body. The efficient, regular removal of waste is just as important as the efficient absorption of nutrients to our overall health, but many of us suffer from irregularity and other problems that inhibit healthy digestion.
Intestinal Transit
Intestinal transit or digestive “transit time” is the term given to the period of time it takes food to travel through your digestive system from start to finish. The length of time taken for our food to travel the whole length of the digestive system varies from meal to meal, but is affected by the amount and type of food we eat. Passage of food along the digestive system is not a uniform speed, as food may pass quickly along one part of the digestive system, yet in another part it may move along quite slowly. The duration of this process may vary, but it should normally be less than 72 hours.
The rate at which foods move along your digestive system can have a profound effect on how you feel. When digestive transit is slower, bloating and other abdominal discomfort can occur as a result. It’s common for people to have the urge to go to the toilet immediately after eating a meal – especially breakfast. This is known as the gastro-colic reflex, and it happens when the nerve receptors in the stomach sense stretching as your meal is eaten. This reflex sends signals to the large intestine to promote peristalsis (the rhythmic movement of food along the digestive tract), and results in the urge to go to the toilet. What you pass is not the food you’ve just eaten, but the remnants of your food intake from hours earlier.
Did you know?
1. The digestive system and the nervous system are closely related – that’s why you often feel like you have “butterflies in your tummy” when you are nervous or excited about something.
2. It used to be thought that we only produce bile salts from our gallbladder when we have fatty foods in our diet. But we actually produce bile every time we eat. Simply chewing food causes your gallbladder to contract – even before the food reaches your intestines where bile kicks into action.
3. You don’t necessarily digest your main meal before your pudding. What you eat sits in the stomach where it’s tossed around, and then small amounts of the mixture are squirted into the small intestine.
4. Water is important for our digestive system to function, so drink 1L to 1.5L of fluid throughout the day to improve digestion. |
