Just about every one of us could be doing a little more to support our gut health and improve top to bottom digestion. No matter how healthy your diet is, if you aren’t able to properly digest the food you are eating, you won’t be absorbing all those nutritional benefits. Yup that’s right – that pricey well balanced grain bowl you’ve been munching on won’t be doing you much good if your GI system can’t fully digest the nutrients.

That being said, there are some quick fixes you can start practicing right now to improve your digestion. No need to invest in functional gut testing or personalized supplement protocols at this point – start with these easy tips that won’t cost you a dime.

Here we gooooo:

✨ Eat bitter foods – bitters can work wonders. Try things like putting citrus zest on salads or in your water, sip apple cider vinegar before meals, add more arugula, endive or radicchio to your salads or drink a cup of dandelion tea at night. Bitters help release bile and get digestive juices flowing like stomach acid, pepsin (breaks down proteins) and pancreatic enzymes. Bitters also help with acid reflux by strengthening the muscle between your esophagus and stomach.

✨ Add variety to your plate – it’s easy to get in a routine of eating the same thing daily (I certainly have my favorites!), but your gut benefits from a variety of plants. Remember, “eat the rainbow” doesn’t apply to just Skittles! The more variety (fruit, veg, nut, seeds, beans, whole grains) you eat, the more prebiotic and probiotic foods you’ll eat, diversifying your gut microbiome. Each time you go grocery shopping, try buying 1 new piece of produce you’ve never tried before. 

✨ Take 3 deep belly breaths before eating. Our nervous system is divided into two parts, the sympathetic, also known as fight or flight and the parasympathetic nervous system, known as rest and digest. Only one system can be activated at a time. If we are stressed when we eat, digestion is actually shut off. Slow down and shift into that zen state before chowing down 😎

✨ Chew your food – but really! This not only takes a load off your entire digestive system but it allows digestive enzymes to extract even more nutrients for your cells to absorb. I tell clients to go from just a couple chews per bite, to really trying to exaggerate the process and chew each bite 10-20 times. This will also force you to slow down, increase your awareness around satiation, and make you more present and mindful while eating. Win win!