Good food digestion begins with a good diet and goes from your mouth to your bottom.
But for good food to make you healthy, the digestive system diagram below shows that your digestive system must be healthy too.
If you start with healthy food and all the parts of the digestive system work well, your digestive system will turn that good food into good nutrition. Healthy protein, carbs and fats become healthy energy and immunity.
This means you’ll look better, feel better and be much healthier.
But even with good food, poor digestion cause digestive problems, like gas, heartburn, bloating, bad breath, diarrhea and constipation, or digestive disorders like Crohn’s Disease, GERD or irritable bowel syndrome.
How Does the Digestive System Work?
The first step to good digestion and relieving poor digestion problems is to know your digestive system parts and understand what they do.
Diagram of the Digestive System
Major Parts of the Digestive System
All of the digestive system parts work together for good digestion:
- Mouth: Chewing starts breaking down the food and saliva lubricates and begins the digestive process of carbohydrates.
- Esophagus: This simple tube connects mouth to stomach.
- Stomach: Here’s where the action really begins. Enzymes help digest protein and cause the food to turn into a liquid form.
- Liver: As the center of metabolic activity in your body, your liver’s main role is producing bile salts to digest and absorb fats.
- Pancreas: This is where a potent mixture of digestive enzymes is made for the digestion of fats, carbohydrates and protein.
- Small Intestine: The last stages of enzyme digestion take place in the small intestine, where almost all nutrients are absorbed.
- Large Intestine: Water from food is absorbed here in the colon. Fermentation also takes place and feces are formed.
- Rectum & Anus: Feces waste is stored in the rectum until expelled from the body through the anus as a bowel movement.
Prevention of Poor Digestion Problems
Good digestion and the prevention of poor digestion problems often just requires eating more healthy raw foods and high fiber foods.
Raw fruits and vegetables have plant enzymes that can help with digestion. Choose from the list of fruits, vegetables list and the list of whole grains to help keep food moving through the digestive system.
If you still have poor digestion, food-combining may be necessary. Use this food combining chart – at least until you achieve good digestion.
More Commonsense Health for You:
Probiotic Foods and Natural Supplements
Poor Food Digestion vs Good Food Digestion
High Fiber Foods and High Fiber Supplements
How to Relieve Constipation Naturally in 7 Steps
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