A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet often have a negative impact on the digestive system. You can change the situation for the better, for example, by diversifying your diet with healthy plant fibers - fiber. This food component, like mineral salts or water, plays one of the main roles in the life of the body, but the average person consumes it half the recommended amount (it is equal to 25–30 g per day). associate professor of the department of faculty therapy of SamSMU, candidate of medical sciences, head of the endoscopy department , told AiF.ru about how to eat properly and what foods to eat to help digestion and stay healthy .
The term “fiber” itself is somewhat outdated, and in most cases we use the term “dietary fiber”. This is the roughest part of the plant, which our gastrointestinal system is unable to break down. There are insoluble and soluble fiber. The first, like a “broom,” helps remove cholesterol, bile acids and digestive waste from the body, which are located in the large intestine. Soluble fiber absorbs large amounts of water and turns into jelly, softening stool and making it easier to pass.
Increased acidity
Our life today is filled with a variety of foods, the ingredients of which can disturb the pH of the stomach towards acidification. And the aggressive effects of hydrochloric acid bring significant discomfort.
If you suspect that you have a similar problem, completely eliminate carbonated drinks. In addition to large amounts of sugar and various additives, carbon dioxide can seriously disrupt the digestion process. You should also avoid fast food and foods containing trans fats and preservatives. In addition, it is necessary to reconsider the diet; it should contain more fresh vegetables, herbs, and healthy cereals. So that your digestion does not let you down, take note of complex preparations of enzymes (enzymes). Enzymes are continuously destroyed during the life of our body, and therefore the process of their synthesis or replenishment from the outside must also continuously occur.
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Drug Evenzym
is a combination of highly effective enzymes of plant and animal origin:
- Pancreatin
is an additional source of pancreatic enzymes that helps improve food digestion. - Bromelain
and
papain
are proteolytic enzymes of plant origin that have the ability to break down proteins and fats. They are resistant to the acidic environment of the stomach and, unlike enzymes of animal origin, work already in the stomach, before food enters the intestines. - Burdock
extract helps normalize metabolism. - Melissa
extract is useful for improving the secretion of digestive glands. - Rutin
helps reduce vascular permeability, increase their tone, improve microcirculation, and is an antioxidant. - Zinc
is one of the microelements essential for humans. It is an integral part of the pancreatic hormone, participates in the processes of protein and nucleic acid metabolism, and the formation of immunity.
This complex increases antimicrobial immunity, reduces inflammation and improves digestion processes.
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Dietary supplement NOT A MEDICINE
The most dangerous foods for your stomach. Top 10 Antiheroes
Unprocessed meat
Venison stroganina, beef tartare - do these lines on a restaurant menu sound tempting and elegant? Yet raw meat is often a recipe for food poisoning, which is caused by bacteria living in it. Due to the lack of heat treatment in meat and poultry, they feel great, but they can have the most negative impact on a person’s well-being.
White rice
Do you know what vinegar is used for when cooking rice in Japanese restaurants? It is used to disinfect a rich product - the fact is that while the dish is cooling, the bacteria Bacillus cereus multiply on its surface, which can lead to acute gastric disease.
wheat sprouts
It would seem, how can such a useful product harm your health? The fact is that it contains lectin protein. It reacts with sugar molecules in the body - this protective mechanism of the plant can cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract, damaging the gastric mucosa. Hence, experts do not recommend eating sprouted wheat for children and people with gastrointestinal problems.
Vegetables, herbs and fruits
Do you think that pre-washed vegetables, herbs and fruits will seriously save you time? Perhaps, but they can be harmful to health. On the one hand, they were washed at production, packaged in beautiful bags and completely prepared for use. On the other hand, they might not have done it well enough. As a result, particles of soil, fertilizers and worm eggs remain on the surface. In addition, bacteria thrive in a humid environment. We add vegetables and herbs to a salad with mayonnaise, and bacteria grow by leaps and bounds. And you are guaranteed to have a fight with an intestinal infection if the dish sits outside the refrigerator for a little while.
Mushrooms
Everyone knows about the dangers of mushrooms: they can easily cause poisoning. “Silent hunting” is a pleasant activity, except that even an experienced mushroom picker is not always easy to distinguish inedible mushrooms from edible ones. For example, the white toadstool, a twin of the forest champignon, causes poisoning, which manifests itself only after three days. But even in the store there is a possibility of stumbling upon dubious forest products. Mushrooms tend to absorb chemicals, and if we don't know where they were collected, there is a danger that the mushrooms could be growing near highways or factories. This means that salts of heavy metals or toxic substances can be found in them.
Fish products and seafood
Seafood delicacies are tasty and at the same time treacherous. Parasites and phytotoxins can lead to serious poisoning. Fish, if stored incorrectly, accumulates histamine and leads to an allergic reaction.
Eggs and products made from them
Everyone who has ever cooked has heard about the need to thoroughly wash eggshells before use. Because eggs may contain salmonella, it is advisable to cook them until fully cooked. Sometimes even prolonged cooking will not bring a disinfecting effect.
Unpasteurized milk and milk products
Raw milk seems more natural to us, and therefore healthier. But unpasteurized drinks contain dangerous pathogens - not all of them die during the production of other dairy products. Making cheese, for example, does not in any way affect the presence of listeria in the product, so derivatives from unpasteurized milk, for example, cottage cheese and cheese, are no less dangerous.
Ice cream
What's scary about this dessert? Not only the danger of gaining excess weight. It turns out that it, like other dairy products, can contain pathogenic bacteria. Lovers of loose ice cream should think about their preferences - storage trays are fraught with danger: they and the scooping spoon are not always disposable and sterile. If for some reason the dessert tray was re-frozen, this increases the risk of getting an intestinal infection.
Sour cream and cream sauces
Salads soaked in sauces are certainly tastier and juicier. But in a day or two they not only manage to brew, but also become a breeding ground for microbes. Butter and sour cream should be added to dishes before serving. Otherwise, you risk getting poisoned. Professional cooks advise boiling soups if sour cream or butter has been added to them.
All products from this list can be tasty and healthy in small quantities if you carefully follow the rules for their storage and preparation.
The results of the examination of champignons - read on the Roskontrol.rf portal
Feeling of heaviness
Does even a small meal cause a feeling of heaviness in your stomach? Review your food plate: is there a lot of cakes and other fatty sweet treats on it? A feeling of heaviness and a tendency to constipation is often a consequence of low fiber intake. Another reason for such discomfort may be overeating, which interferes with proper digestion. Add "Turboslim active fibers" - this is high-quality corn dextrin from a French manufacturer. Dietary fiber entering the stomach:
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- create a long-lasting feeling of fullness, suppressing hunger,
- normalize stools,
- help slow down the absorption of excess glucose in the intestine, preventing its accumulation and restoring carbohydrate metabolism.
Do not forget that this symptom can be a consequence of serious diseases such as gastritis or cholecystitis. If the clinic does not go away after eliminating the above reasons and including medications, seek advice from a specialized specialist.
About separate meals
— How do you feel about the fact that separate nutrition is being actively promoted today?
— In medicine, separate nutrition is scientifically justified only in exceptional cases, for example, if a patient’s stomach has been removed. As a doctor, I would never recommend such a diet to a healthy person.
- Why?
- Because the digestive tract does not adapt to fashion. Whatever nutrition system you adhere to, its processes are unchanged. When you see any familiar food you:
- saliva is already coming out
- gastric juice
that is, the body prepares the conditions for its digestion in advance.
When the food you eat, after chemical treatment with gastric juice, begins to enter the duodenum in separate portions, then at that moment bile and pancreatic juice are released. They are necessary for the breakdown of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.
Now let's assume that you limit yourself to cucumber salad. But the body will still produce lipase to process fat, and will also try to convert proteins. But there is neither one nor the other. There is no substrate for the digestive juices to take up. They stand out, mix and move like a completely unnecessary “product”.
In other words, when eating separately, the digestive organs are stimulated to work in vain. It would be another matter if the same pancreas reacted to vegetables with such pancreatic juice, which would secrete only amylase to break down carbohydrates into simple sugars and assimilate them into the body.
But from this point of view, no one has yet studied separate nutrition. No one has proven that specific enzyme production occurs depending on the foods eaten.
But medicine knows for sure that a balanced diet ensures harmonious development and coordinated functioning of the body. Some substances, for example:
- vitamins
- amino acids
- fatty acid
must be supplied with food, since the human body is unable to synthesize them. Otherwise, so-called nutritional diseases associated with poor nutrition develop. The most important condition is the inclusion of both meat and vegetable dishes in the menu. Proteins:
- enhance hematopoiesis
- strengthen the nervous system
- improve the functioning of all internal organs
- restore cells after serious illnesses.
In medicine, separate nutrition is scientifically justified only in exceptional cases, for example, if a patient’s stomach has been removed
Plant fiber creates a certain volume of contents in the intestines, as well as:
- holds water
- absorbs toxic substances
- and takes them with him.
And the microbes that have settled in the cecum, as I already said, digest them. Of course, it is important to eat regularly - 3-4 times a day - and preferably at the same time.
Proper nutrition helps a person to be less exposed to various diseases, cope with them more easily and live longer. For example, it is known that the Japanese increased their life expectancy when they stopped eating only seafood and began to import meat from Australia.
— What foods and drinks is the stomach wary of and prefers that we not abuse them?
- First of all, this is:
- fried foods
- various creams
- milk and sour cream with high fat content
- salads dressed with mayonnaise
- biscuits and chocolate
- butter
- syrups
- sweet tea and coffee
- artificial fruit juices
- and, of course, alcohol.
Since addiction to alcohol is the main problem of Russians, I want to emphasize two points. Alcohol itself is less toxic than its intermediate product, which even affects genes, not to mention tissues and brain cells. In the latter, for example, alcohol is retained for 3-4 weeks.
And one more thing: a person needs 1.5 thousand calories a day to maintain his body in normal condition and not lose weight. A glass of vodka contains 700 calories. Consequently, after drinking 2 glasses of vodka a day, a person fully provides himself with calories, but not with substances necessary for the body.
This kind of one-sided nutrition leads to:
- hypovitaminosis
- and disorders of mineral metabolism.