5 steps to better digestion as you age
Drinking more water or consciously adding more fibre to your diet are some important habits to follow to support your digestion as you age. However, some lesser-known tips are supporting your stomach acid and the proper release of stomach acid, something which factors such as stress or caffeine intake can easily hinder.
Here I run through my advice in more detail, as to how you support your digestion for years to come:
1. Drink enough water
Water is extremely important for your digestion in order to help keep everything moving along and regular.
An important piece of advice is to keep your water slightly apart from your meals (by at least 15 minutes on either side) in order to help protect the very specifically strong acidic gastric secretions. We rely heavily on our stomach acid to break down the food we eat, absorb all our key nutrients, and keep bad bacteria such as H. Pylori at bay.
And interestingly, when it comes to keeping up your water intake, there is some research that suggests that our thirst signals actually start to deplete a little bit more as we get older. (1) Therefore, it may arguably be more crucial than ever to consciously keep up with your water intake.
2. Support your stomach
I'm really passionate about spreading the message about stomach acid. We need enough stomach acid, and contrary to popular belief having too little stomach acid (as opposed to too much), is physiologically much more likely, especially as we get older or if we experience stress.
One of the first things you can do to help gently stimulate your natural stomach acid secretions is to chew properly. Mindful eating habits can be a lovely approach to take, in order to purposely help slow down the eating process, really focus on it, and enjoy it. This will also naturally help to prevent you overeating, which is also going to be a benefit for your digestion!
As chewing is such an important aspect of the digestive process, it's also important to keep on top of any dental issues that could potentially hinder your chewing, especially chewing some of the sturdier, yet healthy dietary structures such as fibres.
Something else you can then do to help gently support your stomach acid production is to introduce some bitter tasting herbs, such as those contained in Digestisan. The herbs artichoke or boldo may be something you struggle to get in enough of through your diet, so instead, why not introduce them in drop form, before every meal.
3. Keep up with fibre
Not only do we need to continue to include enough fibre, but variety is also absolutely key; I talk lots about aiming to eat the colours of the rainbow, and this is important to ensure you get a nice amount of plant-based foods in, containing a wide variety of nutrients, phytonutrients and antioxidants.
The best options to include? Think fruits, vegetables, whole grains and whole foods including different beans, pulses and lentils, and all this fibre will help to keep your gut healthy and encourage a diverse microbiome.
See, your microbiome is made up of influential gut bacteria that can use fibre from your diet as their own immediate source of food, and these are what we call 'prebiotics.' Then if were keen to go a step further and add in something like a helpful probiotic, these prebiotics will have already done their job, and help to support the viability of any probiotics you then introduce. Happier gut all round!
So, these fibre-rich foods are not only going to be directly beneficial for your gut, but they also help to slow the release of any sugars or simple carbohydrate units from your diet as well, which is always going to be beneficial as we get older. Fibre is also very protective of our cholesterol levels as well.
4. Cut the caffeine
I've mentioned water, and just to clarify, we want to aim for a minimum water intake of one and a half, to two litres of water throughout the course of the day. When it comes to any caffeinated drinks - these should be over and above your water consumption (so no, they don't count towards this total!). Then, upping your water intake (you can mix it up and have it chilled, warm, with some fruit and herbs in), doesn't actually leave too much more room for too many caffeinated drinks – result.
If you do drink caffeinated drinks, try and keep them limited, and stick to the earlier portion of the day. Caffeine in itself, and also other constituents in coffee, potentially separate from the caffeine (2), can ask as an irritant to the digestive tract.
You may have noticed this to some degree already. And caffeine is thought to work in some strange ways when it comes to your digestion. Firstly, it can have quite an immediate, overstimulating effect on your digestion (not in a good way though, more of a, running quickly to the loo, kind of way!).
But then on the opposite end of the spectrum, caffeine can ignite your internal stress response, which especially with regular consumption, can risk switching off your digestion (lack of appetite or problems with acid reflux, can be some tell-tale signs of this, longer-term).
5. Keep moving
As we get older, gentle weight-bearing exercises can be especially beneficial for your muscles and joints. But for your digestion, in particular, the 'little and often' mantra for moving is going to be a plus point here too.
See, moving regularly and rhythmically can help to gently massage your digestion into action and therefore can be another approach to help protect against constipation.
Moving regularly (even more so if you can manage this outside) is also going to help reduce stress. Getting out there into the sunshine (even winter sun!) and fresh air is a fantastic stress-reduction technique, and we now know that this could well have some positive effects on your stomach acid.
Finally, moving a little more can also help to support a healthy weight as well. See, excess weight around your middle can easily put pressure on your liver, which is a key digestive organ that we should strive to protect.
Extra weight or restrictive waist bands can also put pressure on the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS) at the top of your stomach, which can also contribute to symptoms such as acid reflux. Lots of reasons there to reach for your walking shoes every once in a while.
