Poor digestion? Simple tips to improve your gut health
If you are usually inactive and have trouble sleeping, you may suffer from poor digestion. Here are tips to improve your digestion from celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar.
One should not underestimate the importance of a good digestion as it's linked to your overall health. A good digestion is important to break down food in order to provide nourishment to the body. What we eat is as important as how we digest it. A good gut health can improve the quality of life and make you more energetic, happy and disease-free.
"The better we eat the better we would be able to digest. A good digestion boosts our skin and hair health, and reduces our chances of getting diseases like diabetes, blood pressure and other non-communicable diseases," says celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar.
Diwekar who encourages people to eat homemade food with seasonal and local ingredients elaborates on signs of a poor digestion in her Instagram LIVE.
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Signs of poor digestion
#1 If you get acidity, gas or feel bloated on a routine basis, then you invariably have poor digestion.
#2 If you feel better in morning than evening and feel bloated in the second half, then that is also a sign of poor digestion.
#3 If you are having trouble sleeping, then it is the third sign of bad digestion.
#4 If you feel like having sweets every day without any celebration and having a mithai or tiny piece of chocolate is the only thing that makes you feel better, then that is also another sign, says Diwekar.
#5 If you are the kind of person who looks for excuses to go to gym, then you must understand that poor compliance to exercising is also a sign of poor digestion.
What is poor digestion
Diwekar explains that if someone is not able to assimilate nutrients despite having access to good and nutritious food, and have low levels of Vitamin D and B 12, it is a sign of a poor digestion.
Diwekar also explains what needs to be done for a good digestion, and things that must be avoided.
Dos for good digestion
1. Finish your lunch with ghee-jaggery: If you crave for something sweet, this combo is a must-try. While ghee is a good fat, this amazing combination also helps with bad breath.
2. Have a banana every day, first thing in morning or as evening snack: Banana is a pre-biotic and a food for good bacteria in your body. Having it daily could boost your digestive health.
3. Set your curd with raisins: This is something which has been advised by our elders and is a time-tested combo. It is both a pre-biotic and pro-biotic and amazing for our gut health.
4. Increase your physical activity/walking: Be it going for a walk, grocery shopping or simply moving around in the house, physical activity plays a big part in digestion process,
5. Nap for 15-20 minutes in the afternoon
Don'ts
1. Don't stay dehydrated: This can be easily resolved by keeping a bottle next to you. It needs to be visible. One way to know if are hydrated or not is to check the colour of your urine. If it's clear, you are not dehydrated.
2. Don't have chai/coffee post 4 pm: Minimise intake of tea, coffee after 4 pm even if it is detox tea or decaf coffee. Don't drink more than 2-3 cups of tea in a day.
3. Don't eat your meals in wrong proportions: Rujuta advises not to have more more dal or sabzi than rice or roti. Dal should be slightly less than rice and sabzi should be less than dal, she says.
4. Don't have laxatives and don't remove ghee, coconut, peanuts, etc from your diet.
5. Don't stay inactive and irregular with exercise.