A little personal question here: how is your digestion?  This may seem intrusive, but it is a very important question.  

Why?  Well, if digestion is off, meaning if there is pain, gas, burping, or bowel moment issues such as too fast or too slow elimination, it means we are not getting the most out of the foods we eat.  Getting nutrients out of the foods we eat is the biggest key to health, so this is worth figuring out.

There can be a number of reasons why digestion is not working well, but the biggest reason can be due to the foods we are OR are not eating.  Eating processed foods (white flour, sugar, bad fats, chemicals, colours, pesticides, GMO) can negatively affect digestion and our digestive organs.  This is because processed foods are items that our body is not well equipped to naturally handle.  Often this is due to processed foods causing a lack of fibre, which is a huge support to digestion, and they have chemicals that our liver has to disarm, bad fats that irritate our digestive tract, as well as lack of real live foods and enzymes that donate resources that help digestion.  The missing nutrients themselves are needed to help build our systems to work best.

Here are some suggestions on what can be helpful if digestion is not working well.   

The key is adding in real live foods, which are fibre and enzyme rich ones like veggies and fruit as well as traditionally fermented foods.  

If there is pain and gas and bowel movements are not easy and are not daily and don’t match the #4 bristol stool chart type (Google this), try creating a simple nutrient dense food staple like a vegetable soup (veggies cooked and blended), or a fruit & veggie smoothie.  Try adding in some fermented foods such as kefir, real sauerkraut, kombucha, and apple cider vinegar - a teaspoon of any of those items 10 minutes before eating a meal can stimulate digestion and help get the process going.  

Also don’t forget to make sure you are drinking less dehydrating and processed drinks and more hydrating beverages, mostly water, as that too can help to get things moving.

By using real, live, simple and easy-to-digest foods, you are giving your digestive system what it needs - enzymes and fibre and easy to absorb nutrients.  The basics of real foods are the best place to focus on.  

There are many things you can do to help your digestion. Start by ensuring that you have real foods, all 3 macronutrients, that support digestion and in a form (cooked/blended) so that your body can make use of if it is not working 100%.   There are many simple and delicious recipes for these types of simple food ideas - check out the Quality Greens recipe section for ideas.