POOR DIGESTION LINKED TO OVERACIDITY

POOR DIGESTION LINKED TO OVERACIDITY

Bev Dunne

After the overindulgences of the holiday season, sometimes we may find our heartburn is worse or our digestive system doesn’t seem to be working as well.This may be because our bodies have become more acidic.As I mentioned last week often our arthritis and gout may flare up at this time of the year, for the very same reason – we have overindulged in foods and drink which have caused our bodies to become more acidic.

For many years I have been focused on maintaining the right acid/alkaline balance in my body through diet as well as drinking barley grass every day in a juice, plus drinking alkalising water. Interestingly one of the benefits I noticed not long after starting my barley grass/juice regime was a dramatic improvement in my digestive system. All my life I had suffered from a very poor digestive system. I had tried many regimes and supplements with varying degrees of success. However, after focusing on alkalising my body, my digestive system improved 100%. To be quite honest I was absolutely stunned at the results as it wasn’t really a benefit I had expected.

This prompted me to further investigate why there had been such a significant improvement in my digestion. Once again putting it simply - for good digestion, our gut needs to produce hydrochloric acid help to digest our food. It’s believed when our bodies are over acidic, the gut doesn’t produce hydrochloric acid thinking the body already has sufficient acid – hence the poor digestion. The other concern with poor digestion is undigested food becomes acidic in our stomach and intestines causing excessive acid to be absorbed into our bloodstream and being stored as fat.

The more research I did on maintaining the correct acid/alkaline balance the more I became convinced this was one of the keys to good health.Obviously eating the right foods is important. Ideally, we should eat 80% alkaline foods and 20% acidic. Unfortunately, our western diet seems to be the opposite to this, with more of an overconsumption of acidic foods. However, for those wanting to find an easier way I suggest to at least drink alkalising water every day as well as drinking alkalising greens such as barely grass powder in juice. There are also several combinations of powdered alkalising greens available which are very popular.

Several months ago, I also wrote about a formula containing glutamine, slippery elm, marshmallow, turmeric, chamomile, globe artichoke, aloe vera and zinc.This is an excellent formula to take in conjunction with barley grass powder. Whilst alkalising the body with barley grass powder, this gut healing formula may also help to heal the gut lining, plus bring down inflammation in the gut as well as prevent Leaky Gut Syndrome.The addition of globe artichoke is ideal as globe artichoke is believed to an excellent herb for looking after and restoring our liver and who doesn’t need that at this time of the year.Not only does it protect our liver it also plays a role in protecting and restoring the health of our gallbladder which is beneficial in aiding sluggish digestion.

As with all health issues, it is important to take a holisitic approach when addressing the problem which is why taking both barley grass powder and gut healing herbs may be more beneficial.

If you wish to check your acid/alkaline levels you may collect your FREE TEST KIT from our store as well as a chart setting out acid/alkaline foods.

For more information on this subject call in to see Bev and the team at Go Vita, Your Health Shop at 5 North St, Batemans Bay or phone on 44729737. Don’t forget to tune in to Bev on 2EC every Wednesday at 12.30pm on Go Get Healthy.