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You frequently hear that certain foods are easy on the digestion. When you’re sick, folks recommend you to eat food that’s easy for digestion. This is particularly true for illness involving the organs of the digestive track. Examples are GERD, upset stomach, diarrhea and indigestion to mention a few.

Be simple on digestion

Following factors need to be considered when we are talking about foods that are easy on the digestive tract. Certain foods, like chili peppers, hot spices, caffeine and alcohol cause aggravation along the gastrointestinal tract. It would be easy on the digestion in the event you avoided food things that caused aggravation along the gastrointestinal tract.

GERD

If you had long-term GERD, your esophagus lining could be inflamed. In this case even citrus fruits or berries can lead to irritation to the esophagus and provide you heartburn like feeling due to the acidity.

Stomach carries plenty of strong acid. The strong acids are needed for proper digestion. And the gut’s inner lining is equipped to deal with strong acids with no issues.

But esophagus cannot tolerate these powerful antioxidants. Normally the valve between the stomach and the esophagus guarantees that the stomach contents do not spill into the esophagus.

What to do?

Foods such as chocolate, peppermint and spearmint causes the valve between the stomach and the esophagus to relax and open up, when it isn’t supposed to. This may lead to the acid stomach to spill into the esophagus and provide you heartburn.

Acidic foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and tomato based products and citrus fruit juices, when consumed alone on empty stomach increases heartburn. Because they raise the stomach acid content and with the probability of spilling more acid from the stomach into the esophagus.

Fatty foods slow down stomach emptying. This means food remains longer in the gut. Provided that the food is there in the gut, there’s more strain on the lower esophageal sphincter, the valve between the esophagus and the stomach. This implies more likely hood of acid spilling into the esophagus.

Good To Know

Too much food also causes stomach to expand and increase stress on the lower esophageal sphincter.

Similarly carbonated drinks release gas in the stomach and distend the stomach. This causes increased stress on the lower esophageal sphincter.

The heartburn sensitivity to various kinds of foods is quite personal. For instance some people may tolerate spicy foods with no problems whatsoever and others can’t. That is true for very much each of the foods listed here.

When it comes to human biology, nothing is black and white. It’s all about the level and the individual sensitivity.

So far we found that if we avoid foods that cause irritation of the esophagus, we make digestion easier. Also if we avoid foods that cause GERD or the heartburn we create the digestion easier.

Fermentable foods

Some of the carbohydrates can’t be digested through enzymatic breakdown. These carbohydrates are fermented by the bacteria in the colon. Resulting short chain fatty acids are absorbed through the colon. There are some inherent advantages of symbiotic bacterial fermentation, like weight control and improved immunity. But in a sense fermentation process is taxing to the colon.

Ideally if there aren’t any fermentable carbohydrates left when digested food enters the colon, no particular care has to be taken from the colon. This is particularly more relevant if the colon is inflamed or irritable. You necessarily take at least a few of the bad bacteria and in addition, they multiply and feast when we eat fermentable foods. These bacteria produce toxins which has to be neutralized or removed.

Final Note

You can conclude that in the event you prevent fermentable carbohydrates, it makes digestion easier. Some examples of fermentable foods are cruciferous family vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts), onion family vegetables, wheat bran and oats.

To summarize, if you stay away from foods that cause irritation along the digestive tract, or raise the acidity in the stomach or relax the lower esophageal sphincter it is possible to make it easy on the digestion. Also in the event you prevent bacterial fermentation in the colon, then it is possible to make it easy on the digestion.