Foods that Aid Digestion
The best diet goes for naught if the foods eaten are not properly digested and their nutrient content absorbed. Certain foods, prepared properly, assist the digestive process. For diabetics, good digestion of food and absorption of nutrients is especially important because these individuals are typically dealing with a faulty digestive system, usually with some nutrient deficiencies.
Homemade Stock and Broth
Homemade stock and broth made from vegetables and animal bones or fish can contribute to thorough digestion of carbohydrate and protein foods. Because many foods become hydrophobic (not easily mixed with water) when they are cooked, they become harder to digest. However, the gelatin found in homemade meat or fish broth remains hydrophilic even after reheating. Gelatinous broth has been used beneficially in the treatment of many chronic digestive disorders, such as hyperacidity, colitis, and Crohn’s disease, as well as diabetes. Properly prepared stock and broth also contains numerous minerals as electrolytes derived from the bone, cartilage, marrow, and vegetables, making them easy to assimilate. Hydrophilic colloids are also present in broth, again promoting good digestion.
Small concentrated amounts of a broth can be eaten at the beginning of a meal or as a reduced sauce on meats or poultry. Animal bones are best if they come from free-range poultry or pasture-fed ruminant animals (cattle, goats, lamb, deer). Most meats readily available to us are from grain-fed animals, which can compromise the health benefits from these foods. Meats from pasture-fed animals are available, but it often takes a good search to find them.
Lacto-Fermented Foods
Lacto-fermentation is a natural process used to preserve foods. Healthy bacteria produce lactic acid, which acts as a preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria. In earlier times, this is how people preserved foods without freezing or canning.
Fruits and vegetables can be preserved with lacto-fermentation, as, for example, in the production of sauerkraut and kimchi from fermented cabbage. This type of fermentation is also used in the production of yoghurt from milk. Fermentation of dairy products restores many enzymes destroyed in pasteurization, including lactase, which allows many people with lactose intolerance to be able to digest these lacto-fermented dairy products.
Lacto-fermented foods enhance digestion, helping to break down difficult-to-digest proteins and carbohydrates, and increase vitamin levels, a well as providing a natural source of digestive enzymes. In addition, lacto-fermented foods contain antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Lacto-fermented foods normalize the acidity of the stomach. In other words, if there is an insufficient amount of HCl, these foods will stimulate acid production. If acid levels are too high in the stomach, there is an inverse effect. The lactic acid found in these foods helps to break down protein and aids in the assimilation of iron from all foods. Secretions of the pancreas are activated by these same foods, which also aid in the absorption of calcium and provide healthy gut flora.
In uncooked, properly fermented sauerkraut, for example, there are high levels of choline, which helps regulate the passage of nutrients in the body. Sauerkraut also aids the body in the metabolism of fats. With acetylcholine in high levels, there is a powerful effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, a mechanism that lowers blood pressure, slows heartbeat, and promotes calmness and sleep. There is also a powerful effect on the peristalsis of the intestines, thus promoting good bowel movements.
Lacto-fermented foods are typically eaten in small amounts, as condiments, for the most part. If eaten with cooked foods, they enhance these foods by providing a high level of enzymes and enrich the nutrients found in the foods.
Lacto-Fermented Food List
To be most effective in aiding digestion and absorption, these foods should be prepared in the traditional manner, using live cultures, with no preservatives.
- Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage)
- Kimchi (Oriental form of sauerkraut)
- Kefir, yogurt, crème fraiche, cottage cheese, cream cheese, cultured butter made from full fat organic milk (not homogenized milk)
- Pickles (fermented cucumbers)
- Beet kvass (traditional Russian lacto-fermented beverage)
- Salsas, relishes, ketchup, mustards, chutneys, pickled vegetables, marmalades, and other condiments (not commercially prepared with preservatives)
- Kombucha, lemonade, ginger ‘ale’ (made with a live culture)
- Homemade mayonnaise (made with a live culture during its preparation, thus further enhancing its benefits and extending its shelf life)
