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Writer's pictureKate Southall

5 Tips to Reset Your Digestion System



Our bodies are hard at work 24/7 – digesting food, assimilating nutrients, repairing damage, removing waste, and ensuring every system, organ, and cell has what it needs to function properly.

There’s a lot going on. But, because these processes are automatic, we tend to overlook what happens inside. Instead, we focus on keeping up with our busy, often stressful lives. The problem with an always-on lifestyle is it eventually catches up with us. We’ve all experienced this at some point: those times in our life when our daily habits aren’t serving our health and long-term wellness, and we don’t even realize it.

Your eyes get blurry from watching your favourite Netflix series until late into the night, then your hands are shaky or you feel anxious from trying to combat the lack of sleep with too much caffeine and sugar.


Your belly bloats because your digestive system has had it from too many packaged products that are called “food” but are actually hybrid concoctions made from food-based ingredients and chemicals.

Even more frustrating, time’s moving fast and you can’t figure out where it goes. You feel like you need to change something but can’t find time to build better habits and take good care of yourself. Your new workout gear still has the tags on it. Bottom line: you’re tired.

You need a fresh start. More importantly, you deserve it. But what can you do, right now, to reset your health and get on track?



5 TIPS TO GET YOUR BODY BACK ON TRACK

I’ve put together five things you can do today to help your body reset. No need for a drastic change or a challenging detox. Resetting your body is all about giving it the extra support it needs to carry on its natural processes.


1. Boost your thyroid health with selenium and iodine-rich foods

When you feel more tired than you should, or if you’re having trouble losing extra weight, one of the first organs to look to is your Thyroid Gland. It regulates the body’s use of energy and governs metabolism. Thyroid problems are associated with everything from anxiety and weight gain to low energy and hair loss. Two nutrients to consider to support this organ are iodine and selenium.

  • Your thyroid uses iodine to produce thyroid hormones. These hormones play vital roles in controlling a lot of your major bodily functions, including metabolism.

  • Selenium may help reduce the inflammation that can cause an underactive thyroid. Getting enough selenium is essential for overall health – your body uses this mineral for DNA synthesis, reproduction, and it protects you from infection and damage resulting from oxidative stress.

The great news is, giving your thyroid the nutrition it needs to function properly can make it easier to lose weight, and it can help slow the aging process, banish fatigue, and enhance your overall appearance.

Here are some delicious selenium-rich foods you can add to your diet to help your thyroid gland:

  • Sunflower seeds

  • Brazil nuts

  • Fish (halibut, sardines, salmon, and flounder)

  • Shellfish (shrimp, oysters, clams, scallops, and mussels)

  • Meat (beef, pork, lamb, liver)

  • Bone broth

  • Poultry (chicken and turkey)

  • Eggs

  • Mushrooms (button, cremini, shiitake)

  • Whole grains (brown rice, oats, wheat germ, barley)

Here’s a list of iodine-rich foods:

  • Bone Broth

  • Seaweed

  • Tuna

  • Cod

  • Shrimp

  • Prunes

  • Lima beans


2. Experiment with eating more anti-inflammatory foods

The concept “food is medicine” really has potency when you follow an anti-inflammatory diet. When you start exploring anti-inflammatory options, you can see there are so many different ways to approach your diet and still see results.

  • Try a gluten or dairy-free meal plan to calm inflammation and improve digestion. This doesn’t need to be a life-long dietary change if it doesn’t make a noticeable difference, but it’s worth a try to see if it helps ease tummy troubles.

  • Eat as many vegetables as you can. Fresh salads, green smoothies, roasted root veggies, hearty vegetable stews, and pureed soups – have fun experimenting with all the myriad ways you can eat your veggies.

  • Fresh fruits are also great for reducing inflammation, as they’re rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber too. You don’t need to eat as many fruits as you do vegetables, but you can enjoy fresh, organic berries, pomegranate, citrus, stone fruit, bananas, and other tasty produce as healthy snacks to increase your antioxidant and fiber intake.

Find the right balance with fruits, vegetables, and grains. Prioritizing fruits and veggies over grains won’t just give your body more vitamins and minerals when you eat them – it can also help your digestive system absorb more nutrients. If too much of the fiber in your diet comes from cereal grains, you could end up with nutritional deficiencies. This is because cereals tend to block the absorption of nutrients and interfere with the digestive system’s natural process of waste elimination.


3. Support your liver to help filter out waste


When your liver is operating at its best, it can do its work removing toxins from your body, cleaning the blood, and aiding your digestion and metabolism. Over time, if we eat poorly and consume a lot of processed foods, the liver can become damaged. Damage that starts in the liver can eventually impact the heart. Here’s the good news: your liver can regenerate itself. And, you can take steps to help it repair itself and function properly.

Drink a liver-supporting drink each morning

  • 1 cup warm water

  • 1 tablespoon unpasteurized apple cider vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric

  • 1 dash cayenne pepper

  • 1 teaspoon raw, local honey (optional)

Heat your water and then stir all of the other ingredients into the water. Each ingredient plays a special role, making this an amazing morning tonic for liver health.

Drink warm if possible – the warmth aids digestion. The vitamin C in the lemon juice has an antioxidant effect, calming liver inflammation. The cayenne contains capsaicin, which boosts blood flow, and enzymes known for detoxifying the liver. Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant that can protect it from damage, and apple cider vinegar is renowned for its detoxification properties.

Add bitter greens and cruciferous vegetables to your diet Bitter greens – veggies with a bitter flavour – help to detoxify the liver by increasing bile flow. The greens themselves also act to flush out toxins. Tasty, versatile options include:

  • Spinach

  • Dandelion greens

  • Arugula

  • Endive

Cruciferous veggies aid the liver and are great for overall health. So make sure you add them to your shopping list too:

  • Broccoli

  • Cauliflower

  • Brussels sprouts

Drink bone broth regularly Bone broth has a lot of health benefits – but one of the most powerful is its ability to support your liver. Studies have found that the glycine in bone broth helps the liver clean out toxins and can prevent damage from alcohol consumption. Glycine can also protect this organ from the harmful effects of chemotherapy.


4. Drink more water


Drinking plenty of water is one of the simplest things you can do and one of the most impactful. Water is essential for everything. It metabolizes fats into energy, participates in chemical reactions in the body, and transports nutrients, hormones, antibodies, and oxygen through our bloodstream and lymphatic system. Water regulates body temperature, keeps our lungs moist, and helps proteins and enzymes function efficiently.

When we don’t have enough of it, we can feel it. Even mild dehydration can lead to fatigue and cognitive loss.

How much should you drink and what should you do to stay well-hydrated? Experts suggest drinking 1.5 to 2 liters a day, or eight glasses. This means water, not coffee, juice, tea, or other beverages. Drinking enough isn’t actually that hard. Make a habit of drinking a glass or two when you wake up to rehydrate after sleeping all night. Then, sip water throughout the day.


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5. Do something that reduces stress – every day – to restart your intestines


You’ve probably heard of the brain-gut connection, but you may not realize just how intertwined the gut is with the nervous system and emotional health. Your intestines contain a large network of nerves that can become disturbed by your emotions. When you’re calm, your digestive system can function properly. When you’re stressed, your intestines can run into trouble, leading to constipation, bloating, or diarrhoea.

When chronic stress damages the lining of the gut, levels of glutamine start to drop. This is something you don’t want to happen. Glutamine is a core amino acid that plays a pivotal role in everything from brain health to immune function. That’s one reason why bone broth is known as a wonderful natural remedy for an overstressed lifestyle. It’s high in glutamine, collagen, and gelatin, all of which support gut tissue repair, reset gut integrity, and reduce inflammatory stress, while also enhancing future nutrient absorption. Sipping a warm cup of bone broth every day will help you relax and restore your glutamine levels.

Here are some of my other favourite ways to destress. Make sure to practice at least one each day!

  • Talk a walk in your neighbourhood or hike in the woods

  • Practice stretching or yoga

  • Meditate

  • Listen to music

  • Write in your journal

  • Paint or draw

  • Cook a food you love

  • Spend time in nature

  • Chat with your loved ones

Resetting isn’t just about physical health. It’s about mental and emotional well-being too, so take the time to do something that makes you feel joyful. It’s good for you!

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