Ignoring the digestive system when working on your health is like cutting a leg off a table and expecting the table to balance itself.
You can’t expect to restore your health or resolve chronic issues without looking at the gut.
Your digestive system is the most used and abused of all your systems.
Think of all the times you’ve overindulged in one more handful of chips, seconds at dinner, the dessert you didn’t want but you couldn’t resist.
Never mind the all-nighters in college with Dominos pizza, 2am Taco Bell runs and every morning you said you’d never drink alcohol again.
Extra helpings of Thanksgiving apple pie, frosted Christmas cookies, holiday ham, turkey and mashed potato leftovers for days.
Wolfing down a Jimmy John’s in the car on the way to an event.
Your gut has been there for you through it all.
And the wear and tear on the gut creates something called spleen qi deficiency, according to Chinese Medicine.
“Spleen Qi” is your digestive energy aka your metabolism and it helps you to transport your food and fluids while you digest it.
The number one issue that women over 40 complain about? Weight gain.
That weight gain is due to a slowed metabolism.
How does it happen?
Repetitive poor digestive habits.
Standing at the kitchen sink eating, taking few bites then swallowing because eating is an inconvenience that takes too long, eating food cold because you were to lazy to put it on the stove to warm it up and you don’t want to radiate your food with the microwave (calling myself out here!)
One of the biggest lies of the health industry?
Raw veggies = health food.
The other gut damaging protein suggestions going around?
Using cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt and cheese instead of taking time to make yourself a meal that’s warm.
So many well intentioned women trying desperately to lose weight divert to salads, veggies and hummus as their go-to health foods and wonder why they gain weight.
And so many women trying to increase their protein opt for cottage cheese, cheese and yogurt to bump up protein counts only to find their guts start to revolt.
This behavior over years decreases digestive qi to lose it’s fire aka enzymes and signaling molecules for proper digestion.
To add to insult with age and the amount of life’s stress that’s impacted you depletes your batteries aka “kidney qi”.
That kidney energy, is supposed to “warm” your digestive system and if you’re already tired and can’t seem to ever get warm all those iced coffees and raw cold foods aren’t going to help.
Plus the longer you keep up on the cold foods the more potential for dampness to occur.
Dampness manifests as bloating, food feeling like a rock in your stomach, and phlegm build up with cold items like dairy and raw foods.
The longer you ignore it the dampness turns into weight gain as the mitochondria can’t get the nutrients from your food because you aren’t digesting it well.
Sure digestive enzymes and bowel stimulating supplements can help however the true solution lives in working on warming up your digestive fire.
Adding warming spices like cinnamon, ginger and cayenne to home made salad dressings, sauces, cottage cheese and yogurt.
Using fresh fruit vs frozen and avoiding ice in smoothies or letting veggies right from the fridge warm up at least to room temperature before eating them.
Actually chewing your food more than 25 times per bite really helps optimize digestion.
Constipation over 40 can actually be a side effect of weak spleen qi as much as it’s a sign of the need for more blood and moisturizing support to the intestines.
Baked, roasted and air fried foods are considered “healthy” when in reality they could be too dry for your intestines and making constipation worse.
Now before you panic and call me a complete nut case, I encourage you to take an assessment of your current digestive health, habits around meals and food preferences.
It’s entirely possible your food choices need a little tweak to support your digestive qi as you get older.
Here’s what you can do to help…
- Ditch iced drinks with meals an sip on room temp or warm drinks with meals
- Add in yellow an orange root veggies and squash to help boost spleen aka digestive qi
- Pressure cook or sprout your nuts, seeds and grains to improve their digestibility
- Get good at making your own salad dressings and sauces that include warming spices
- Find some Chinese red dates or Lotus seeds to add to your meals to boost spleen qi or grab Gui Pi Tang, a traditional Chinese herbal that is a great herbal formula to have on board to improve digestive energy.
- Target breakfast between 7-9a – stomach time
- Opt for lunch around 11a – spleen time
- Aim for dinner before 7p – pericardium – circulation and repair time
- Avoid eating after 9p or during the middle of the night as that’s gallbladder and liver times, reserved for detox and repair
- Look into using Chinese Yam (poor appetite & chronic diarrhea), Ginseng (extremely fatigued), White Atractylodes (damp drying) and Poria Mushroom (expels dampness and puffiness from sluggish metabolsim) to help support your digestive energy
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been humbled by the need to return to taking care of the digestive system myself and with clients.
If you’re not able to lose weight, GLPs aren’t working for you, or you’re feeling fatigued no matter what you do, explore your digestive health and see where you stand.
More often than not, a few digestion tweaks will have you back on track in no time.
Here’s to going back to the gut, over and over again,
Dr. J
