Improve Digestion in 4 Steps (Without Cutting Out Food Groups) 

If you struggle with digestive symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or heartburn (to name a few), you might have wondered if changing what you eat could help eliminate your symptoms.

You’re not alone.  In the media, we see individual stories of people cutting out food groups or individual foods to feel better.  And doctors will often recommend the same.

Maybe your doctor gave you a handout on the low FODMAP diet and told you to try it out.  You’ve been loosely following it for 2 years! (It’s really only meant for a few months BTW!) …But you’re miserable because you are eating so few foods, and still deal with symptoms!

What are you supposed to do to feel better? 

In my work as a Registered Dietitian, I often meet with new clients who have removed many foods (like gluten and dairy) from their diets. They might have initially felt better, but then their symptoms returned, so they cut out even more foods. 

In so many cases, I’ll meet with a client who is really symptomatic, and they are also suffering because few foods feel safe. So they eat an extremely limited diet and hope for the best.

While the above cases are frustrating for me to see, I often encounter the additional complication of these clients who are in recovery from an eating disorder or who are working to heal their relationship with food after a long period of chronic dieting.

While elimination diets have their place, in practice, they can actually cause harm. Let’s dive in to the real risks of elimination diets and what I recommend instead, so you can (finally) feel better. 

The potential harms of a limited diet

While a medically supervised elimination diet can work for some, it should not be the first step if someone already has a challenging relationship with food or has struggled with an eating disorder. 

I recommend conducting elimination diets only with close monitoring and 1:1 with a dietitian or other trained professional. At the end of the day, my goal is always for you to be able to eat as wide a variety of foods as possible while keeping the “no no” food list as short as possible. 

A prolonged period of limited foods can have both mental and physical side effects.

The psychological harms of eating a limited variety of foods include:

• avoiding social gatherings,
• not being able to eat with family and friends, or 
• the added stress over how to eat when traveling.

But the great irony is that limiting foods to improve physical symptoms and health can actually create more problems in the end. Ugh!

Have you heard about the gut microbiome, all those bacteria that live in our large intestine that produce helpful compounds? It’s become a hot topic in recent years. 

The fact is: our health and good digestion depend on us having a wide variety of gut bacteria in relatively balanced levels. When it’s working well, it’s like a symphony.

But, when we cut out food groups, we starve some of our gut bacteria, which contributes to an imbalance. It can also make our digestive symptoms worse.

Long term, the best course of action is to eat a wide variety of foods. 

Don’t worry: I’ll be giving you specific guidelines later, and I’ll advise you to take any changes you make slowly, so hold the horses on overhauling your diet just yet.

But next, I want to focus on the non-food things that could be affecting your digestion, too.

It’s not just what you eat – our nervous system affects digestion too.

I know it might be hard to believe – I was initially a skeptic too – but your frenetic lifestyle is a likely culprit for your digestive woes.

But science and my clinical experience backs this up.

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had who have contacted me because they suffer from pain and bloating after every meal they eat. They are frustrated at not being able to eat their favorite foods. And even their limited diet exacerbates symptoms that really impact their lives.

And after doing the work to prepare their bodies for optimal digestion, which includes changing how they eat their meals (all the specifics are below!), they feel better and can eat a wide variety of foods, and even socialize and enjoy that slice of birthday cake! 

Optimizing digestion involves doing simple steps to help calm your nervous system, changing the setting and surroundings of your meals, and eating a greater variety of foods.

Don’t worry – I’m going to give you all the specifics below!

The sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous system.

Have you ever heard of the term “fight or flight?”

Fight or flight is a physical state where our bodies harness their energy away from digestion and towards our muscles to avoid a physical threat. 

While our bodies originally depended on this hyper-aware state to help our ancestors flee from a physical threat such as a tiger or bear, most of us experience work, family, and financial stress as an equal, physical threat. But they aren’t!

Being in that heightened state would be fine if it only occurred once in a while.  The problem is that the frenetic pace of our society means that most of us spend the majority of our lives in this state.

Fight or flight is the opposite of what we need for optimal digestion, and it’s a common cause of our symptoms.

Does this sound like you?

You leave work at 5 and sit in traffic on the way home, thinking about how hungry you are and how you still need to make dinner when you get home.  You’re drained from work deadlines, and you have no idea what to eat!

You get home and stare at the fridge, and finally figure out what to eat. While you’re cooking, you grab some pretzels and chips and nibble a bit, as you notice that it’s nearly 7 o’clock. Where does the time go?

You finish cooking, sit down to eat, and eat quickly, thinking about laundry and bills, and maybe some relaxation time tonight before you head to bed, and the whole process starts again.

Can you relate?  I certainly can!

Your personal circumstances might differ a bit, but I think we can all agree that this example evening sounds stressful and is clearly an example of fight or flight that we all live with every day.  And it is contributing to your digestive issues!

What we need is to get out of “fight or flight” when we eat our meals and snacks.  

Moving from “fight or flight” towards “rest and digest”

You now have an example of what “fight or flight” looks like, but for optimal digestion (and reversal of symptoms!), we need to get to a state of “rest and digest.”

The “rest and digest” state optimizes the entire digestive chain.

• We salivate more, which kicks off carbohydrate digestion.
• As we focus more on eating, we tend to chew our food more effectively.  Our teeth are a major part of digestion!
• Our stomach acidity is primed to help break down proteins.
• Our intestines are coordinated to help move broken-down food through.
• Our digestive enzymes are maximized.

The main result of “rest and digest” is that our food is broken down and absorbed as best as it can be. The good news? Over time, we experience fewer symptoms.

All of the above information is a lot, I know, so here are my steps to improve your digestion (and cut down on symptoms) that don’t involve restriction – and more stress!

4 Steps to Improve Digestion that don’t involve cutting out food groups

Of course, don’t stress about doing these at every meal either!  Baby steps are the name of the game here.  Progress, not perfection.

1. Cultivate a state of “rest and digest.” 

In our busy culture, we often eat while working or after a stressful day. Our bodies aren’t ready to digest when we do this.  There are many ways to promote moving towards this beneficial state:

• Take some deep breaths or say a prayer before your meal.
• Sing a song!  Did you know that the vibration of your vocal cords helps stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps us move into “rest and digest?” Gargling does the same, though you probably don’t want to do that at the table!
• Set up your eating environment with music, candles, flowers, or a clean table.  Make it a separate event from what you were doing prior!
• Use my 1-minute audio guide. I recorded this audio to give you extra support as you work on this skill.

2. Intentionally chew your food.

I mentioned your teeth above. We often forget their importance, but our teeth are the only real form of mechanical digestion we have.   Letting our teeth do their work makes digestion easier, which helps our food be absorbed better.  Don’t get obsessive here, but aim to chew until your food is closer to the consistency of applesauce!

3. Embrace mindfulness at the table and reframe your negative food associations.  

Eating should be enjoyable!  Appreciate your food!  Enjoy the sights, tastes, and smells. Savor every bite. 

Note: If you have significant negative associations around food, I would recommend contacting a dietitian who works with people struggling with food issues (like me!) or a therapist to help you overcome these food fears.

4. Diversify your fruits and veggies.

Sometimes we fall into a food rut, both for digestive symptom management and because as humans, we are creatures of habit.  Aim for 25-30 different plant foods weekly to help beneficial intestinal flora flourish!  Our gut microbiome needs variety and too often, our limited diets that we hope will fight our digestive symptoms starve out many of our “good bugs.”  We can help them grow and flourish by adding variety to our diets.

Eating should be enjoyable!  Appreciate your food!  Enjoy the sights, tastes, and smells. Savor every bite.

Slow and steady is the name of the game here, too, particularly if you have been eating a limited diet. My recommendation:

• Check your baseline numbers.  How many plants do you eat weekly? “Plants” means fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, seeds, and beans/legumes.
• Slowly increase the variety you eat by 1 or 2 new foods each week until you reach 25-30 different plant foods each week.
• Increasing too quickly will likely increase your symptoms, so take your time!

In addition to increasing your food variety slowly, incorporate these steps gradually and you will start to see results.  I wish I could wave a magic wand and make your symptoms go away immediately, but unfortunately, this isn’t an overnight fix, and it does take patience! You may also feel like you’re making more consistent progress with fewer frustrations if you work with a registered dietitian – I can help!

Key takeaways 

Cutting out foods to help ease your GI symptoms might not be the unicorn fix you were hoping for. And even worse:  it could do harm! 

The good news is improved digestion doesn’t have to be torture, and you can get results without restriction – and even if you have a history of an eating disorder.

My clients are often skeptical, but they are pleasantly surprised to find that they can eat their favorite foods and not be plagued by digestive woes.

The fact is: Any food elimination, including the Low FODMAP diet was never meant to be a lifelong meal plan.

There’s so much more to eliminating digestive symptoms for good — and it’s also where many women feel lost. This is one of the most common areas where I step in with clients in my structured digestive program. If you’ve been struggling without real relief, you might be a great fit!

References:

Cherpak CE. Mindful Eating: A Review Of How The Stress-Digestion-Mindfulness Triad May Modulate And Improve Gastrointestinal And Digestive Function. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2019 Aug;18(4):48-53. PMID: 32549835; PMCID: PMC7219460.