Six Digestive Myths That Just Won’t Die
Most of us have a vague idea of how digestion works: we eat food, break it down (that’s a scientific term, right?) And somehow make a profit. But without a better understanding of what’s going on there, we tend to believe a few bizarre myths that have become commonplace.
In fact, our digestive tract is a complex system made up of many parts that interact with each other and with the rest of the body. It also adapts very easily to what we add to it and doesn’t require special food combinations or “cleansers” to keep working at its best. Here are some of the main myths about digestion and their truths.
Myth # 1: Digestion occurs in the stomach
Some digestion takes place in the stomach, but on its way in our body, food passes through a series of stations, of which the stomach is only one. Here’s a cheat sheet:
- The mouth is the first stop, and it really does play an important role. Tastes and smells signal to the rest of the digestive system that food is on its way. We chew food to give it more surface (so the enzymes can do their job later), and saliva helps us taste and swallow , and keeps our mouth healthy between meals.
- The swallow sends food down the esophagus , pushing it in the form of a tube of toothpaste towards the stomach. (The journey takes about eight seconds .) This movement, called peristalsis, ends with the opening of the stomach opening.
- In the stomach, food is poured in an acid bath. It helps kill germs and partially untangle proteins. Certain acidic enzymes can do their job, mainly by breaking down proteins.
- In fact, it is in the small intestine that most of the action takes place: enzymes break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates into their components (fatty acids, amino acids and sugars, respectively). This gives the body tiny building blocks instead of large globules of macronutrients, allowing the cells of the small intestine to absorb them and pass them into the bloodstream. From there, they cango wherever they need to . We either burn them for energy, store them as fat, or, in some cases, use them to create components in our own body – for example, when we use amino acids from dietary protein to create more actin and myosin in our muscles.
- In the large intestine, trillions of microbes absorb what we couldn’t – mostly fiber and other “prebiotic” carbohydrates. This is good news for us, as the waste products of these microbes are essential for our health. For example, they are where we get most of our vitamin K.
The whole process of digestion is crazy, strange and wonderful, and much more than what happens in any one organ. The entire route of food intake is known as the gastrointestinal tract (or gastrointestinal tract), and scientists often refer to it simply as “the intestines.” Belly is just one of many players!
Myth # 2: Food contains enzymes that aid digestion
Since enzymes (proteins that speed up chemical reactions) are important for digestion, does complementary nutrition help? This is one of the requirements of a raw food diet and detoxification. And this is another myth, because our digestive system produces enzymes as needed: for example, the stomach and small intestine create their own, and the task of the pancreas is to produce even more and send them to the small intestine. In fact, there is no lack of enzymes. We have a lot.
Regarding the fate of plant enzymes, TakePart’s Jane Lear says it beautifully :
First, plant enzymes are for plants. They aid germination, photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and so on. They cannot help with any function of the human body, including digestion. Our body produces its own digestive enzymes for this, there are about 22 of them. Secondly, very few enzymes in raw food pass through the acid bath [of the stomach] into the intestines, where nutrients are absorbed. Don’t believe me? Want to see my sources? Pick up any school biology textbook.
I have this tutorial. She is right.
So, yes, food contains enzymes, but aside from certain diseases , we manufacture them all ourselves. By the way, you should not drink bone broth because of the collagen it contains: this is also a protein that is destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract.
Myth # 3: Food Absorbs Alcohol
It is true that with a full stomach you will drink less, but this is not because the food “absorbs” the alcohol. Remember our little tour of the gastrointestinal tract? The only thing that happens is when tiny nutrients are absorbed into our small intestine. Food does not absorb other food; they can mix with each other, but everything is still ready for our body to process.
The alcohol from your stomach will eventually end up in your bloodstream because that is the only way to get to your brain (and liver, sorry, liver). So if you want to drink less, you need to slow down the process of alcohol getting into your bloodstream.
This is where food comes in: if you have this beer with a hamburger, your stomach receives both ingredients as a bag and takes some time to digest the hamburger. The contents of the stomach slowly enter the small intestine over several hours, thus keeping alcohol away from the primary absorption zone. (You can absorb some alcohol through your stomach, but not much.)
On the other hand, if you have this beer on its own, the stomach can skip the digestion phase of the hamburger and transfer the alcohol to the small intestine faster. This means that alcohol enters your bloodstream immediately and not in small doses. The result: a faster, stronger hum.
Myth # 4: Sour foods are bad for you.
There are two versions of this belief, and both are wrong.
One focuses on what happens in the gut: if you eat acidic foods along with protein or carbohydrates, the theory is that the acid interferes with the digestion of other foods. This is one of the principles of food combination, which, as we have already seen, is completely false .
It’s true that eating acid makes your stomach cells secrete less of their own acid, but that’s how it should work . Stomach cells do not blindly release chemicals; they use a system of hormones and nerve cells to determine the current acid level and adjust accordingly. (After the acidic suspension leaves the stomach, it is neutralized with bicarbonate from the pancreas, which is adjusted again as needed .)
Another version is related to acid in the blood. According to the alkaline diet , too much acid in our food leads to too much acid in our blood. Crucial argument: You can check the pH or acidity of your urine, and it will change depending on what food you eat.
Of course, the acid in your food does not affect the acid in your blood for the same reasons we just pointed out. But this urine test does sound convincing, doesn’t it?
That’s why it doesn’t matter: pH changes in urine do not reflect the pH of your blood . Your kidneys make urine by filtering your blood, and they carefully regulate which chemicals must stay and which must go away. PH adjustment is part of their job , which means they can release extra acid to keep the blood pH in the extremely narrow range our body needs . Judging blood pH based on urine pH is like finding junk mail in someone’s trash and concluding that their living room must be clogged with that trash. No, you idiot, that’s what they threw away.
Myth 5: garbage accumulates in the intestines, and we must clean it out.
If the faeces are gross, it is tempting to think that even the faeces that are still in our body are also gross. The idea of cleaning the colon (or colon) is rooted in the 19th century “autointoxication” theory . Doctors at the time believed that feces would rot inside your body, producing toxins that seep into your bloodstream and poison you. Treatment: enemas to flush faeces and, in extreme cases,surgical removal of the colon .
Don’t think this theory is dead. Today’s proponents of “colonic hydrotherapy” (you know, enemas) are repeating, in fact, the same completely refuted story of toxins and festering bacteria .
In fact, the bacteria in our colon are good for us. We don’t have to constantly evict them or worry about their waste. (Remember how their waste contains vitamins and other nutrients? We and the bacteria work together. We’re a great team .)
Waste also doesn’t get stuck inside us, so there is nothing to wash out. The definition of “cleaning” make a common dressing out, but in fact they are the ingredients of the purification protocol, “mucous patches” – it’s like a time that you get when eating bentonite clay and discarded “gallstones” are the result of chemical reaction between olive oil and lemon juice .
Myth # 6: Better Digestion Means More Energy, and It’s Good for You
Energy is not just a hazy feeling like in “Wow, I have so much energy!” It’s a scientific term, E in E = mc², and scientists measure energy from food using a unit you can know: calories. Now that we’ve rephrased the question, are you sure you want more calories?
The foods that are digested most efficiently and provide the most calories with the least effort are sugar and refined carbohydrates. Not exactly healthy food. In fact, you really want – and probably aren’t getting enough – these are foods that we generally have a hard time digesting.
Whole grains and vegetables, especially raw vegetables, are high in fiber and prebiotic carbohydrates. I mention raw because cooking makes these foods a little more digestible – partly breaking down the fiber.
Fiber slows down digestion, curbing the dreaded carbohydrate coma . This makes the cell walls strong, which can hold more calories, which explains why raw peanuts have fewer calories than peanut butter . Think of the last time you saw undigested corn or nuts in the toilet: you can go back and subtract those grains from your food diary.
There is another way fiber is good for us. We can’t digest it at all (we don’t make the enzymes we need), but our microbes can get into the city on certain types. That means eating soluble fiber and resistant starch is tantamount to feeding our trillions of gut buddies. Keeping them healthy helps us stay healthy, and eating plenty of fiber may be the best way to do this .
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