Lovely Digestion

As Jolene Hart states in her book, Eat Pretty, "If your eyes are windows to your soul, then your skin is a window to your digestive tract." If something's not right with your gut, you'll notice visible clues in your complexion: dullness; breakouts (especially around your chin and on your forehead); dry, itchy patches; redness; and dark, under-eye circles. You may also notice frequent colds, low moods, anxiety, and unending cravings.

Without proper digestion, all that work on delicious nutrition habits isn't likely to fully benefit your skin, hair, nails, brain, eyes, and all the other places that rely on it for beauty and vitality. Toxins that should be eliminated during digestion start to overstay their welcome when your digestion fails.

Please know that your lifestyle, your emotions, your food choices, and your eating habits all influence the state of your gut and its ability to perform properly. Better digestion means calmer, more radiant skin. It also means stronger immunity; better absorption of nutrients that give your hair and nails strength and resilience; healthy internal bacteria that help protect you from disease risk; and increased production of mood-boosting brain chemicals.

Stress is the single biggest obstacle to maintaining healthy digestion. Stressing out causes irritation of the intestinal walls, which results in intestinal inflammation. Inflammation can clog up your lymph drainage system. (Lymph is a detoxifying, waste-removing fluid that circulates throughout the body.) If you're not detoxing properly, you're likely to see skin issues like irritation and breakouts. When our digestion isn't running smoothly, our liver and skin shoulder too large a share of the waste removal burden. The result is a lackluster complexion, skin sensitivity, and probably breakouts.

So, how do you get more lovely digestion?

Avoiding cooked, bleached oils and trans fats are a good start. When these fats can't be efficiently filtered, they get dumped back into our bloodstream and compromise skin health. Eliminate or limit refined sugars as they provide a feast for the harmful bacteria that can wreak havoc on all your beautifying digestive duties.

A little extra focus and intention at mealtime helps you with one of the hardest tasks around good digestion: chewing. Digestion begins in your mouth, and chewing each bit twenty to thirty times is what we should shoot for to absorb more nutrients. In addition to physically breaking down your food, you stimulate the release of unique enzymes in your mouth that begin the digestive process. I know, you've heard this since you were a kid and it's still a tough practice. Just keep it in mind, do it when you can. It matters.

In addition to cutting down on sugar, allergens and processed foods that help unwanted bacteria set up shop in your gut, stock up on foods that encourage the growth of healthy flora. Consider eating more fermented foods, like miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles and tempeh. Maybe give kefir and kombucha a try? You may also want to fill your spice rack with ginger, fennel, licorice, coriander, turmeric and peppermint. These flavor enhancers speed digestion, reduce inflammation, help relieve gas and bloating. Raw fruits and veggies are incredible sources of nutrition and contain living enzymes to help your body break down and assimilate their nutrient content. Some foods, like asparagus and leeks, have the added benefit of plant fiber that directly feed the good bacteria in your digestive tract. Raw plant foods are also important because they help keep elimination regular. I'd love to hear your delicious ways to incorporate some of these tummy-lovin' foods into your diet. (Honestly, I struggle a bit with this. Any help is appreciated.) Remember to chew. Breathe, and take care of you, yeah?