In our world we do things fast.

No time to stop to eat, so we eat in the car.
Pressure to multi-task: so we eat whilst working.
Nobody to eat with: so we eat whilst watching TV.

Fast lives don’t work well with our human digestive system: it needs things to be done slooooowly.

Our digestive system works on the ‘rest and digest’ mode of the nervous system, whilst many of us are spending way too long in the ‘fight and flight’ mode during pretty much the entire day.

What’s wrong with rushed eating?

Not enough time for the brain to start thinking about food.

Our digestion starts in the brain: thinking about food, smelling food, salivating about food. This is actually how it’s supposed to work!

Cooking your own meal helps enormously with this process- cutting the ingredients yourself, cooking and smelling food actually begins digestion before you even take a bite.

Unfortunately in our fast world, we often plonk a frozen meal into the microwave and 2 mins later we’re eating it!!

Our body just doesn’t have enough time to prepare for digestion and get into that ‘rest and digest’ mode.

Impact of low stomach acid

Many people today suffer from LOW hydrochloric acid production. Yes, LOW- not ‘too much acid’ as we often are told by the acid suppressing medicine commercials.

Common symptoms of low acid include: heartburn, reflux, constipation, diarrhoea, food malabsorption, parasite infections and yeast overgrowth (candida).

Basically it impacts every aspect of our digestion both ‘upwards’ (into the oesophagus) and ‘downwards’ into the intestine and the colon.

Our stomach acid is supposed to be strong and very acidic. It’s supposed to break apart complex food molecules and also destroy any bacteria or parasites that we may have swallowed.

In today’s world, people have to work hard to keep their acid levels in order as in the past they may have taken drugs that act as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). All those ads on TV that convince you to ‘put the fire’ out in your belly by taking a magic pill or liquid actually destroy our stomach acid levels and sometimes these levels may never recover to baseline. These drugs are supposed to be used on a short term acute basis but in today’s world we are popping them like lollies.

So, what can be done to safely increase stomach acid and improve digestion on many different levels?

A simple remedy that combines ginger, lemon and Himalayan pink salt – let’s call it:

Ginger Digestion Booster

What’s in the ingredients:

Ginger: an excellent digestive tonic. Most commonly known to relieve nausea, it does wonders for stomach acid production

Lemon: a great cleanser and detoxifier, it’s zingy taste begins to stimulate digestion the minute it touches your tongue

Salt: celtic or Himalayan salt is best as it has a perfect balance of minerals and no dangerous additives. Salt provides the ‘chlorine’ bit for ‘Hydrochloric acid’ and directly stimulates its production

Ginger Booster Ingredients

How to make the Ginger Digestion Booster:

1. Peel 2 small knobs of ginger and grate on a grater.
2. Squeeze the juice out of 1 lemon and pour it over the ginger.
3. Sprinkle with celtic or Himalayan salt (about 1/2 tsp), mix together.

Before every main meal (3 times a day for most people), take one small teaspoon of the mix in your mouth and suck on it until all the juices are absorbed. You can eat the ginger left in your mouth or spit it out (raw ginger can be hard on a weakened digestive system, so if you have any concerns, spit it out when it’s dry).

Keep the mix in the fridge for up to 1 week.

I recommend taking the Ginger Booster for about 2 weeks before every main meal to see if your digestion is naturally improved.

This is also a great remedy to take up during the holiday season when we are bombarded with more rich foods and tend to over-eat generally.

To get to the bottom of your digestive issues, book your consultation HERE.

Ginger Booster

References: I originally learnt of this idea from listening to Christa Orecchio of The Whole Journey.