Our gut plays a much bigger part in our overall wellbeing that we might realise, influencing everything from our mental health and immunity to the condition of our skin. For this reason, it’s essential to ensure that our gut is in the best condition possible, and fortunately, there are a lot of things we can do achieve a happy tummy. Here's a guide to our top supplements for digestion.
The Digestion Process
The first phase of in the digestive process is often overlooked, but it’s a really important one. Known as the cephalic phase, it’s triggered when you see or smell food. This step means that the enzymes in your saliva begin the process of food breakdown before you’ve even started eating. With this in mind, try to think about your food before you eat it to encourage your digestive juices to start working.
Chewing your food (the second phase of digestion) is also key when it comes to gut health. With proper chewing, you are mechanically breaking down food into smaller pieces, so that there’s a greater surface area and the digestive enzymes can get to work more easily.
Our Top Supplements for Digestion
The next step to healthy digestion is looking after what’s in your gut. Tens of trillions of good bacteria live in your gut. They play an essential role in helping your body to break down food and absorb essential nutrients. Upset their balance, and you could start noticing problems including bloating, stomach pain, fatigue and food sensitivities. This is where supplements for digestion come in.
1. Inulin
Prebiotics are plant fibres which feed good bacterium and stimulate its growth. Myvitamins Inulin Powder is a source of the popular prebiotic Inulin and can be added to shakes, bakes or smoothies.
2. Digestion
You can increase the number of good bacteria in your gut by eating probiotic foods such as kefir, kimchi and live yoghurt. However, a good addition would be to introduce friendly bacteria found naturally in your digestive system, such as lactobacillus. Studies show that those with less variety of good bacteria in the gut are more prone to storing fat, (2) so it’s definitely worth boosting your intake.
Myvitamins Digestion is an expert blend of 15 billion live cultures as well as chloride to support normal digestion. (3) They’re a convenient way to support your gut health every single day.
3. Bromelain
In addition to increasing the variety of probiotics in your gut, it's important to look after your digestive enzymes. They breakdown everything you eat so your gut can better absorb the nutrients from your food.
As we get older, the number of digestive enzymes in the stomach naturally reduces. Bromelain is a great way to boost these enzymes, especially if you’re suffering from bloating or cramps. Bromelain is found naturally in pineapples and is a proteolytic, which means it helps to breakdown proteins, some of which can be really difficult to digest and can cause irritation to the gut lining.
4. Gut Gummies
If you want to further boost your digestive enzymes, try Myvitamins Gut Gummies. These tasty supplements contain a specific strain of probiotic that has been shown to produce digestive enzymes in your gut. (3) They also come in a delicious Mixed Berry flavour, so they’re perfect for adding to your daily routine.
- Chicory fibre inulin contributes to normal bowel function by increasing stool frequency.
- Ley R.E., Backhed F., Turnbaugh P., Lozupone C.A., Knight R.D., Gordon J.I. Obesity alters gut microbial ecology. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2005;102:11070–11075. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0504978102.
- Chloride contributes to normal digestion by producing hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
- Ref: Cao, J. et al. (2020) ‘Probiotic characteristics of Bacillus coagulans and associated implications for human health and diseases’, Journal of Functional Foods, 64. doi:10.1016/j.jff.2019.103643.
