Maximize your protein digestion and absorption to reduce gut symptoms and increase energy levels
You’ve likely heard the saying, “you are what you eat.” But it really should be, “you are what you eat, digest, absorb, and assimilate.” Without these actions, you may not be getting all your nutrients and that can lead to fatigue.
This is part 1 of a two-part series on how poor digestion of your macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat can lead to fatigue. I’ll describe the symptoms of maldigestion of carbs, protein, and fats plus recommendations to improve digestion so you can get the valuable nutrients from these important foods.
Chewing is the first step for ideal digestion
Think of digestion like an assembly line that takes food and breaks it down into tiny molecules that can be absorbed through your intestines, into your blood steam, and finally into your cells to support things like energy for your body. Each step is essential to set up the next step for its function. Chewing is a major step of digestion that most people don’t give enough attention.
Have you ever felt yourself shoveling in forkfuls of food with only a few chews before swallowing? Maybe you were in a rush or maybe eating fast is a habit? Either way, by chewing more you’ll digest your food better.
Chewing breaks down large bites of food into smaller pieces while mixing your food with saliva. The smaller pieces provide more surface area for digestive enzymes to work with. Saliva is purposeful as it assists in swallowing and contains enzymes that further aid the digestive process.
Signs that You’re Eating Too Fast and Not Chewing
- Feeling overly full or sick to your stomach after eating
- Difficulty swallowing
- Burping
- Indigestion
- Heartburn
- Nausea
- Feeling hungry 1-2 hours after eating or needing to snack between meals
Digestive Support Tip: Chew More
Sounds simple, right? The common advice is to chew each bite 30 times. That seems like a lot, but it can really make a difference.
- Try it. Take the time to chew a bite 30 times and see what it feels like. The food in your mouth will be fully mush and therefore easier for your digestion system to further break down.
- On a regular basis try to increase your current chews to at least 10 times per bite.
- Here’s a trick: put your fork down in between bites so you can break the habit of eating quickly and the shoveling motion.
- Once you get the hang of it try to increase to 20 chews per bite.
If you’d like to take this a step further, you can read a past blog I wrote about Mindful Eating with additional tips.
Following our digestive assembly line, after swallowing your food it travels through the esophagus and into the stomach.
Protein Digestion: From the Stomach to the Intestines
Through the digestive process protein is broken down into amino acids which are absorbed by your small intestine. Amino acids support energy metabolism and are used as the building blocks of many things including muscle, bone, hair, skin, hormones, immune cells, and neurotransmitters.
Your stomach is a key starting place for protein digestion. To digest and break down protein into amino acids several things need to occur. Along with mechanical digestion, which is the contraction, expansion, and churning of the stomach muscle, the cells in your stomach release special digestive juices: pepsinogen and stomach acid, also known as hydrochloric acid (HCl). Pepsinogen is transformed into pepsin with the help of HCl.
HCl purposely creates a highly acidic environment in your stomach. This acidity signals the lower esophageal sphincter to close and keep the acid in your stomach and away from your esophagus. This acidity also signals the pyloric sphincter at the bottom on the stomach to open and move your food (now called chyme after the stomach has turned it into liquid) into the small intestine. The stomach has a thick mucus lining to protect you from all this acid.
Now think of protein as a balled and tangled beaded necklace. In the stomach, HCl helps to pull apart the ball into individual chains. Pepsin chops up those chains into smaller pieces. Downstream in our digestive assembly line, protein-digesting enzymes, also known as proteolytic enzymes, in the small intestine will further cut down the pieces into individual beads or amino acids.
There are two types of proteolytic enzymes called protease. Pancreatic protease is secreted from the pancreas into the beginning part of small intestine called the duodenum. It’s the acidity from the HCl that signals the pancreas to release protease. Brush border protease is secreted from the cells lining the small intestine lining right where your food is absorbed. Brush border proteases complete the final steps of breaking apart protein into amino acids so they can be absorbed.
All these steps need to happen properly and in the right order to absorb amino acids.
Antacids and acid blocking medications can inhibit HCl production and, therefore, protein digestion. If you have heartburn, it’s important to figure out why so that your protein digestion can be maximized for metabolism, muscle integrity, skin health, and more.
Signs of poor protein digestion or low stomach acid
- Odorous gas – poorly digested proteins will putrefy in your gut causing gas with an odor.
- Heartburn – can be from low stomach acid because the food is sitting in your stomach too long without breaking down properly. On the flip side, heartburn can also be caused by high stomach acid, so it takes some investigation to figure out the cause.
- Nausea
- Bloat
- Constipation, though diarrhea is possible, too.
- Food sensitivities – if protein chains are not chopped up into single amino acids the remaining larger pieces, called peptides, can trigger your immune system and can cause food sensitivities.
- Muscle loss or weak joints – protein is a building block for muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
- Feeling tired or sluggish – protein is one of the three macronutrients and important for many aspects of health.
Protein Digestion Support Tips
- Chew each of your bites more fully as described above.
- Eat bitter foods at the start of your meal to help stimulate HCl production – celery juice, lemon juice in water, dandelion greens, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, and vinegar on salads.
- Take Digestive Bitters supplement – offered in liquid form these are a blend of herbs with a bitter flavor to stimulate stomach digestion. Caution if you have heartburn: if you have low stomach acid bitters should help and not make your heartburn worse. If you have high stomach acid bitters may make your symptoms worse and you should not use it.
- Soothe irritation and inflammation in your stomach with collagen powder, bone broths, and warm cooked foods such as soups and stews. Supplements such as zinc-carnosine, L-glutamine, or DGL (glycyrrhizinated licorice) may be helpful.
- Try an enzyme blend with protease.
Always consult your doctor or health practitioner before starting any new supplements.
Focusing on chewing and digestion in the stomach will support protein absorption as well as the first steps in the overall digestive process. These aspects can decrease gut symptoms as well as increase your energy and vitality.
Next month, we’ll resume our dive through the digestive tract assembly line in the small intestine with carbohydrate and fat digestion explanations, symptoms and tips. Spoiler alert: this is where a lot of that pesky bloating takes place.
Do you have issues digesting protein?
The GI Map stool test from Diagnostic Solutions Lab measures digestive markers related to protein, carbohydrate, and fat digestion through levels of enzymes and bile acids. Plus, it reports microbiome bacterial and fungi organisms. We’re able to deduce which macronutrients are not digesting properly by seeing which parts of the microbiome are out of balance. If you’re looking for more information about your digestive symptoms, ask us more about this test.
Nutrition therapy is not intended as a diagnosis, treatment, prescription, or cure for any disease, or as a substitute for medical care. Our nutrition therapists are not licensed medical providers. Nutrition plans are not intended as a substitution for traditional medical care, nor should be interpreted as medical advice, but instead is an adjunctive and supportive therapy.