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Everyone is familiar with the old saying, "You are what you eat." A more accurate rendition might be, "You are what you absorb," because that's what digestion is all about: It's the process that converts food into substances that can be absorbed by the body.

Those substances include sugars to fuel your cells, amino acids that serve as the building blocks of tissues, and fatty acids which are incorporated into cellular membranes. They also include vitamins and minerals that act as catalysts for countless biochemical reactions as well as other constituents necessary for life. Because every system in your body requires a steady supply of these essential nutrients, it is obvious that optimal health depends on a well-functioning digestive system.

Eat the Right Stuff

The first thing you need to do to ensure that your digestive system is working up to par is to feed it the foods it was designed to process. The engineering specs on all automobiles include the type of fuel required for maximum performance. Whether your car runs on regular or premium gasoline, diesel, or even battery power, if you give it the wrong fuel, you’re going to foul up the system. The same is true of the human body.

What fuel does our digestive system require for top performance? Let’s compare the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract to those of other mammals that are uniquely suited to their diet. Meat-eating carnivores such as dogs and cats have sharp, pointed fangs ideal for tearing off chunks of meat. Although they produce insignificant levels of digestive enzymes in their saliva, their stomachs churn out copious amounts of hydrochloric acid required for the digestion of meat. They also have a short intestinal tract, just three to six times the length of their bodies, designed to quickly eliminate the toxic wastes produced by rapidly putrefying meat.

Plant-eating animals, including horses and cows as well as chimpanzees and other primates, have well-developed molars in the back of their mouths for chewing and grinding, along with enzymes in the saliva that initiate the digestion of carbohydrates. Because the breakdown of plant foods requires considerably less hydrochloric acid, they only secrete a small fraction of the acid that carnivores secrete. In addition, the intestinal tracts of plant eaters are much longer, up to 12 times the length of their bodies, allowing for the slower process necessary for complete digestion of high-fibre plant foods.

Now, let’s look at humans. We have flat molars and no sharp fangs. Our salivary enzymes and gastric juices are more akin to those of plant-eating animals, and our intestinal tract averages 10 to 11 times our body length. Physiologically speaking, it is obvious that the human body is designed to eat plant foods. I’m not recommending that you go completely vegetarian. Humans have been eating a varied, omnivorous diet for millennia. But I do believe that our failure to take into consideration our body’s “fuel specs” has led to the plethora of digestive problems that afflict modern man.

Conquer Constipation

One of the most common digestive problems is constipation. A few years ago researchers at Laval University in Quebec City surveyed more than a thousand people across Canada and found that 27.2 percent of them reported having had constipation within the previous three months. This is hardly surprising when you consider that North Americans eat an average of only 16 grams of fibre per day–less than half the ideal intake.

As well as lowering cholesterol and protecting against diabetes and some types of cancer, eating lots of high-fibre fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains does wonders for digestion. Fibre softens the stool and gives it bulk, which increases the frequency and quantity of bowel movements. This not only helps prevent constipation, but it also reduces risk and symptoms of hemorrhoids, diverticular disease, diarrhea, colon cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Julian Whitaker, MD, practises medicine at the Whitaker Wellness Institute in Newport Beach, California www.whitakerwellness.com, and writes the monthly newsletter Health & Healing www.drwhitaker.com.

Source: alive #278, December 2005