Your hard-working digestive system processes about 1,100 pounds of food each year, with an average meal spending 3 to 5 hours in your small intestine and 3 to 4 days in the large intestine, according to Monash University. Your digestive system, which processes food into its component nutrients for delivery throughout the body, has its own specific nutritional requirements in order to be healthy and function well.
Though you can't digest or absorb fiber, this nutrient provides considerable benefits for digestive health. Fiber helps prevent digestive disorders such as constipation and diverticular disease. A study published in the 2012 issue of the journal "PLoS One" found that diets high in fiber lead to lower risk of colon cancer. The study found that fruit, vegetable and cereal fibers all protected against colon cancer. However, only cereal fiber showed preventive benefits for rectal cancer. While the Institute of Medicine recommends that you consume 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories you consume, if you eat the typical American diet, your fiber intake may fall short by 25 to 50 percent of this value.
Beneficial bacteria that reside in your digestive tract, known as probiotics, are so numerous that they comprise up to 3 pounds of your body weight, according to the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. These helpful inhabitants boost immune function, help break down food, prevent infections, maintain healthy pH levels and produce certain vitamins. They also alleviate some of the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, such as abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea and constipation and can help prevent stomach ulcers. A study published in the March 2012 issue of the "Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology" found that 10 weeks of probiotic supplementation effectively resolved diarrhea in 48 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
Raw Fruits and Vegetables
Eating your fruits and vegetables in their raw form may help take some of the burden off your digestive system, according to the University of California, Berkeley. Enzymes in raw foods help to break them down, sparing your digestive system from having to manufacture the needed enzymes and allowing it to divert valuable energy and resources to other important functions, such as healing, repair and detoxification. A study published in the December 2011 issue of the "International Journal of Cancer" found that diets high in raw vegetables provided significant preventive benefits against esophageal cancer.
Compounds in bitter greens, such as chicory, improve digestion by stimulating the flow of bile, according to acupuncturist Chirstopher Hobbs, author of the book "Natural Therapy for Your Liver: Herbs and Other Natural Remedies for a Healthy Liver." Researchers of a study published in the June 2008 issue of "Nutrition Research" found that steam cooking certain vegetables, including mustard and collard greens, kale, mustard greens, broccoli and cabbage improved their ability to bind to bile by 5 to 13 percent, causing increased flow of bile from the liver and gall bladder.
Articles For Your Diet
- Harvard School of Public Health: Fiber: Start Roughing It!
- PLoS One: Dietary Fibre Intake and Risks of Cancers of the Colon and Rectum in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (Epic)
- Harvard School of Public Health: Daily Fiber Requirements
- Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology: The Effect of a Multispecies Probiotic Mixture on the Symptoms and Fecal Microbiota in Diarrhea-Dominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
- International Journal of Cancer: Vegetables and Fruits Consumption and Risk of Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Subtypes in the Netherlands Cohort Study
- Nutrition Research: Steam Cooking Significantly Improves in Vitro Bile Acid Binding of Collard Greens, Kale, Mustard Greens, Broccoli, Green Bell Pepper, and Cabbage
- Monash University: The Digestive System
- NebGuide: University of Nebraska, Lincoln Extension: A Healthy Lifestyle With Probiotics and Prebiotics
- University of California Berkeley: Raw Food Chef Night
- vegetables image by Edvin selimovic from Fotolia.com