Written by Jolie Root, LPN, LNC
Jolie is the Senior Nutritionist and Educator for Carlson. She travels throughout North America attending medical conferences, lecturing, and educating about the role of nutrition in integrative medicine.
Some days I forget how old I am. I feel great and have a lot of energy, and everything seems to come easy. Other days… not so much. One thing that can really put me off my game is occasional digestive upset. You know the feeling – heartburn, bloating, or worse.
Digestive Enzymes for Gut Health and Nutrient Absorption
If you have occasional digestive issues, gas, bloating, reflux, or feeling uncomfortably full after meals, you’re not alone. One in three adults experience occasional digestive discomfort. And I suspect this number may be even higher around the holidays.
Fortunately, there may be an easy answer. Relief can be as simple as supporting your digestion with a high-quality digestive enzyme supplement. Digestion is hard work, and once we hit our 30s and beyond, our body may not be able to produce enough of the digestive enzymes we need to break down the meals we enjoy.
Digestive enzymes are produced and secreted by our gastrointestinal system to degrade fats, proteins, and carbohydrates – helping us to digest and absorb important nutrients. When you feel stuffed or sluggish following a meal, supplementing with digestive enzymes may help you feel right again. Carlson Natural Digestive Enzymes are my secret weapon for feeling like a kid again – even after that big meal.
If your digestive system occasionally tells you it needs help, begin approaching your meals with intention. Relax while you eat. Sit down. Turn off the TV. As you eat, take your time, and chew your food well. The saliva from chewing plus supplementation will allow the food that enters the stomach to be laced with digestive enzymes.
Digestive enzymes turn our meal into an amino-acid-rich concentrate, perfect for rebuilding and repairing cells. Once the meal leaves the stomach and moves to the small intestine, stomach acid is neutralized and protease, lipase, and amylase are needed to finish the digestive process (all found in Carlson Natural Digestive Enzymes). As digestion is completed, nutrients are passed through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream.
Before any of the food we eat reaches our body’s cells, the protein should be broken down into amino acids, the fat into fatty acids, and the carbohydrates into glucose. Using Natural Digestive Enzymes provides helps boost the entire process of unlocking the power of food and feeding our body the nutrients it needs for an energy boost. I love them, and I bet you will too.