Indigestion: How to Prevent One from Occurring?

Food is one of man’s simplest pleasures. Whether you admit or not, gluttony can sometimes overrule your food tolerance especially during special occasions and holidays. Nonetheless, overindulgence is perfectly normal. Unfortunately, indigestion strikes when it is least expected. It can ruin your meal and bring forth several discomforts afterwards. The beauty of this is that with proper preventive measures, you can avoid it and enjoy all your sumptuous meals. With that, if you’re susceptible to indigestion or you don’t want to suffer from one, here are some tips to prevent indigestion from occurring. 

Eat smaller meals slowly and chew every piece

Proper table etiquette is not taught for the sole purpose of socialization. It is also essential for the proper digestion of foods. First is eating small meals. When you eat large portions of meals, your digestive system will eventually need to work hard. This simply means that your body needs to generate sufficient amounts of digestive enzymes and acid to efficiently digest all ingested foods. As a result, heartburn and indigestion occurs. Chewing your food properly and slowly is also very crucial. By doing this, you break food into tiny pieces and prepare it for the next step of the digestion process. Chewing also signals your stomach, small intestine and digestive glands to release necessary enzymes and acid. Hence, ensuring proper digestion. Lastly, talking with your mouth full is also not advisable. This may lead to air ingestion eventually leading to indigestion.

So, if you want to eat a heavy meal especially during holidays, try to take it slow and opt for several small servings. You should enjoy every bite and let its savory flavor linger in your mouth before swallowing. With that, the first important tip you can use to prevent indigestion from occurring is to practice proper table manners with emphasis on the chewing part.

Credit: Petr Kratochvil

Drink moderate amounts of water or fluids during meals

Another tip you can use to prevent indigestion from occurring is to avoid or limit water intake during meals. While this is still an inconclusive and arguable statement, you can choose to follow this tip or not.

Basically, the main concept here is that water dilutes your stomach acids. As mentioned earlier, acid is imperative to further break down ingested food. With lower concentrations of stomach acid, your stomach cannot digest food efficiently. However, in some studies they indicated that drinking water will only cause minor dilution. So, it will not significantly affect the digestion process. Nonetheless, if you are already accustomed to drinking water during meals, you can still do it. Just remember to sip and not gulp it. 

Credit: Petr Kratochvil

Take a daily dose of fiber

Last useful tip to prevent indigestion from occurring is to consume the recommended daily dose of fiber.  Soluble fiber is very important in the digestion process. However, too much fiber can also cause indigestion. So, as a rule of thumb, adult men should limit their fiber intake to 38 grams and 26 grams for women. In addition to that, it is also strongly advised to lower your fiber intake as you get older. Typically, men who are 51 years old and above should limit their fiber intake to 30 grams while women should only consume 21 grams.

Other recommendations

If you are frequently suffering from indigestion, you can also take dietary supplements that aid in digestion such as cellulose and amylase. However, frequent indigestion can sometimes be a sign of an underlying digestive problem. So, you might want to consult your physicians to find out the right course of treatment. With that, hopefully these tips about how to prevent indigestion from occurring will help you enjoy every sumptuous meal without any complications afterwards.