What foods are digested quickly
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Tired of bloating after meals? To put an end to digestive discomfort, here are some tips: easy-to-digest foods to put on the menu, those that are bad for digestion and cooking methods to favor. You will know everything!
How long does digestion take?
Good digestion is essential for the body to adequately assimilate the absorbed nutrients. It takes time, and more than you think!
"To have a complete digestion it takes between 24 and 48 hours", announces Aurore Lavergnat, dietician-nutritionist.
This digestion time is not fixed. It varies depending on the type of food eaten. "The richer the food is in fiber, the more there is a ballast effect that increases intestinal peristalsis and makes digestion faster," details the dietitian. On the contrary, the more the food is meat, based on cooked fats, the slower the digestion."
What does the stomach digest?
"The stomach mainly digests proteins, explains the dietician. That is why its pH is acidic (pH2). The purpose of this organ is to pre-cut proteins to make them easier to digest. It takes about 2-3 hours."
What does the small intestine digest?
"It is primarily responsible for pre-cutting lipids into fatty acids, explains the dietitian. It also continues the work of the stomach on proteins, transforming them into amino acids. It also deals with carbohydrates, transforming them into glucose, etc. This work is intended so that a part of the nutrients passes into the blood, the other into the colon. These transformations still require 6 to 8 hours of work."
Digestion in the colon
This stage is long: "it lasts about 6 to 8 hours, then there is still a latency period in the terminal phase of the descending colon, the sigmoid, the last segment of the colon with the rectum", she explains.
What is the digestion time of food?
In addition to the general digestion work, you should know that not all foods are digested at the same speed. In fact, liquids pass very quickly in the body, there is no need for prior cutting work, therefore they are digested very quickly.
What about other foods? Here are some digest times.
15 min: fruit juices, vegetable juices
30 min : cucumber, celery, bell pepper, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, fruit salad
45 min : apple, pear, peach, banana, tomato
1 hour : carrot, beet
1 h 30 min : cereals, legumes, artichoke, pumpkin, potato
2 hours: nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower, sesame, chia
4 hours: meat, poultry, fish, dairy products
easy to digest foods
"To digest well you have to eat foods rich in fiber," recalls the dietician. Many of them are bloat vectors though, but good bloat! So what to put on your plate?
Cooked vegetables
"They are easily digestible, especially carrots, courgettes, aubergines, beets. Their soluble gelatinous fibers are more digestible. "Cooked, yes, but not pureed," warns the dietitian. We prefer to puree the vegetables with a fork to do not raise the Glycemic Index too much. And if you want to eat raw vegetables? "You can remove the skin, the seeds and think about grating them, advises the dietician. Grating them acts as a pre-digestion job."
cooked fruits
Like cooked vegetables, they are well digested because their fibers soften when cooked and are therefore more digestible. A small inconvenience, they lose a little of their vitamins, she warns.
lacto-fermented foods
Vegetables, yogurts, sourdough bread, miso paste, kefir, kombucha. There are many fermented foods. Sources of probiotics and prebiotics, promote good digestion. The only drawback, the sauerkraut.
And of course, to promote good transit, you have to remember to drink regularly: at least 8 glasses of water a day.
Foods that are bad for digestion.
While some foods are easy to digest, others are less so. "This is the case of cooked fats, fried foods, meat," lists the dietitian. Without forgetting, of course, alcohol that slows down gastric emptying and, therefore, digestion.
What to eat during the day to digest well?
Depending on the time of day, you have to prefer certain foods and avoid others, if you want to digest well. It is, in effect, to apply the principle of chronobiology.
Foods to eat and avoid for breakfast
"We prefer animal fat, which is good for certain neurotransmitters like dopamine and cortisol," explains the dietician. At breakfast, therefore, we opt for butter, cheese, dairy products, eggs or ham, alternating them, of course, so as not to have a repetitive meal!
Foods that are easy to digest at night and those to avoid
"At dinner, it is important to avoid glycemic peaks, warns the dietitian, because they increase digestion time. So what should be on the menu? "We prefer the soup sprinkled with seeds, for example to chew a little, the broth with small pieces of vegetables, the vegetable papillotes sprinkled with a dash of olive oil, the dietitian gives as examples.
And, on the contrary, avoid foods rich in carbohydrates and with a high glycemic index. "We can mention, for example, fried potatoes, pasta with cream, carbonara or Bolognese, gratins, cakes and vegetable quiches," the dietitian lists.
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What to avoid: eating late or not eating dinner?
Cooking methods to favor for good digestion
They are not all the same. If you want to digest fast and well, here are the cooking methods to choose from, from best to worst.
Gentle steam cooking.
Papillote and poached (cooked in water).
In the oven: "it tends to dehydrate food and therefore increases the glycemic index," warns the dietitian.
Pan or wok cooking: "For the latter, the food becomes crispy, digestion may be more difficult."
Fry.
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