Gut Repair and Alkalizing Nutrition for Digestion

Part 2: Upper GI – Starting at the Top: Mind, Mouth, and Stomach

The upper part of your digestive track breaks down your food into usable nutrients that supply fuel to your cells.  We’re taking a tour of your digestion from top to bottom! We begin with your mind and then move onto the health of your mouth and stomach.

You’ll learn:

  • The intimate dance between your gut and your brain and what you can do to maintain a healthy balance between the two
  • A simple trick for making sure the important beginnings of digestion that occur in your stomach and duodenum start out smoothly
  • The #1 secret for optimizing your nutrition naturally, so you don’t need to take a whole bunch of supplements to provide your cells with fuel
  • How to heal your stomach so you optimize the breakdown of foods into nutrients to fuel your cells and maximize your energy (remember, you can eat all the healthy food you want and still lack nutrition, if your body isn’t digesting the nutrients properly!)

Optimizing the Upper GI

Introduction Introduction

Optimizing the Upper GI: Introduction

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Anatomy and Physiology

Optimizing the Upper GI: Anatomy and Physiology

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What Can Go Wrong

Optimizing the Upper GI: What Can Go Wrong

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Rebalancing Protocols

Optimizing the Upper GI: Rebalancing Protocols

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Action Plan

Step 1 Step 1

Do the HCl challenge if desired to optimize stomach acid. (Optional)

Do the HCl Challenge if, on your Digestive Function Assessment, you scored 20 or more on the “Low Stomach Acid” section and below 20 on the “Excess Stomach Acid” section. Do not do the HCl challenge if you’ve been diagnosed with gastritis or ulcers.

HCl Challenge Process for Optimizing Stomach Acid: Only do this *if* you have a high score on the low stomach acid section of the digestive assessment AND a very low score on the excess stomach acid section.  The preferred method of increasing stomach acid is through the use of greens and herbal bitters.

 

Step 2

Be consistent with drinking the AM Gut Rejuvenator drink upon rising (before food) and green drinks each day.

Daily AM Gut Rejuvenator Recipe: Drink this combination of water, lemon, and essential oils to wake up your gut each morning before you eat.

Step 3

Begin to add foods that heal your gut while continuing to remove the foods that harm your gut — EVERY DAY.

Happy Belly Checklist: Foods that Harm, Foods that Heal Your Gut: Optimize your digestion by removing the foods that hurt and increasing the foods that heal. Here’s a cheat sheet you can print and refer back to when you shop and prepare meals.

Step 4

Before each meal, take bitters to stimulate HCl and bile release and/or take herbs like slippery elm or DGL powder to soothe your gut.

Before each meal, take bitters to stimulate HCl and bile release and/or take herbs like slippery elm or DGL powder to soothe your gut using the Nutrition and Herbs for the Stomach and Digestion guide. Be sure to also take zinc as a building block to HCl.

Nutrition and Herbs for the Stomach and Digestion: Here you’ll find a summary of protocols useful for rebuilding your stomach lining, producing sufficient HCl, and soothing upper GI discomfort.

Step 5

Follow Dr. Ritamarie’s pre-meal ritual before each meal.

pre-meal ritual symbolYou need to DO these steps EVERY time you put food into your body: Stop — Look — Tune into your heart — Breathe fully and deeply — Feel sincere appreciation.

Step 6

Stay calm and present at all meals.

Stay calm and present at all meals – harness the power of appreciation and conscious eating. Your emotional status has a direct impact on how well your digestive system processes what you eat.

Step 7

Take digestive enzymes with each meal.

Refer to the Nutrition and Herbs for the Stomach and Digestion document for a list of my favorite digestive enzymes. Take your digestive enzymes either during or after each meal and take them separately from any stomach acid supplementation.

NOTE: If you are taking hydrochloric acid as a supplement, you want to make sure that you do that at the beginning part of the meal and then the digestive enzymes at the end, so they don’t interfere with each other.

Step 8

Take time to chew food thoroughly.

The more thoroughly you savor, chew, and allow your saliva to interact with your food, the more likely you are to easily and fully digest what you’re eating.  The more easily you digest your food, the more nutrients you can absorb.

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