5 min
Probiotic treatment: really effective for digestion?
Carried out for The Serious Gut in 2021, an IFOP survey reveals that 45% of French people say they suffer from digestive disorders . Between discomfort or irregular transit, digestion turns out to be a real cause of discomfort for part of the population.
Are you also part of this 45%? Do you often experience these discomforts, without ever finding how to relieve them? You may have just found THE solution: a probiotic treatment!
How does your digestion work?
It all starts with the first bites, from chewing . However, it is only after 24 long hours that the food ingested is digested.
Crushed by the teeth, swallowed, transported via the esophagus, food begins a long journey. When it lands in the stomach, your meal is crushed. Gastric juices reduce the pieces to mush (chyme) and it continues its journey to the small intestine. This is where everything happens.
7 meters long, the digestive tract is the main site of digestion. During this stage, digestive juices dissolve and break down food. This is when nutrients and vitamins are extracted from the liquefied food and redistributed to the different organs.
After that, the journey continues for some survivors, in the colon. This takes care of recovering the water present in indigestible elements and constitutes what will be the stools.
What effect does a probiotic treatment have on your intestinal flora?
The role of probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms that contribute to the proper functioning of your intestinal flora. This flora, also called microbiota, is made up of billions of other bacteria: the good and the bad, which must be balanced. “Friendly” organisms are the allies of your digestive tract. They must outnumber the “enemy” organisms.
In a treatment, probiotics , for their part, help the good bacteria to digest the food that passes through them. But above all, they strengthen the bacterial barrier, erected against pathogenic organisms which could colonize your flora and cause diseases. This is why a course of probiotics is regularly recommended in cases of poor digestion. We explain what they do!
The action of probiotics on digestion
Thanks to chewing, and the action of the stomach and its gastric juices, the food you ingest arrives in the small intestine almost liquid. This is where digestive juices transform all of this, and probiotics come into play.
Indeed, located on the walls of the small intestine, with other bacteria, they continue the digestion process . They allow the body to assimilate all the nutrients that are necessary for its proper functioning. These good bacteria also help with the absorption of vitamins and other small molecules beneficial to the organs.
Probiotics are essential because they do a thorough job. They milk food that could not be digested by juices, which smoothes digestion and makes it more efficient. A course of probiotics is therefore very interesting to benefit from their many benefits and to promote your digestion.
Our 5 best tips for good digestion
To combat painful digestion, it is possible to implement good habits. Here are 5 simple tips you can implement to digest better.
1. In the evening, opt for light meals
Fatty or very sugary foods like cold meats, fries or cakes do not do well with your digestive system. If you want to sleep like a baby and not be disturbed by abdominal pain , we advise you to eat light in the evening.
2. Avoid Acidic Foods
For good digestion , acidic foods are not recommended. Therefore, avoid too frequent consumption of tomatoes, citrus fruits, vinegar, prepared meals, or even industrial sauces, which are too salty and too sweet.
3. Take a walk after meals
Sport has always been a solution for strong health and optimal organ functioning. Not surprisingly, this rule also works for digestion. Walking around after a meal activates your entire system and promises more pleasant digestion . So put on your sneakers, and let’s go!
4. Eat and chew slowly
As we saw above, digestion begins very early : from the first bite. It is through chewing that food arrives in your stomach, then your intestine, crushed and ground.
If chewing is neglected , this will cause difficult digestion . Foods that are too large take longer to be assimilated. You risk digestive problems and stomach aches. To avoid all this, eat slowly and take the time to chew well 👅
5. Start a course of probiotics
Finally, if you want to improve your digestion and support your immune system, try a probiotic food supplement for the microbiota.
In fact, taking probiotics for at least 1 month helps strengthen the intestinal flora and promotes good digestion.
Precious and fragile, your intestinal flora needs your attention. Now that digestion and the action of probiotics no longer hold any secrets for you, it's up to you to ensure competitive digestion and a top-notch immune system!
