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X Watch the video on youtubeDigestion and modern eating habits
Digestion is an essential process for human life and many other living organisms. Eating is not just an instinct, but a pleasure, an inalienable rite aimed at the socialization and survival of the species itself.
As a hunter and gatherer of berries and tubers, primitive man has gradually passed to agriculture and breeding, radically changing both life and food habits.
If on the one hand all this allowed a greater availability of food on the other hand it has definitely limited the variety of foods present in the diet. Since then, cereals have in fact been the essential basis for human nutrition.
Over the centuries, as social and economic conditions improved, these foods were associated with additional foods. Think for example of the introduction of corn and potatoes in the period following the discovery of America.
Despite the evolution of agricultural knowledge, however, we have to wait for the industrial revolution to be able to appreciate the first significant changes in the food sector. Starting from the first post-war period the economic wave that has traveled through the most industrialized countries has suddenly expanded the availability of food. Over the course of a few years the food industry has literally revolutionized the dietary habits of millions of people. In addition to the countless benefits deriving from this food boom, however, the foundations have been laid for many of the digestive problems that afflict millions of people around the world every day.
Overeating, chemical additives and incorrect eating habits are among the main factors underlying digestive problems.
The digestive difficulties, grouped under the generic term dyspepsia (from the Greek dys-pepsia, or " bad digestion "), are responsible for symptoms such as loss of appetite, heaviness of the stomach, tiredness, drowsiness, belching, halitosis, flatulence.
What is dyspepsia?
The term dyspepsia refers to a condition summarily described by the patient as "bad digestion".
It is estimated that around 30-40% of Italians suffer from digestive disorders. The strong increase and widespread diffusion of this problem in industrialized countries shows how dyspepsia is a disorder linked to the life and dietary habits typical of the Western world.
Symptoms
To learn more: Symptoms Indigestion
The typical symptoms of dyspepsia are located in the upper part of the abdomen and include:
- heartburn
- acid regurgitation
- belching
- halitosis
- pain in the upper part of the abdomen
- sense of long and laborious digestion
- intolerance to fats, fried foods, meat and eggs
Causes
Causes of dyspepsia can be:
- use of medicines (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs such as aspirin, iron, theophylline, etc.)
- helicobacter pylori
- gastric ulcer (stomach)
- gastritis (inflammation of the internal mucosa of the stomach)
- poor diet (diet)
- obesity
- gastroesophageal reflux disease
To these symptoms are added other less common ones such as headache, cough, difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) and sometimes food vomiting. In order of importance among the causal factors of dyspepsia in the first place there is the Helicobacter pylori followed by the NSAIDs and by the abuse of smoke and alcohol.
Care
- Carry out a specialized medical examination to obtain a precise diagnosis (eg gastroscopy, opaque meal, blood tests, etc.)
- Treat any organic diseases such as ulcers, gallbladder and biliary tract stones, celiac disease, etc.
- Eliminate or at least reduce risk factors such as taking Fans, obesity, smoking alcohol, a sedentary lifestyle and being overweight.
If all these problems are removed, the digestive difficulties remain, we speak of functional dyspepsia, or a form of disease not linked to organic causes (benign dyspeptic disorders). In any case, there are very effective pharmacological treatments specific to the symptoms experienced.
Irritable bowel syndrome is very similar to dyspepsia. It is a disease with an important genetic and psychological component characterized by two important factors:
- gastrointestinal motility disorder and alteration of peristalsis (inability of the digestive system to effectively advance its content);
- visceral hypersensitivity (the individual is often fully aware of the symptoms he / she perceives and clearly perceives the disease).
Stress is certainly a very important cause, so much so that we talk about irritable bowel syndrome as a disease with a strong psychosocial component. Psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs are considered very important elements in the treatment of this pathology.
Excess of Food and Dyspepsia
If we exclude food allergies or intolerances, our body is perfectly capable of digesting any food that is considered edible.
However, digestion is a complex process that requires a lot of energy from the body (about 15% of daily caloric needs). For this reason the calorie constraint is essential to ensure good digestion of food.
The division of food into different meals has the aim of making digestion easier while at the same time preventing the appearance of uncontrollable hunger attacks. Condensing all the food in one meal would instead be like concentrating the work of a whole day in a few hours, surely the yield would be very low and the nerves would not hold up to stress.
On the contrary, allowing yourself a regenerating break from time to time would help you regain your energy and concentration to better face work commitments. The same result can be obtained by consuming 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) possibly accompanied by one or more snacks. In this way digestive problems disappear or at least are considerably reduced.
The maximum amount of food that can be eaten in a single meal should therefore be calibrated also according to the commitments following the food intake. If for example you feel a strong "stomach hole" an hour before starting a very intense physical or mental activity it is good to consume a quick snack, easily digestible and not too caloric.
For a normal-weight subject of 75 kg a meal should not indicatively exceed 600-800 kcal. A person who is particularly active as a sportsman may, however, fail to comply with this constraint by evenly dividing the calories in the three main meals. In this case, the consumption of snacks is the only solution to best redistribute caloric intake throughout the day.
It is interesting to note how calories are used and not grams to quantify the maximum amount of food consumed at each meal. Not by chance, generally, are the most caloric foods to cause the greatest digestive problems.
