Consuming quality sources of macronutrients and micronutrients is important for health, but you also need to ensure those nutrients are digested and absorbed in the gut. When this process is working optimally, your body can use the food you eat for physiological processes and energy. When it isn’t, you may experience nutrient insufficiencies or deficiencies, which can affect vitality in all dimensions of health as well as your risk for disease.

A healthy gastrointestinal tract is important to ensure your body can utilize the nutrients you need. Luckily, there are many ways to support the digestive process. For instance, by chewing your sandwich thoroughly, you’re supporting saliva and digestive enzyme production!

In addition, by being aware of bio-individual factors that may impair proper digestion.

• Age  –  As we age, the body becomes less efficient at extracting and absorbing nutrients from foods and supplements. For example, older adults have decreased acid secretions in the stomach, lowering their ability to extract vitamin B12 from food.

• Antibiotics  –  Antibiotics can impair proper digestion by influencing gut flora activities that affect gut motility, transit time, and colon processes. In addition, some antibiotics can bind nutrients and affect their absorption.

• Gastric motility  –  When the gut moves too quickly (such as with diarrhea), the body has less time to absorb nutrients.

• Gut health  –  Disease and dysfunction in the gut can impact nutrient absorption. For example, in untreated celiac disease, intestinal villi are flattened, leading to nutrient malabsorption. Nurturing healthy populations of gut microbiota is important to gut health as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and candida in the gut are also linked to nutrient malabsorption and deficiencies.

• Inflammation is the body’s natural protective response to irritants, injury, or infection. When acute, or short term, inflammation supports the healing process. When inflammation is chronic, or ongoing, the immune system stays “under attack,” damaging healthy tissues and organs in the body. This prolonged inflammation is at the root of many chronic diseases.