FastingDigestive System PART 2

by Vickie Johnston, Owner and Founder, H2O Health

First a reminder about intermittent fasting: The most common way to start is pick an eight-hour window, known as the feeding window, to eat. Then stop for 16 hours to let your body rest from digestion and get down to detoxing and rebuilding new cells and tissue.

Digestion takes more energy than any other body system. It also takes time to digest food, depending on what and when we eat.

The more complex the food, the longer it takes to break that food down. Protein foods like meats, for instance, take much longer to break down. Some cuts of meats can take eight hours or more to break down verses liquid protein shakes.

Protein shakes can go through our system fast, depending on the type of protein. Fruits and veggies break down much faster. Melons, for instance, can leave the stomach in 10 to 15 minutes, which makes them an excellent choice for foods near the end of your eight-hour feeding window. Bananas take about 20 minutes.

Fruits and vegetables are full of alkaline water, which makes them digest much quicker than complex or processed foods.

Why is this important? Because our digestive system is hot at 98.6°, as well as moist, as well as dark, that is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and putrefaction.

So the faster the food leaves your stomach and gets through your intestinal tract the more nutrients you will actually get from your food. This is vital for a good health. It also helps to keep the digestive tract much cleaner because of the huge amount of fiber and water in fruits and vegetables.

I can’t tell you how many intestinal tracts