Digestive Problems - Is It The Food You Eat ?

Do you class yourself as having a 'cast iron' digestive system? Or do you seem to have digestive problems after eating certain foods? Much research has been carried out on foods and there is a belief in certain quarters that certain foods, eaten together, could be the cause of many potential dietary problems. Of course, the reasons for dietary problems can be complex, but since we are organic beings, should we not be aware that eating foods, in any order, might just be the cause, or at least, part cause, of any health or dietary problems? When you eat your food, your body has to digest it, but have you ever stopped to think whether different food combinations may be harder to digest than others? Eating a large meal can make some people sleepy and lethargic (something a lot of us feel like at Christmas, after the Christmas day meal!). More interestingly, eating a smaller meal, for example, a sandwich, can create a similar effect, especially if it contained a protein filling. (A lazy British Earl with the surname of Sandwich invented this ubiquitous snack. He was not a dietician!) This tiredness or lethargy after eating a meal is your body 'shutting down' while it concentrates on digesting the food (forget the Christmas alcohol for the moment). But what happens when we are reasonably healthy and we eat, say a cheese sandwich or two? For some, there may be nothing noticeable. But there may be some people out there that wonder why they get indigestion, or feel tired, after a reasonably small lunch, and cannot figure out why. More surprisingly, it has been shown that some people's allergies show improvement when food is eaten in a certain (correct?) order. Why are so many babies intolerant to milk? Milk is extremely hard to digest! You may think that your digestive system is not affected by milk, but are you 100% certain of this? Some children suffer from Eczema in their early childhood, and then find that they 'grow out' of it. Later in life they then suffer from something else, like asthma. Could this just be a result of food intolerance over a long period of time? Many people suffer from various health problems due to their body being unable to function as well as it should. Could part of this be due to unseen digestive problems? Could your body be less efficient if it has difficulty in digesting the food that it is given? Could your health start to improve if you changed your eating habits? Eating a mixture of foods, that may not be 'perfect partners', might not show an immediate adverse effect. Medical problems aside, do you know whether your everyday diet is helping your body, or hindering it? Muesli, Brown bread, Healthy salads are all supposed to be healthy foods, but they can still make you tired! Why is this? Although your diet may not be one of the 'High protein or 'High fibre' varieties, and you might believe you have a healthy balanced diet, could you still be eating your choice of foods in such a way that it is making digestion difficult for you? We are what we eat. It seems that we may have to watch how we eat it.