Digestion: The Very Center of Our Existence

By:   Andreas Moritz
Posted:  December 8, 2011 — updated 2016

The digestive process actually begins in your mouth. Here, food is pre-digested by saliva, which also signals to your pancreas and small intestine that a meal is on the way. These organs then release the appropriate types and amounts of digestive enzymes and minerals needed to break down the food into the smallest nutrient components.

Not only is it necessary to chew every morsel thoroughly so that it is pre-digested properly, but research suggests that chewing also reduces the release of stress hormones. Eating a meal — which means you’re ingesting calories — is usually a stressful event for individuals who are overweight. This, in turn, leads to anxiety, fear and insecurity, which tend to make one chew even faster.

Once the food enters your stomach, your salivary enzymes continue to digest it in this organ for as much as an hour. Only then does your stomach begin to secrete its gastric juices — hydrochloric acid, enzymes, mineral salts, mucus and water. The acid kills harmful microbes and parasites that are naturally present in the food, as well as harmful substances such as food additives and chemicals. Also, special enzymes are released to act on proteins.

Once saturated with sufficient acid, the food is pumped into the small intestine, which is approximately 6 meters or 18 feet long. This coiled tube-like organ is responsible for most of the chemical digestion and absorption of nutrients, salt and water.

Simultaneously, the liver pours in bile and the pancreas contributes digestive enzymes, minerals and water to further break down starches. Bile, on the other hand, metabolizes fats and proteins. Metabolized nutrients are absorbed through the walls of the small intestine and pass into the blood, which carries them to the liver for detoxification. The rest are detoxified by the lymphatic system.

The body’s complex metabolic processes are powered by Agni, or the ‘digestive fire’ that ‘cooks’ the food and its nutrients as they are being processed. Agni is fuelled by bile, without which none of the other digestive juices would be sufficiently effective to break down food into its nutrient components.

There is no underestimating the role of bile, which in a congested environment leads to the formation of gallstones that contribute to sickness and weight gain. Bile, which is alkaline, dilutes the hydrochloric acid. This makes it possible for the intestine to secrete the necessary digestive enzymes for metabolism.

An intestinal pH-value of high acidity would block enzyme secretion and become a major stumbling block for the proper digestion of food. As long as bile secretion from the liver’s bile ducts and the gallbladder remain unimpeded by gallstones, good digestion is almost guaranteed, provided that you eat food that is fresh and wholesome.

Refined carbohydrates, refined sugars and chemical additives in processed foods and beverages significantly lower Agni. None of these substances were intended by nature to be ingested.  Anything that is unnatural, and worse still, consumed regularly and in vast quantities, blocks the digestive fire.

This is where the toxicity crisis and roots of obesity begin. When Agni is low, undigested food cannot pass through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream. It becomes a target for destructive bacteria and starts fermenting and putrefying in the intestine. A chain reaction is set off involving destructive bacteria, toxins and poisonous gases that further impair digestive functions. Over time, the intestine’s ability to absorb nutrients is greatly diminished. More and more toxins and waste are generated, and this increasingly congests the gastrointestinal tract, not to mention the damage it also causes to the liver on rebound. At this stage, food turns into poison.

Here is an astonishing fact: one-third of the Western world’s population has been diagnosed with intestinal problems. Take a look at the average American’s diet and lifestyle, and that should tell you why.

The mind-body connection is clearly demonstrated by the small intestine. The cerebral cortex of the brain, which controls thought, is intimately connected with the digestive process. Hence, not only foods, but also thoughts need to be properly ‘digested’ or processed so that they don’t cause us any harm.

Undigested thoughts have a poisonous effect on the body as a whole, and on the digestive system in particular. Fear, anger, shock, trauma, anxiety and other negative emotions may be locked up in the cellular memory of the intestines for a long time, without any obvious indication of their presence. Once they have reached a certain degree of concentration, they may suddenly erupt and alter one’s personality in a negative way. This can be damaging to the body as well.

In other words, if you feel frequently upset, angry, worried or simply unhappy, you are prone not only to suffer from ‘mental indigestion’, but also from physical indigestion. Imbalances of the small intestines are characterized by holding on to things in our insides, regardless of whether these are undigested foods or unresolved emotional conflicts.

It is interesting to note that the ‘happiness hormone’ is produced in the digestive system. In fact, 95 percent of serotonin is made in the digestive system and regulates digestive functions; only 5 percent is produced in the brain. Lack of happiness diminishes serotonin secretions and thereby weakens the digestive process.

The reverse is also true. If you are suffering from chronic indigestion or you habitually consume highly processed, refined and denatured foods, you begin to accumulate toxic waste in your intestines. This waste may give rise to nervousness, hyperactivity or any other emotionally volatile condition.

Let me put it this way. We can broadly say that toxins in the intestines are the physical counterparts of negative thoughts. And through the mind-body connection, negative thoughts and feelings translate into poisons, and vice versa.

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