My goal with the CeliAct Blog is to answer a simple question – how can you use nutrition to fight celiac symptoms and improve your health? While there’s no silver bullet answer, there are many contributing solutions.

Nutrient absorption is a hot topic. We know that eating the right foods is important. Whether it’s eating high fiber gluten free foods, getting enough protein, or maintaining energy with B vitamins, sourcing the right foods is a great start.

But did you know that you can improve digestion and increase nutrient absorption with other dietary strategies?

Once you know which foods to eat, the following tips and strategies will help you make the most of those foods.

1. Piperine – Piperine, or black pepper, causes nutrients to remain inside target cells for longer periods of time, allowing the body to make better use of them. Piperine also stimulates pancreatic enzymes, which enhance digestive capacity.


2. Chew your food – No, seriously. Chew your food. Slower than you do. This simple tactic breaks down particles to better digest food and break down nutrients. Saliva in your mouth alkalinizes your food, and your body is able to absorb nutrients better.


3. Fermented foods – Foods like miso, yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut use microorganisms to transform sugars into lactic acid. This process “predigests” so you get more nutrients out of food.


4. Digestive enzymes – Supplementing your diet with digestive enzymes will help you break down food more effectively, thus unlocking the nutrients. This will allow the small intestine to better absorb nutrients.


5. Probiotics – Probiotics are good bacteria that help regulate digestion, promote healthy bacteria balance in your intestine, and in turn help maximize nutrient absorption.

These are five easy ways.

If you’ve already gotten the right foods down, and you’re ready to move to the more advanced stuff, you’ll love my next post.

In next week’s installment on nutrient absorption, I’ll talk about how to combine specific foods to maximize absorption.

You don’t want to miss it.