If you find that you bloat after meals or have excessive gas, your problem may be caused by incomplete digestion of starches, sugars and other carbohydrate rich foods.

Indigestion is one of the most common health problems to affect Americans today. Billions of dollars are spent annually on over the counter remedies for indigestion. Unfortunately, these drugs only provide temporary relief from symptoms without correcting the cause of the problem, which is compromised digestion.

Experts on nutrition give a great deal of advice regarding proper diet. But little to no attention is given to your ability to digest particular foods. The experts advise us to eat more whole grains. In theory a sandwich of lean turkey made with whole grain bread, tomato and lettuce should be healthier than a taco and a side of refried beans from a fast food restaurant.  However, that statement is only true if you can digest the whole grains, vegetables and turkey.

If you cannot digest a food or have limited capacity to digest a food group, you are going to encounter symptoms of digestive stress such as bloating, belching and flatulence. These symptoms arise because your digestive system cannot break down foods into simple sugars and amino acids. When you cannot completely digest a food, bacteria and yeast in the bowel ferment the food producing gas and alcohol.  That’s what causes the gas, bloating and belching. And that’s why you may bloat up with certain foods, or find that your abdomen puffs up, and your clothes get tighter as the day goes on.

You’re probably familiar with the Sierra Nevada Brewery on 20th Street. How do they make beer? The simplified version is the brewer mixes grain, which is high in the sugar maltose, with yeast, and lets it ferment. The product of this fermentation is a bubbly batch of alcohol. Your body does the same thing when it cannot digest food. Incomplete digestion yields gas, and alcohol. It’s as if you are running a small microbrewery in your gut every time you eat foods you cannot digest.

While limited amounts of alcoholic beverages seem to provide some health benefits, excessive amounts of alcohol are damaging to your health, and can be life threatening. Alcohol produced in the bowel is even more dangerous to your health.  Alcohol produced by fermentation in the bowel stresses the liver, irritates and inflames the bowel lining and depletes the body’s immune system. Long-term consequences of untreated compromised digestion are sub-clinical malnutrition, and chronic degenerative diseases.

One of the perplexing problems regarding nutritional advice from the experts is that advice is given to everybody. Yet everybody is not your body, and such advice does not account for variances in our abilities to digest different foods. Fortunately, advanced testing for food intolerances and sensitivities can help you identify which foods are good foods for your own body. Enhancing your body’s ability to digest with specifically formulated professional grade enzymes can also help you overcome digestive deficiencies. Our treatments with NAET (Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique) can eliminate your food sensitivities permanently.

If you suffer from indigestion, the Digestion Relief Center may be the answer you’re looking for.  Attend one of our FREE seminars to learn about the latest techniques for identifying food intolerances and improving your digestion, and desensitizing your body from food sensitivities. View our Seminars page for more information about upcoming events. Yes, it’s now possible to live a life that is free from the pain of compromised digestion!

Dr. Patrick Giammarise is the founder of the Digestion Relief Center and specializes in natural relief for food sensitivities and digestive problems. Dr Patrick can be reached at 899-8741 or on the web at www.drpatrickonline.com

2009, © Dr. Patrick Giammarise, DC