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On Wednesday June 16, 2010 I wrote a blog called “Why Kill Your Stomach Acid.” And I promised to explain more about heartburn and GERD and got lots of encouragement from people to do that.

One reader told me her story.

“I took Tagamet, then Prilosec, then Prevacid over a period of 25 years. Finally an acupuncturist helped me stop the drugs during an anxious six months, since my whole system had been geared by then to the drugs. He explained that I had still had reflux and had developed irregular, straining bowel movements because the acid blockers had created a situation in which I had almost no intestinal peristalsis! I had no choice but to give up the drugs. With several doctors in the family who believe in the drug solution, it was hard for me to switch to alternative medicine. But now I’m an addict! I look forward to your next report.”

Well here it is! I’ll give you an excerpt from my Future Health Now Encyclopedia that describes how to achieve good digestion.

The most important factor in digestion is proper food selection, avoiding non-nutritive junk foods, and choosing foods that provide the building blocks your body needs. It’s obvious your body won’t digest food that’s not in its best interest!

The second most important aspect of digestion is proper chewing. If you chew each mouthful of food thirty to forty times, this stimulates the salivary amylase enzyme in the mouth and one-third of the digestion will be done there. If you gently chew and hold cooked grain in your mouth long enough, it will become sweet. This is the action of the amylase breaking down the starchy carbohydrate into glucose.

The action of chewing also stimulates stomach acid production. If you are under stress or are generally tense, the stomach muscle, like any other body muscle, can go into spasm. This spasm can cut off blood circulation in the stomach and inhibit the production of stomach acid. This reduction in stomach acid can lead to improper or incomplete breakdown of stomach contents, especially protein. If incompletely digested food finds its way into the intestines, the intestinal flora (bacteria and yeast) will feed on this food and create gas and bloating.

The third most important aspect of digestion is to avoid drinking water with a meal, especially ice water. Washing down each bite of food with water dilutes stomach acid and leads to incomplete digestion, washing food out of the stomach too soon. Cold water also causes fats and oils in the food to cling together, which impedes their absorption. You may drink water up to ten minutes before or two to three hours after eating.

You can download a copy of my Future Health Now Encyclopedia eBook immediately and search it when you need a solution to over 130 health problems. It’s an excellent companion to my Future Health Now! Online Wellness Program where I give you strategies that help you avoid getting health problems in the first place!

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