Intestinal immune function. Dietary fiber intake. Think of the time and money you spend planning menus, shopping for food, preparing meals and buying vitamin supplements. That's the first step in good digestion. The mechanical breakdown of your meal begins when your teeth grind food.
Saliva triggers the start of the chemical breakdown.
Once food travels to your stomach, you need adequate amounts of hydrochloric acid to break up dietary proteins. You may be among the millions of Americans who do not produce enough hydrochloric acid. This can cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies, osteoporosis, hardening of the arteries, arthritis, colon cancer, food allergies and autoimmune diseases. Enzymes take over Hydrochloric acid and other factors trigger your pancreas to release enzymes once food moves to the small intestine. Pancreatic enzymes play an important role in the digestion of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.