Monday 19 September 2022 10:56 PM DR MEGAN ROSSI's handy hints to help you digest your food  trends now

The basic diet ‘rules’ for a healthy gut aren’t complicated: eat more veg, cut back on red meat and avoid highly processed food.

But it’s not just what you eat; how you eat is also vital.

You might assume that if you consumed the same meal, in the same quantities, day in day out, it would have the same impact. 

In fact, where you eat, how you eat, how often, who with and what mood you’re in can all affect how you feel after a meal — literally — and the health benefits.

Here are six simple rules I use with my clients to help improve their digestion...

This might have been something your parents told you to do to improve your table manners, but chewing is a vitally important part of the digestive process. It kick-starts digestion by stimulating the production of saliva. This contains the enzyme amylase, which breaks down starch, found in foods such as bread and pasta.

Research shows that up to 30 per cent of starches are digested in your mouth. So if you bolt your food down, you’re missing this key stage.

(Experience amylase at work first-hand by chewing a piece of white bread until it becomes liquid: it becomes sweeter the more you chew, a sign your salivary enzymes have started breaking down the starch in the bread into sugar.)

This also gives the rest of your digestive chain a heads-up that food is incoming, which alerts your gut to begin releasing the right mix of acids and digestive enzymes. You also gulp in less air, another benefit that means smoother digestion with less discomfort.

But it’s not just about avoiding a stomach ache. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009 found that people absorbed about 15 per cent more nutrients when they chewed almonds 40 times, than when they chewed just ten times a mouthful.

And if weight management is your goal, another study, from Harbin Medical University in China showed that people took on 12 per cent fewer calories when they chewed each mouthful 40 times compared with 15 times. Their levels of ghrelin (the ‘hunger’ hormone) were notably lower 90 minutes after the meal.

‘Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper’ won’t suit everyone — some people just can’t stomach a large breakfast. But I still think it’s worth following this principle, particularly if you have problems with your blood sugar levels. This is because our bodies are better primed to metabolise carbohydrates in the morning — for instance, the release of insulin is more efficient — compared with in the evening, linked to our circadian rhythm.

This was seen in a study by Tel Aviv University in Israel, where researchers compared the impact of consuming the same amount of calories, but eaten differently.

One group of participants had a large breakfast (700 calories, with a 500-calorie lunch and 200-calorie dinner); another had a large dinner (700 calories, with a 500-calorie lunch and a 200-calorie breakfast).

Those who had the large breakfast had 20 per cent lower blood sugar levels over the day, and higher insulin levels despite eating the exact same food.

This is partly for the simple reason that if you eat a lot and then lie down, you’re likely to get heartburn and indigestion. But most importantly, by avoiding eating late (stopping at least a couple of hours before you go to bed) you’re increasing your overnight fast.

There is some evidence that this break from digesting means our gut microbes can work on other essential tasks, such as helping the immune system clear out old cells to make room and stimulate the production of new ones.

A break of about 12 hours is considered optimum. While some fasting protocols suggest a 14, 16 or even 18-hour break, there’s not enough robust evidence to suggest increased benefits for longer fasts.

The exception to the night eating rule is if going to bed hungry interferes with your

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