10 Healthy Eating Habits To Improve Your Digestion

Between frequent traveling, being married to a lawyer with a chaotic schedule, studying holistic natural medicine, and keeping up with a toddler and three teenagers, I’ve learned one big thing: when my digestion is off, everything feels off. Poor digestion can throw off our energy, mood, and even our skin. But when you treat your gut kindly, it’s like your whole body thanks you. In traditional medicine, the gut is the foundation to good health. The good news? Improving digestion isn’t about complicated diets or food rules. It’s about simple, daily habits that can keep your digestive fire strong and balanced. Here are some simple, effective tips I’ve learned over time!

Consistency Keeps Your Stomach Happy

Once you’ve built the habit of eating only when you’re truly hungry, try to establish a consistent eating schedule. Your stomach loves routine. Eating around the same times each day helps regulate stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and even hunger hormones. Think of it as setting an internal clock for smooth, predictable digestion.

Now, I get it… life isn’t always predictable. My husband, for example, wears many hats as a public speaker, fundraiser, side business owner, religious community leader, and lawyer, so his schedule can be all over the place. If your days are unpredictable or you’re frequently traveling like my husband, don’t stress about perfect timing. Instead, focus on two key things: eating when you’re truly hungry and choosing meals that are simple and easy to digest (you can find some examples in tip # 5). Even when the clock changes, those two habits will help keep your digestion on track!

Warm Up Your Digestion Before You Eat

A simple glass of warm water 20 minutes before eating can improve digestion by up to 24%. Think of it like preheating the oven before baking cookies, it primes your stomach so it’s ready to work. In many traditional systems of medicine, cold drinks (especially right before or during meals) are considered one of the quickest ways to weaken digestion, while warmth is seen as a gentle ally that supports circulation and digestive enzymes without shocking the system.

Extreme heat can aggravate irritation in the gut, but icy drinks can slow gastric contractions and stall digestion. While modern research is mixed, some studies support the idea, others don’t so modern doctors often dismiss and overlook this idea. Warm water has been recommended for centuries, and many people find their digestion noticeably improves when they skip cold drinks close to mealtime.

In much of Western culture, ice-cold beverages are the default, from iced water glasses to soda straight from the fridge. But making a habit of drinking them so close to meal time can subtly dampen digestion, making it harder to break down heavier or richer meals, leading to bloating, gas, or cramping.

Relax First, Digest Better

Sit down, take a breath, and chill. Stress puts your body in fight or flight mode, and digestion basically shuts down when you’re in that state. Stress isn’t just the big, obvious stuff like work deadlines or arguments, it can be scrolling through upsetting news while you eat, shouting and trying to wrangle kids at the table, eating in the car during intense traffic, or even mentally running through your to-do list. Give your body a chance to switch into rest and digest mode by taking at least 15 minutes after eating to relax and no rushing off right away.

You can even prep your digestion before eating with gentle herbal remedies that simultaneously calm the nervous system (nervine) and support digestive motility (digestive). For high-strung, multitaskers and naturally tense people, a warm cup of Chamomile about 20–30 minutes before a meal can help them eat in a relaxed state and prime the stomach for food.

Keep It Simple With Food Combinations

Mixing multiple heavy foods (like a plate stacked with meat, pasta, bread, cheese, and dessert) can overwhelm digestion, slow stomach emptying, and leave you feeling heavy or bloated. Even a smoothie crammed with too many ingredients can have the same effect. Instead, aim for simpler pairings so your gut can focus on breaking things down efficiently. The lighter the combination, the less strain on your digestive fire.

For those who feel heavy or sluggish and food sits in your stomach for too long, it’s best to stick with lighter pairings either protein with vegetables or carbohydrates with vegetables. This makes the meal easier to break down and less likely to leave you bloated. Examples: baked chicken breast with steamed green beans; grilled fish with a side salad; scrambled eggs with sautéed spinach; quinoa with roasted zucchini; baked sweet potato with steamed broccoli; vegetable soup with a slice of whole-grain toast.

For those who feel high-energy, jittery, easily distracted, or like you can’t stay full for long may actually benefit from more substance in your meals, just not chaos on a plate. Think hearty but balanced: baked chicken with roasted potatoes and green beans; turkey chili with kidney beans and bell peppers; salmon with brown rice and sautéed spinach; quinoa bowl with black beans, avocado, and roasted corn; whole-grain pasta with marinara sauce, turkey meatballs, and a side salad.

In traditional systems of medicine, simpler and more intentional meals were believed to preserve digestive energy and prevent the formation of metabolic toxins in the gut. Too many dense foods in one sitting were thought to hinder digestion, leading to sluggishness and poor nutrient absorption.

Go Gentle When Your Digestion’s Struggling

If you’re stressed or tired, baby your digestion with easy-to-digest foods like soup, steamed veggies, and warm teas. Your gut will thank you. Warm soups (around 101°F), herbal teas, and steamed veggies are easier for most people to digest than rich or heavy foods. That doesn’t mean never eat them, but if your digestion is feeling off, go easy on your digestion until things balance out.

Here are some Easy-to-Digest Comfort Foods for Off-Days: Soups – chicken and vegetable broth, lentil soup with carrots and zucchini, butternut squash soup with a drizzle of olive oil, Steamed Veggies – zucchini, carrots, green beans, spinach, or peeled sweet potato, Herbal Teas – chamomile, ginger, fennel seed, or peppermint (if your digestion runs on the faster side, skip the ginger and peppermint), Soft Grains – white rice, oatmeal, or quinoa cooked until soft and Gentle Proteins – poached chicken, baked white fish, or scrambled eggs.

Eating when you’re already constipated, gassy, bloated, or nauseous is not wise because your digestive system is already under strain. It needs rest, not more tasks added to its plate. Piling on heavy, complex meals can slow things down even further, leading to more discomfort. Choosing lighter foods or even short periods of fasting gives your gut time to catch up, calm inflammation, and reset its natural rhythm before you return to your regular meals.

Chew Like You Mean It

Digestion actually starts before you even take a bite! just smelling, seeing, and thinking about food, signals your body to get ready. But once the food is in your mouth, chewing is your first active step in digestion. Chewing breaks food down physically and mixes it with saliva, which contains enzymes that kick off the breakdown process before it even reaches your stomach.

Some foods are naturally harder to break down like raw carrots, nuts, seeds, dense breads, steak, and certain leafy greens especially if you no longer have all your teeth (wisdom teeth included). Not chewing thoroughly forces your stomach to work harder and can increase the chances of bloating or discomfort. Aim to chew until your food is nearly liquid for smoother, more efficient digestion.

Follow The 1/3 Rule

Fill your stomach one-third with food, one-third with water, and leave one-third empty. Overfilling doesn’t just make you feel uncomfortably full, it can trigger bloating, reflux, and sluggish digestion. This principle aligns with the teaching of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who advised that a person should eat enough to fill one third of their stomach, drink enough to fill another third, and leave the final third for breath. It’s a simple, time-tested way to prevent overindulgence and keep your digestion light and efficient.

Visualize your stomach as a small bowl and aim to finish a meal feeling lightly satisfied, not stuffed. Start with smaller portions, giving yourself 10–15 minutes before deciding if you truly need more. Pair solid food with sips of warm water or tea rather than drinking large amounts during meals, and avoid “meal stacking” by refraining from snacking right after eating, which can overload digestion. Pay attention to your body cues like slowing your eating pace, letting out a sigh, or naturally pausing as these often signal you’ve reached that comfortable two-thirds full mark.

Make Meals Match the Time of Day

Don’t eat just because the clock says so or because you’re bored. Wait for true hunger, that little stomach nudge, not just a passing thought of food. In many traditional systems of medicine, hunger was seen as a sign your digestion was ready. Eating too soon could leave food sitting heavy in the stomach, leading to fermentation and discomfort.

The same holds true today: constant snacking, eating too close to your last meal, or having heavy late-night dinners can overload the gut. For most people, a light breakfast, a hearty lunch, and a gentle dinner work best, with lunch as the biggest meal when digestion is naturally strongest. At night, your body wants to rest, not work overtime on a large plate of food.

Limit Distracted Eating

When you’re glued to a screen, answering emails, or scrolling your phone while eating, your brain isn’t fully registering your meal. This can lead to overeating and poor digestion. Make mealtime a single-task activity and put the phone away, close the laptop, and let eating be your main focus.

Cutting out cold drinks before and after meals was surprisingly easy for me, but giving up watching something while I eat? Whole different story. Who doesn’t love a good episode of their favorite show with dinner? Honestly, it’s one of the toughest habits I’ve tried to break. But I’ve found it’s easier to swap it out slowly by eating with family, going on a picnic, or sitting outdoors in the backyard and enjoying the view so I can be fully present while I eat.

Eating isn’t just physical… it’s sensory. Your brain relies on sight, smell, taste, texture, and the slow stretching of your stomach to know when you’ve had enough, and distractions can muffle those cues.

Move Gently After Meals

A slow, 10–15 minute walk or a few minutes of light stretching after eating can give your digestion a surprising boost. Gentle movement stimulates the natural wave-like contractions of your digestive tract, kind of like giving your stomach and intestines a friendly push to keep things moving. This can help reduce bloating, ease that heavy post-meal feeling, and encourage your food to break down more efficiently.

The key is gentle. When you jump into intense exercise right after a meal, your body sends blood to your muscles instead of your digestive organs, slowing the whole process down. It’s like asking your body to run two errands at the same time and neither gets done as well. Avoid brisk jogging, heavy lifting, dancing, sleeping, studying, eating, exercise and sex for one hour after eating.

Good eating habits are a struggle for everyone… yes, even for health enthusiasts like me. But you don’t have to be perfect; just pick one or two changes to try this week.

Choose one habit from above and commit to it for 7 days. Maybe it’s chewing thoroughly, maybe it’s warm water before meals, or maybe it’s not eating so late at night. Make a note in your phone. Small changes build big results.

I’d love to hear from you! Drop a comment below and share which habit you chose and how it’s affecting your digestion and overall energy.