Optimizing Stomach Acid

As stated in the last lesson, always eat in a parasympathetic nervous system state. Do everything you can to always eat in a calm state. This is your time to nourish your body with nutrition and all the great feelings we get from eating.

Tips for Eating in a Parasympathetic State

• Sit or stand in a relaxed state. This means not eating in your car, or eating while working, or eating while walking. You must be fully engaged in the activity of eating.
• Give yourself 20-30 seconds with your food in front of you before eating.
• Be thankful or grateful for the food.
• Allow yourself to enjoy your food. Truly savor the flavors.
• Chew 30 times per bite.
• Listen to calming music or something that makes you laugh.
• Eat with a friend or loved one who keeps you in good spirits. Don’t eat while fighting or arguing — this stress shuts down all the digestive processes.

Digestive Supplements

Digestive Bitters

Increase digestive enzymes with digestive bitter herbs before eating. Herbs good for this include dandelion root, angelica root, orange peel, fennel seed, and ginger. You can find these as herbal mixture tinctures online or in health food stores. Take these 15 minutes before you eat, as it will fire everything up so it’s ready by the time your food hits your stomach.

Digestive Enzymes

Digestive enzyme supplements like proteolytic enzymes are also great. These offer a whole host of enzymes that will help aid your body’s natural digestion of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Also take these 15-20 minutes before eating for the full effect.

HCL (Hydrochloric Acid)

You can take hydrochloric acid supplements. These will help give you more stomach acid to support the most important part of the digestive process. Don’t worry — these won’t burn or hurt you.

The best way to take them is to do the HCL challenge:

1. Take one tablet with a meal. If you don’t feel a burn or discomfort, then your next meal take two.
2. Keep adding one tablet per meal until you feel a discomfort like cramping or light heartburn.
3. Subtract one from the number of tablets it took to get you there — that is how many HCL tablets you will take with every meal.
4. If you continue to take that number and then get to a point where it causes cramping, burning, or discomfort, subtract another tablet from that amount. The goal is to get back down to one tablet.
5. When doing the challenge, don’t go higher than 8 tablets.
6. Take the tablets midway through the meal, one at a time. Midway through your meal take a tablet. Take a few bites then take your next tablet.

Look for HCL that includes the enzymes betaine, pepsin, and B6. These are also great for digestion and making natural stomach acid.

Natural Alternatives

Fresh-squeezed lemon juice and even the lemon peel are good for helping make your stomach more acidic. So is apple cider vinegar.

Important: Liquids and Eating

It’s also very important to not drink any liquids while eating, and preferably not within 30 minutes before or after you eat. Water can saturate your enzymes and make them less effective. Especially avoid coffee, tea, soda, and alcohol while eating, as this can drastically diminish your stomach acid and slow down the overall digestive process.