“Gut activity,” involving the daily intake of yogurt, fermented foods, and soluble dietary fiber for purposes like “boosting immunity” or “increasing skinny bacteria,” is booming. However, there is no end to the number of people whose bowel movements do not improve at all, or whose bloating does not subside, despite eating expensive probiotic products every day.
Why is your gut activity failing? The biggest blind spot lies in completely ignoring the “first digestive process of chewing” in the mouth.
It is the “barrier” that absolutely must be cleared before delivering food to the intestinal bacteria. That is the “physical crushing of the food bolus” by the jaw muscles.
The Tragedy of Swallowing Whole: Intestinal Putrefaction Invited by “Undigested Protein”
The human digestive tract is not a single pipe. It is an intricate conveyor belt where perfect handovers take place: “Mouth (physical crushing and initial digestion)” -> “Stomach (sterilization and protein degradation by acid)” -> “Small Intestine (nutrient absorption)” -> “Large Intestine (fermentation by intestinal bacteria and water absorption).”
Here, if the first workers, “the teeth and jaw (chewing),” slack off and swallow the food as large chunks (without chewing well), the stomach and intestines that take over fall into a panic.
- Overwork of the Stomach: Meat and carbohydrates that fall down as chunks cannot be completely dissolved to the core by gastric juice alone (impairment of the digestive secretion process in E05).
- Malabsorption in the Small Intestine: Food that hasn’t turned into a sludgy liquid cannot be smoothly absorbed as nutrients in the small intestine.
- Progression of “Putrefaction” in the Large Intestine: This is the most serious part. The “chunks of undigested protein and lipid” that escaped digestion and absorption in the small intestine flow straight into the large intestine. Good bacteria residing in the large intestine (like Bifidobacteria) cannot use these as food, but bad bacteria (like Clostridium perfringens) devour the undigested protein as their favorite food, generating large amounts of toxic gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
This is the fundamental reason why your stomach condition does not improve (your intestinal environment remains troubled) no matter how much yogurt you eat.
2 Reasons Why Chewing is the “Best Gut Activity”
If you want to regulate your intestinal environment, before buying expensive supplements, first start by “biting to death” every mouthful of food until it becomes completely liquid (paste-like).
1. Generation of Physical “Prebiotics”
By chewing dozens of times in the mouth, the cell walls of vegetables and the like are physically destroyed, releasing the nutrients and water trapped inside. Furthermore, the sludgy, paste-like food (a proper bolus) is processed smoothly in the stomach and small intestine, and only the “digested residue (like dietary fiber)” that good bacteria rejoice over, rather than “food for bad bacteria (undigested matter),” is accurately delivered to the large intestine.
2. Optimization of Intestinal Motility via “GLP-1”
The act of chewing well itself stimulates the network between the brain and the gut (Gut-Brain Axis). Chewing promotes the secretion of incretin (GLP-1) from the lower small intestine (E14), and this hormone controls the peristaltic movements of the stomach and intestines at an appropriate pace. In other words, by chewing, the “speed of movement” of the intestines is automated and optimized, and a system that prevents movement abnormalities like constipation and diarrhea activates.
“What to eat” is certainly important, but “what physical size to crush it into before delivering it to the intestines” is the most important parameter that determines the balance of the gut microbiota (microbiome). Never forget that your jaw muscles are the “strongest gatekeepers” for protecting your gut.
Chew Better, Live Better.
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