Mouth watering aromas.

Our digestion begins with our sense of smell, with a multitude of fragrances and spices kickstarting our salivary enzymes. Oral cavity health is essential to initiate the process of breaking down the food as we chew, mix and swallow.

Our smell is closely intertwined with our taste, in fact, most of what we consider "flavor” is actually from the odor of the food as we chew it. It is common to feel as if your smell and taste are blunted when you have a cold, a result of swelling in the nose blocking the ability of those odor molecules to reach the olfactory (smell) nerve. The smell center of the brain is actually directly linked to the limbic system, which processes memory and emotion.

As food passes through the throat, mucous membrane lubrication and intricate muscle coordination help make the journey effortless. Signals from an inflamed esophagus or stomach can slow this process down and cause abnormal sensations in the throat.

Nutrition may seem an obvious player, but your sleep, physical activity, and much more impact your digestion. And as you may have heard, we are learning more every day about gut-brain and gut-immune connections. What you fuel your body with matters.