Sign up to SHE DEFINED monthly

Enjoy unique perspectives, exclusive interviews, interesting features, news and views about women who are living exceptional lives, delivered to your inbox every month.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Sign up to SHE DEFINED monthly

Loving our content?

If you love what you see, then you’ll love SHE DEFINED Monthly. Enjoy unique perspectives, exclusive interviews, interesting features, news and views about women who are living exceptional lives, delivered to your inbox every month.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Health

The 12 Human Design digestion types: which one are you?

The 12 Human Design digestion types: which one are you?

Have you ever felt weighed down after a meal? There may be certain foods you know you’re unable to digest easily. Stomach ache, bloating and discomfort could indicate you’re not eating for your Human Design digestion type.

Whether you believe in new-age practices or not, Human Design offers impressive and helpful insights to improve your health.

Here’s how you can take control of your gut health by learning everything you can about your individual Human Design.

What does Human Design have to do with digestion?

Human Design is often called your energetic blueprint — how you are wired to exist and conduct yourself in the world.

It’s a unique bird’s-eye view of how you interact with others, face and overcome challenges, and leverage your strengths and weaknesses. You’re not looking to change who you are by learning your type. Instead, you embrace what makes you who you are. 

Because the Human Design body graph connects nine centres with your distinctive set of energies and functions, you can also get a better grasp on your health. The spleen and sacral centres are directly associated with your digestion. 

The spleen influences your ability to break down food and absorb nutrients. It also explains how well your body eliminates what you eat, boosting your immunity against harmful toxins. The sacral centre governs your metabolism, dictating when and what you should eat.

The 12 human design digestion types

Human Design is divided into five types: Manifestors, Generators, Manifesting Generators, Projectors and Reflectors. However, there are 12 Human Design digestion types, as follows: 

  1. Alternating: Varied appetites ranging from extreme hunger and little interest in eating
  2. Calm: Relaxed approach to eating with few digestive problems
  3. Closed: Consistent appetite with few digestive issues
  4. Cold: Slow metabolism and digestion with the tendency to hold onto weight gain
  5. Consecutive: Regular and well-working digestive system with few issues
  6. Direct: A take-charge eating pattern, effectively communicating dietary needs for fewer digestive problems
  7. High: Fast-working digestive systems with a preference for energy-inducing foods
  8. Hot: Fast metabolism with a preference for cooling foods
  9. Indirect: Typically grazes rather than sits down for a complete meal
  10. Low: Slow digestion with bloating and uncomfortable heaviness after eating
  11. Nervous: Disrupted digestion due to anxiety and worry
  12. Open: Sensitive digestion with several food intolerances.

Why should you know your digestion type in Human Design?

Reading about your digestive patterns based on your Human Design type is often an aha moment for many people.

It’s a sudden awareness of what you’ve typically eaten to make yourself feel like you do. Understanding your Human Design digestion type is crucial for making good food choices, adopting more fulfilling eating habits and improving digestion by eliminating triggers.

For example, Generators benefit most from a high-protein diet with omega-3 fatty acids for improved heart health and brain function. Omega-rich foods like salmon and tuna can reduce heart attack and stroke and lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Reflectors — who tend to be more sensitive — benefit most from foods for emotional and mental wellbeing. Fermented foods like kombucha, yoghurt, sauerkraut and kimchi can help boost your mood. Considering 95 per cent of the body’s serotonin comes from the gut, Reflectors especially need to concentrate on what they eat. 

Eating according to your Human Design and digestion type ensures your body absorbs nutrients effectively and can break down foods without problems. As a result, you’ll feel lighter, more energised, and healthier overall.

The 12 Human Design digestion types: which one are you?

How to find your human design digestion type

Discovering your Human Design digestion type is easy when you have the right tools in front of you. Fortunately, several free calculators are available online to draw up your energetic blueprint, sharing everything you ever wanted to know about yourself.

You’ll need your birth date and exact birth time to calculate your Human Design type correctly. Your location is used to determine what time zone you were born in. 

Once you have your chart, search for your spleen and sacral centres below your diaphragm and belly button. Some charts tell you outright which digestion type you are. You’ll then be able to analyse your centres further to understand how well your body filters toxins.

You can find numerous online resources or printed books to help you read and understand your chart. There are also qualified practitioners with expertise in Human Design who can provide deeper insights into your results.

Of course, while Human Design can shed light on various aspects of your being, it is not a medical approach to resolving your digestive issues. Use the information to understand yourself better, then seek more information from an expert gastrointestinal specialist.

Human Design is a step toward better gut health

Digestive issues are never fun and can leave you feeling sluggish and uncomfortable. If you find yourself hunched over after a meal with difficulty digesting your food, try eating according to your Human Design type.

Fill out a calculator to determine your digestion type. It could very well change your gut health for the better.

Beth Rush - Writer - SHE DEFINED

Beth Rush

This article was written by Beth Rush.

Beth is the nutrition editor at Body+Mind and has more than 5 years of experience writing about how to sample global cuisines sustainably. You can find Beth on Twitter @bodymindmag. Subscribe to Body+Mind for more posts by Beth Rush!