What Does Your Tongue Say About Your Digestion?

Sometimes our bodies are really weird. And sometimes they’re super cool.

Today let’s chat about how they’re cool. Did you know our bodies have all sorts of ways to indicate and reflect externally, what is going on internally?

One of these ways is by looking at your tongue. Let’s take a look at what we can learn from assessing our tongues today!

But first, if you’re a regular reader in this space, yes, I changed my website and business name. But, it’s the same old mostly serious, sometimes goofy me (Rebecca). I’ll continue to share recipes here interspersed with more just-plain-nutrition-topics. Thanks for continuing to read and follow. Now let’s get to learning about your tongue!

When you look at your tongue, you can see clues about internal moisture (or lack thereof), heat and cold, tissue integrity and health, and overall vitality. All of this begins in the digestive tract, since the food you eat literally becomes the cells and tissues of your body within the following days and weeks. 

There are several aspects of the tongue that clue us into what is going on, including: 
Color
Shape, including width and vertical thickness
Cracks
Marks (spots, swollen papillae)
Coat (its presence, thickness, color, and how rooted it is)
Tension
Under tongue vein conditions and/or teeth indentations

For instance: The color of a healthy tongue is generally a moderate shade of pink. If yours is darker or paler, that indicates there may be something going on with the blood and/or blood circulation, such as excess heat and internal inflammation, or anemia (which at its most basic definition means lack of blood). A tongue that is purple or bluish, or has spots of those colors tells us the blood isn’t moving. You might really be suffering from a lack of circulation and feel particularly cold compared to others. Adding warmer spices to your foods and circulation-promoting herbs can particularly help cold, stagnant blood circulation. 

The tongue size and shape indicates the state of fluids and hydration within the body, as well as overall tissue nourishment and balance. A swollen, wide tongue usually indicates there’s excess moisture, mucus, or edema, and a dry, thin, tongue is often the opposite. A tongue that’s thick vertically often indicates excess heat and internal inflammation. 

Likewise, lack of vertical or horizontal cracks indicate there is adequate bodily moisture. Are you routinely dehydrated? Do you have cracks on your tongue? 

The tongue’s coat and the color of the coat in particular are tell-tale signs of how digestion has become imbalanced and can be improved. If there is no coat at all or it’s present in patches, this tells us your digestive capacity is a bit insufficient. We need to work on helping the digestive system assimilate and absorb those nutrients from your foods!

And a particularly thick coating tells us there’s some sort of excess going on, in the way of imbalanced gut bacteria, excess moisture which often presents as bloating after meals, or stagnant digestion, where you feel like your food just sits in your gut. 

One of the most common indications of imbalance I see is tooth marks or indentations or ripples on the sides of the tongue. This means the digestive fire is low, and you’re not assimilating the foods you’ve eaten, leading to poor tissue quality and all sorts of bodily presentations of feeling not optimal.

Take a look at your tongue. What do you see? 

Here’s mine. What can you determine about my digestion by looking at it?

My tongue assessment:
Shape: A little wide, indicating possible lymphatic stagnation or mucus.

Color: Somewhat pale (not shown super well in this photo); indicating possible anemia and/or malnourishment.
I tend to float back and forth on the line between clinical anemia and low-normal red blood cells, have fairly chronic low digestive ability, and need for a ton of supplements to stay in “health” despite consistent focus on optimizing digestion and food first. This clue checks out with my actual lab data and long-term health tendencies.

Thickness and Color of the Tongue Coat: Spotty. Mostly absent from the front; thicker than ideal in the back, indicating poor digestive capacity in the middle and lower GI (stomach and small intestine), and excess mucus or stagnation in the lower GI (colon), probably as a result of the under functioning section above. The color is a transparent white which is ideal!

Tongue Moisture: Moist – which is ideal.

Cracks on the Tongue Body: none – ideal.

Lastly, I tend to have mild indentations or tooth marks on the sides of my tongue in the middle to front; particularly in the morning when I wake up. This indicates I’m likely not digesting the last meal of the day well and could use simpler to digest evening meals – and a little more help in getting digestive functioning to optimal: as reflected in the above areas.

Overall, my tongue indicates fairly exactly what I tend to find with my digestion, and what long-term lab data has shown: Sub-optimal digestion with a tendency to not digest and assimilate nutrients well.

I will say with consistent work at it, my digestion has improved substantially from what it used to be, and I’m less super-obviously symptomatic. I rarely experience bloating, sharp or low-grade GI pain, etc.

Here’s another illustration with notes about what the presentation is indicating in terms of digestion and health: 

Tongue Types – Digestive Health

Does your tongue suggest your digestion is functioning optimally? Or do you find indications that reflect exactly what you’ve had going on in there? If you’d like to learn more about how you can fix it, I’d love to speak with you in a quick phone consultation! Or learn more about your digestion in my other articles on the topic of optimal digestion and gut health. 

References:
Bunce, L. (2017). Tongue Assessment for Western Herbalists: A Primer.
Coatzee, O. (2017). NUTR 663: Sports Nutrition; Eastern Medicine Tongues. [Lecture]. Maryland University of Integrative Health. Retrieved from: https://learn.muih.edu.