Tis the Season to Overindulge!

Tips to help aid digestion and feel better during the holidays.

Cookies, cocktails, gravy, mashed potatoes, chocolate, chips and dip, appetizers, ham, stuffing, pies, cakes ………Ugh, I ate too much. I need some TUMS... how can I feel better?

Here are 10 tips from the Functional Nutrition Alliance to improve your digestion and help you feel better during the holidays.

Tip 1: Exercise

It takes healthy muscle tone around the abdomen for food to digest properly. Muscle tone helps to move food through our digestive tract. Increasing exercise can improve digestion, even if you don’t change what you eat.

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Tip 2: Don’t Overeat

Overeating any food is taxing on the digestive system and can affect the rate of digestion. It requires the body to expend a lot of energy, adds stress to the system, and forces the body to try to use too many nutrients at once. Practice moderation and only eat until you are THREE QUARTERS FULL.

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Tip 3: Take Time for Gratitude

When you take a few moments before you eat to pause and reflect, either with blessings or gratitude, you activate the cephalic digestion phase. Your brain signals saliva to release and stokes your digestive fires. Both are key to proper digestion.

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Tip 4: Reduce or Eliminate Processed Foods

These so-called foods are challenging to the digestive system. The body must supply its own energy and nutrients for these products to metabolize, robbing the body of nutrients rather than supplying any. Stick to whole foods as much as possible.

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Tip 5: Chew Your Food

Thoroughly chewing your food helps aid in digestion. We complicate digestion whenever we eat on the run or gulp down our food. Slow down, savor your food, and chew it up! (Saliva contains lots of enzymes that aid digestion.)

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Tip 6: Eat More Fiber

Fiber helps keep your colon healthy. It makes stool soft and bulky, speeds transit time through the colon, dilutes the effects of toxic compounds, and helps remove harmful bacteria from the colon. Ensure you get both soluble fiber, which absorbs toxins and unneeded cholesterol, and insoluble fiber, which hastens elimination.

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Tip 7: Boost Stomach Acid

Many people have low stomach acid. Heartburn, belching or gas, fatigue, headaches, and much more can result from low stomach acid. Gently boost stomach acid by adding freshly- squeezed lemon juice to your water or drinking a tablespoon of raw fermented apple cider in water each morning. 

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Tip 8: Drink Water

It’s one of the top nutrients for digestion. The stomach needs water for digestion, especially for the health of the mucosal lining, which supports the small intestine bacteria for proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. Lack of water in the digestive system can result in ulcers, indigestion, heartburn, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, and constipation.

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Tip 9: Add Pro-Biotics

We need good bacteria to strengthen the immune system, reduce chronic inflammation, help remedy leaky gut, and more. You can introduce probiotics and supplements or with raw fermented foods like sauerkraut and coconut kefir.

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Tip 10: Bring in Digestive Enzymes

You need three categories of enzymes for fat breakdown, amylases for carbohydrate breakdown, and protease for protein breakdown. The best source of enzymes comes from foods in their live, raw, or sprouted form. Supplementing with digestive enzymes is also an option if digestion is impaired.
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During this time of gatherings, parties, tasty treats, and more, I challenge you to incorporate some (or all) of these tips and see if you feel better and more engaged during this season.

Cheers!

Jenny