We\u2019re all prone to a little indulgence at Christmas, but rich food and overeating can play havoc with your digestion, leaving you bloated and uncomfortable. It\u2019s not surprising \u2013 we consume on average 6,000 calories on Christmas Day alone. That\u2019s three times the recommended daily intake for women!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a variety of reasons why the holidays create more tummy troubles than the rest of the year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though festive food and drink can be tough on the digestive system, it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Just follow our expert tips to trouble-proof your tummy this Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first step in the digestive process is often overlooked, but it\u2019s a really important one. Known as the cephalic phase, it\u2019s triggered when you see or smell food. You are literally whetting your appetite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you start thinking about the lovely meal you are going to prepare, you are getting your digestive juices flowing. The enzymes in your saliva help you break down your food more easily, so, when the time comes, your body is actually ready to start digesting food before you have even cut the first slice \u2013 never mind actually put anything in your mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may sound an incredibly simple step \u2013 and it is \u2013 but these days we are often so busy that we don\u2019t make the time to think about our food in this way. If you find you\u2019re always eating on the go, throwing a sandwich down your neck at your desk or having a TV dinner TV, this is a vital step you are missing out on. One trick is to be mindful and try and spend a few minutes thinking about your tasty lunch before you eat it to get the digestive juices going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember what Mum used to say? Well, she was right! Chewing your food (the second phase of digestion) is key when it comes to good gut health. With proper chewing, you are mechanically breaking down the food into smaller pieces, so that there\u2019s a greater surface area and the digestive enzymes can get to work more easily, doing their job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the bad news? If you\u2019re not chewing properly, it\u2019s highly likely that you\u2019re not digesting your food properly. And that means you won\u2019t be absorbing the vital nutrients either. Not chewing also means the food you eat takes much longer to break down, and, as it hangs around in your digestive system, it can start to ferment, causing uncomfortable wind, gas and bloating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t worry about chewing a certain number of times \u2013 that all depends on what you are eating and various other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead try this test: chew your food enough so that if someone asked you to spit it out, they wouldn\u2019t know what you had been eating. Another sign you need to chew more is if you start to see undigested food in your stools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sales for heartburn tablets are skyrocketing because so many people wrongly assume that their digestive troubles are because of too much stomach acid. What nutritionists like me find more frequently in clinic is the total opposite! Getting older, stress and some over-the-counter medications can make your stomach acid levels drop to the extent that you don\u2019t produce enough to digest food sufficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is this important? The stomach acid you produce not only kills any bacteria in the food you are eating, it also breaks down the protein in your meal. If you\u2019re not properly digesting the protein element in food, it can start to ferment, creating gases that force up the esophageal sphincter muscle (a type of muscle flap) and what little stomach acid there is can escape. So the burning feeling, especially if accompanied by smelly gas, can be a sign your digestion isn\u2019t working as well as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One solution is to have a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar before each main meal. It\u2019s important you choose apple cider vinegar with \u2018mother\u2019, rather than one you can buy in the supermarket (that\u2019s for your chips).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are people who genuinely produce too much stomach acid and, if you try the apple cider vinegar trick and it seems to make things worse, you can neutralise the acid by taking a little bicarbonate of soda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Digestive enzymes break down our food into nutrients so our bodies can absorb them. But as we age, we naturally produce fewer of these helpful enzymes. You can counteract this by increasing your intake of foods that are higher in them \u2013 eating pineapple or papaya before a meal can help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you aren\u2019t a fan of these fruits, instead try a digestive enzyme capsule (available from health food shops), which will give your system a gentle boost to help it do its job properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to space out your meals so the digestive system actually gets a chance to rest. This might require some self discipline, if your house is routinely full of bowls of nuts or towers of chocolate boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eating every 3-4 hours is a good benchmark to aim for, and gives the body enough time to completely digest the previous meal and have a break before you put it to work again. Of course there will be days when your eating routine falls out of whack, but don\u2019t beat yourself up. Just try and get back on track the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you walk shortly after you\u2019ve eaten, magic starts to happen. To start, a gentle walk lowers your blood sugar levels, so your body makes less insulin. As insulin is the fat-storage hormone, taking a gentle stroll for 15 minutes makes you less likely to store fat and gain weight. Walking can also help you digest your food better, according to research. This is because a gentle walk increases the speed at which the food moves through the digestive system.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re all prone to a little indulgence at Christmas, but rich food and overeating can play havoc with your digestion, leaving you bloated and uncomfortable. It\u2019s not surprising \u2013 we consume on average 6,000 calories on Christmas Day alone. That\u2019s three times the recommended daily intake for women! There are a variety of reasons why the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition","tag-5-3-minutes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspiranthealth.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}