Beat The Bloat at Christmas
Top Tips for a Healthy Gut During the Festive Season – Part 1
Is the thought that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away filling you with dread and not joy?
Do you see Christmas as a period of high stress and anxiety, with overindulgence of alcohol, party foods and sweets, rather than a relaxing festive season spent joyously with family and friends?
Will your digestion be struggling at the end of the year, acid reflux burning in your chest, constipation and your tummy looking like you are four months pregnant?
Can’t wait for dry January (check out this newsletter for my favourite non-alcholic drinks) and Veganuary or any other restrictive “detox” diet that you are planning to do while cutting out everything you like from your diet to get healthy again?
What if there is another way? And rest assured, there is!
Follow my top tips below for supporting digestive health and avoiding the uncomfortable and unattractive bloat over the festive season, while still enjoying yourself, and you’ll emerge in the New Year calm, sane and not needing to punish yourself as soon as 2026 has been welcomed!
Stress is a digestion killer!
When your body is stressed your digestive system literally shuts down and the digestion of food you eat is severely compromised. We evolved with the ‘fight or flight’ stress response to be able to, literally, fight or flee from wild predators and survive. That survival mode gives very little priority to digestion. In effect, it puts the digestive system on hold!
This can slow down the movement of food down the digestive tract, causing bloating, constipation, reflux and other digestive issues. One of the best things you can do for your digestive and gut health is manage your stress better and take some time out when it gets a bit hectic.
Tip #1 – Are You Managing Your Stress?
Daily stress management is essential! It’s particularly important during the busy and stressful festive season. Daily walks in nature, yoga or breathing exercises, even just for 10-15 minutes, can really help. Just being mindful by slowing down and engaging all your five senses – look, listen, feel, smell, taste – in whatever you are doing, are great in capturing the power of now, forgetting your worries for a moment and creating a peaceful mind. This will also benefit your digestive function when you are ready to eat.
If you struggle to take time out, why not invest in a Sensate vagus nerve stimulator. Buy yourself an early Christmas gift or put it in your wish list for a loved one. Don’t forget to use the £20 discount code under Recommended Products.
Or make yourself a still point inducer as in the image below and make time to lie on it for a few minutes each day. Or just do whatever you need to take a breather and calm your nervous system down.
Tip #2 – How Do You Eat?
Skip eating completely if you are stressed, anxious or angry! First deal with the root cause of these feelings, and when you have calmed down, eat your meal in a calm relaxed environment. Eating when stressed, on the go and when distracted with other things (e.g. devices), we tend to eat more quickly, not chewing food well, and that can lead to poor digestive function and many symptoms, such as acid reflux. Make sure you sit down at a table. Avoid eating in the car, at your desk, on the sofa watching telly, or with your phone. Take a couple of deep breaths first before tucking in and give your full focus to your plate to make sure your body is in the ‘rest and digest mode’.
Why not give your thanks to all people that have helped to bring the food to your table (farmers, shop keepers, cooks, yourself…) and any animals that have given their lives to feed you. I firmly believe that when you feel gratitude for and have pleasure from the food you eat, the health benefits will be greater.
Tip #3 – Do The Prep!
In the run-up to Christmas, try and prepare your meals yourself from scratch rather than getting takeaways or grabbing something quick on your way home, even when this feels tempting. When you plan and prepare your meals, you are engaging your first digestive organ, your brain, which will send messages to the digestive system, telling it to get ready for the food we are about to eat. The stomach starts releasing acid needed for breaking down proteins, which in turn triggers the secretion of digestive juices and enzymes required for fully breaking down carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the intestine, ready for absorption. A great prep to optimal digestive function!
Schedule a couple of hours a week to create quick healthy meals ahead for when you are busy and stock up your cupboards, fridge and freezer with easy to rustle-together ingredients. And start cheffing! But forget any perfectionist ideas of what a meals (particularly a Xmas dinner) should look like, you do not have to bring a Michelin starred meal to the table. It’s impossible for most of us mere mortals and definitely not what home cooking is about. And you do not need the stress in this time of year from such unnecessary high expectations!
Here’s a great talk by Micheal Pollan about the importance of home cooking. And note these fantastic quotes from the talk: “A poor person who cooks is healthier than a rich person who doesn’t.” Home cooking really is the secret of health.
Now you have my top 3 tips for managing stress-related gut issues. Start applying these now and not only will your nervous system but also your gut and digestion thank you during the festivities and you will get to the other side of Christmas with beautifully calm nerves and gut.
Check out Part 2 for my top gut-friendly food tips.
****
To get personalised advice and recommendations on how you can support your health with nutrition and lifestyle medicine, please book your free 20 minute discovery call to learn how nutritional therapy can help you.
You can also contact me via the contact form or [email protected].
Join my FREE Facebook Group Healthy New You – For Life for health and nutrition tips and advice and delicious healthy recipes.