Beat The Bloat at Christmas
Top Tips for a Healthy Gut During the Festive Season – Part 2
In Part 1, I talked about how stress impacts our digestion and causes uncomfortable symptoms, e.g. bloating, cramping, upset stomach and constipation – not at all uncommon during the festive period.
Now that you’re prioritising stress management and following my top 3 tips for improved digestion, let’s talk about a gut-friendly diet.
Don’t be boring and beige!
Ditch processed beige foods, full of refined flour and sugar! Too much beige can compromise gut health and the delicate microbial balance in the gut. Refined carbs and sugars and the foods that often contain these can be full of ingredients, such as artificial (and natural) colourings, flavorings, preservatives and other additives that are harming your beneficial bacteria in the gut, and have been linked with digestive discomfort, low mood and many other health issues.
Sadly, beige seems to be the main colour at many Christmas party buffets. If you can, eat a healthy meal (particularly a protein-rich one) before you go to a party so you won’t arrive ravenous and can resist temptation. If there’s a choice, choose naturally colourful foods from the buffet.
Be a hostess with the mostess – but with quality over quantity
When you host your own parties, resist buying everything ready-made. Do some easy prep in advance, so the day of the party doesn’t feel like a mad rush.
Lay your buffet table with colourful fresh foods that require no or very little prepping, such as crudités and hummus, bagged salads, fruits and berries, nuts and seed, halloumi and pineapple/sun-dried tomato mini skewers.
Then add to those some show-stoppers that you create yourself, such as:
– these fragrant mini salmon patties,
– lettuce cups filled with cooked chicken (or tempeh for a veggie version) with kimchi,
– avocado slices wrapped with smoked salmon,
– spicy roasted chickpeas or nuts,
– nectarine slices wrapped in parma ham,
– sweet potato slices, roasted, and topped with avocado, bacon, sauerkraut,
– mini crackers topped with smoked salmon, smoked mackerel pate or soft cheese and fish roe.
Swap shop-bought sugar-laden milk chocolates and cakes for dark chocolate squares, fresh berries and fruit (perhaps with a melted dark chocolate dip), dates stuffed with almond butter, or if you have some extra time make these cracking dark chocolate mignums, cacao raspberry truffles, dark chocolate truffles or sweet potato dark chocolate brownies (you can probably guess from these that I’m bit of a chocaholic!).
As you can see from my suggestions, I’ve included some fermented probiotic foods that help top up beneficial live bacteria in your gut. These bugs are vital for good gut health, great stable moods, optimal hormone balance and weight management to name a few.
Feed your gut bugs a rainbow!
Your friendly gut bacteria are key to optimal digestive health!
On top of adding probiotic foods to your diet, you really need to keep the good bugs that are already calling your gut home happy and well-fed too. You can do this with colour and variety in your diet. The friendly bacteria love naturally colourful foods, full of fibre, prebiotics and phytonutrients, i.e. plant chemicals found in veggies, fruits, berries, pulses, nuts and seed, cacao, tea and coffee. They convert these to vitamins and many crucial anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-carcinogenic molecules. This not only benefits our digestive health but also our mental and overall health!
NOTE: If you are not used to fermented or high-fibre foods, start slowly to avoid any gut issues getting worse. Remember to drink plenty of fluids when increasing fibre from the prebiotic foods above.
Hydrate your body!
Keep your body well hydrated by drinking 1.5-2 litres of filtered water daily. Water keeps your bowels moving daily and is particularly important if you are constipated.
Dehydration can lead to headaches, gut issues, poor memory and focus, increased anxiety and fatigue, and compounded by stress your body may get more dehydrated, so remember to top up your (glass) water bottle with filtered water and your mugs with herbal teas.
Start your day with a glass and fill a large bottle and keep drinking from it throughout the day. Add a reminder on your phone if you tend to forget.
Add ginger and lemon or other fresh flavour ingredients if you don’t like the taste of plain water.
Swap fizzy sugary/diet drinks to sparkling water or kombucha (gut-healthy probiotic fizzy drink) or chilled/iced green or herbal teas that can support healthy digestion.
Always when drinking alcohol, have a glass of water between each drink. Check out this newsletter for my favourite non-alcholic drinks.
Give your digestive system a well-earned rest!
Give our digestion a good rest between meals. Leave 4-5 hours between meals (no snacking!) during the day and at least 12 hours overnight. This stimulates an important housekeeping function called migrating motor complex, or MMC, that sweeps undigested material – that can lead to uncomfortable symptoms if not cleared regularly – through the digestive tract for elimination.
The MMC function gets activated only after a long enough break from eating, so stop grazing!
Now that you have my top tips for managing stress (Part 1) and supporting your gut microbes with gut-friendly foods, you’ll fly through the festive season with ease, health and happy moods! Your gut and digestion will thank you during the festivities and you can enjoy the Christmas period stress- and bloat-free and emerge the in New Year happy, healthy and glowing! And no need for restrictive punishing diets in January!
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