Hacking The Holidays Part 2: Keep Your Digestion In Check

Dec 23

The Holiday Season is a great time to start thinking about kicking off the new year with a healthy gut and strong immune system.

Focus on fiber

A high-fiber diet is key when it comes to keeping your digestive system moving. A fibrous diet promotes regular bowel movements, lowers cholesterol, and regulates blood sugar and hormone levels (thinks estrogen here!) This means including both soluble and insoluble fiber into your diet, since both help the digestive system in different ways.

For soluble fiber, think oats, black beans and vegetables like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes

For insoluble fiber, think nuts, beans, cauliflower, green beans, fruits and healthy whole grains.

Take probiotics and prebiotics

Most people know about the benefits of probiotics (aid in digestion, improve the immune system, fight IBS, reduce inflammation, heal the gut), which can be found in foods like kefir, kombucha, tempeh and sauerkraut or taken as a pill. But not everyone knows about the benefits of prebiotics!

Prebiotics are the food – or fuel - for probiotics, which increase the good bacteria in your gut and help with digestion. Dr. Lana recommends getting your prebiotics from food, which can be found in fruits and veggies such as apples, bananas, cabbage and asparagus.

Dr. Lana recommends these probiotic supplements:

Megaspore
Womens formula - balances the pH + flora in the vaginal canal when there is an increase in sugar, which keeps vaginitis, UTIs and yeast infections at bay.

Try taking a digestive aid

Similase – digestive enzymes
Ox bile – if you struggle with digesting fats from food
Betaine HCl Pepsinl – helps with stomach acid

Be mindful of high-fat foods

While eating healthy fats is important for a well-rounded diet, eating fatty foods (especially the not-so-good-for-you kind) can slow down your digestive tract and cause constipation. Keeping fatty foods, such as red meat, fried/greasy foods, and heavy creams/butter to a minimum will help to keep your digestion in check.

Eat healthy fats, such as avocado, nuts, eggs, fish, and bone broth instead!