5 Tips for Gut Health During the Holidays
By: Nicholas Belden
Tags: Functional Medicine, Ibd, Nutrition, Ibs, Gut Health

1. Keep Several Hours Between Meals

Believe me, I know how easy it can be to snack when Mom always has Christmas cookies laying around. But I promise you, they will taste just as good, if not better, when you have them with an actual meal. The Migrating Motor Complex, aka the gut cleaning wave, is active anywhere from 90–120 minutes after a meal. That’s why I shoot for at least 3 hours between meals, just to be on the safe side.

I find a lot of holiday snacking happens when I get bored. The key is first, recognizing that you might be bored, and more likely to head for a mid-day cookie snack. Rather than snacking, try going on a walk, having some tea or black coffee, or find a good book/this article to sink your teeth into.

2. Walk After Meals

Honestly, this might be the most powerful intervention, especially during the holidays. Not only is it a great opportunity to socialize with your family and friends after chowing down on some delicious food, but you’re getting some low-level physical activity. Low-level activity (walking, stretching, even household chores) will help facilitate your body’s own digestive processes. Muscles within our gut help push food through, and walking, for those muscles, is the equivalent of doing bicep curls for your arms (unfortunately, no one will ever compliment on how jacked your gut smooth muscle looks). I personally aim for at least 15 minutes of walking after meals, especially the largest calorie/carbohydrate meal.

3. Engage in Conversations

You might be saying to yourself, “Self, how could talking to my grandmother help my gut health?” It’s all about that ‘rest and digest’ mode. When we are doing things that are relaxing, such as talking to Grandma about how great growing up in the 60s was, you enter into a relaxed state by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. This branch of the nervous system, compared with the ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic nervous system, allows for digestive juices to get flowing.

If you can think back to a time you ate in a stressed out mood, say, in your car while you’re late for work, or scarfing down a bar 5 minutes before your next class or meeting, how’d you feel after? If you’re like me, you probably felt bloated, maybe a little gassy, and didn’t have that great of a bowel movement the next day. As we’ll discuss in the next point, relaxing activities, such as conversation, activate a very powerful ‘switch.’

4. Activate the Vagus Nerve

This plays off the previous point. This includes any activity that makes you feel the most ‘mindful’ or ‘aware of your environment.’ Now, I know the mindfulness word can kind of scare some people, so it doesn’t have to be the textbook ‘lying crossed-legged on a mat chanting for half an hour’. It could be as simple as thinking about 3 things you’re grateful for, either in your head or preferably writing them down on paper. It could be a walk in nature. It could be a great conversation with a friend or a loved one. It could be a walk in nature while having a great conversation with a friend or loved one. If you can think of any activity you do where you’re enjoying it so much that you lose track of time, or forget to eat, you were probably very mindful.

We now know that there is great power in the gut-brain connection. The gut talks to the brain, and the brain talks to the gut. This bi-directional communication partially happens via the Vagus Nerve. The Vagus is the key to activating the above-mentioned parasympathetic nervous system, the ‘rest and digest’ state.

5. Go ‘Easy’ on Yourself

Look, odds are you’re going to eat some foods over the holidays you normally don’t, or you’re going to eat quantities of food you normally don’t. The worst thing you can do from that point, is to mentally beat yourself up for doing it. You can’t change it once it’s already happened. I’m not saying you should eat like an idiot, but if you end up eating gluten (and you don’t have Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity), it’s not the end of the world. You’re better off eating it in a mindful, slow, and controlled manner, rather than telling yourself “Oh you shouldn’t have it, you’re not supposed to eat that.” Which one of those people is likely to be more relaxed when eating, and likely to digest their food better?

I recently had a patient who had been on a strict carnivore diet for 3 months prior to Thanksgiving. Over Thanksgiving, she lived it up. She had sweet potato casserole, pumpkin purée (not pie, she still avoided gluten), brussel sprouts, and candied pecans. How do you think her digestion was after not having anything besides meat and eggs for 3 months? Bloating, diarrhea, and abdominal pain the whole next day. Her gut microbiome wasn’t used to all that food, but after that, she was totally fine. I share this to say that, if you haven’t eaten cookies or pastries for a couple months, and then you have some, don’t be surprised if you feel a little residual digestive symptoms. A little bloating and gas isn’t the end of the world.