Here comes the season that brings strong feelings about food to just about everyone: The Winter Holidays!
The holidays come with feasting and all manner of special treats and temptations, which both bring us great happiness and sometimes stress and digestive upset. Ideally we can enjoy the former with a minimum of the latter, but often easier said than done! Thankfully this is one area where herbal support can really shine, so here is your holiday season digestive cheat sheet:
Gymnema may help curb sugar cravings by blocking the sweet taste receptors. Take a little before heading to that party or when another slice of leftover pie is calling to you.
Taking Cinnamon immediately after dessert can help stabilize the blood sugar, preventing a big spike and crash.
Very heavy, fatty foods like meat may be more easily digested by taking herbal bitters 10-15 minutes before the meal. These wonderful herbal combinations, usually involving herbs such as gentian, orange peel, or artichoke leaf (just to name a few!), stimulate the digestive juices and bile to “prime the pump” of efficient digestion.
Enjoying a warm cup of a chai tea, filled with warming digestive spices, after a heavy meal can also support digestion and relieve indigestion. This combines several suggestions as it will often include cinnamon, ginger, and/or fennel.
For carb overload causing bloating and gassy, sluggish digestion, try Ginger, Fennel, Peppermint, or Chamomile, on their own or in combination. These herbs all have antispasmodic (cramp relaxing) and carminative (gas-busting) properties that may help relieve gas pains and move digestion along.
If acid reflux/heartburn visits your holiday gathering, my favorite soothing remedy is a cup of Chamomile and Marshmallow Root tea. If heartburn is a chronic issue, taking DGL (DeGlycyrrhizinated Licorice root) before meals may help to heal the esophagus, in addition to lifestyle and diet changes to correct the root issue.
If you find yourself constipated or having irregular bowel movements, try taking Triphala as a general digestive tonic to keep things “running smoothly”. This traditional Ayurvedic formula of three dried, powdered fruits has been used for centuries for digestive health.
Finally, holiday stress can work against us in two ways: many of us find ourselves “stress eating” to cope, and stress can contribute to indigestion and gut woes. So using all of the tools in your toolbox to better manage your stress can go a long way to improving digestion. Check out some of our past blogs linked below to delve into that further, but hands-down my top suggestion is to add some Holy Basil into your routine, particularly as tea. This amazing herb, also known as Tulsi, has a powerful triple action here: it helps regulate our stress response, lowering cortisol; it can lower blood sugar, cholesterol, and inflammation; and it can relieve indigestion!
This list is by no means exhaustive – there are so many herbs that can support our digestion! For even more suggestions to explore, come visit us at the shop!
For More Information:
Smile Herb Blogs: Stress
Smile Herb Blogs: Digestion
Consuming Gymnema sylvestre Reduces the Desire for High-Sugar Sweet Foods
How Cinnamon Lowers Blood Sugar and Helps Diabetes
The Benefits of Bitter Herbs by Dylan Parry BSc Hons – Clinical Herbalist
University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine: An Integrative Approach to GERD (pdf)
Textbook of Natural Medicine: Licorice
Tulsi – Ocimum sanctum: A herb for all reasons
The Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Tulsi in Humans: A Systematic Review of the Literature
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