Just after Christmas and nobody wants to be sporting a Santas belly from feeling bloated from festivities. We can get a little carried away at Christmas with warm cosy food choices and a bit more of a tipple to get into the festival spirit that can cause us to feel a bit bloated.
Digestive enzymes
Our body naturally produces enzymes as part of the digestion of food, these are stimulated initially in your saliva; and stomach acid produced in the stomach when you smell food and begin to chew. This process continues throughout the body also being produced by the pancreas. As we get older, follow a poor modern diet or are under stress this can impact on digestion leaving us feeling bloated due to our food not being fully broken down.
Below are this weeks tips to encourage a healthy digestion.
Tips to support digestion for a flat tummy
1. 1. It seems obvious but chew your food properly, so many of us are guilty of not doing this. This is your first point of digestion! Ideally put your knife and fork down between each bite and chew to a pulp
2.2. Go for a nice winter walk after dinner to stimulate digestion.
3. Drink plenty amounts of water, sometimes being bloated is due to water retention because you are dehydrated
3. Drink plenty amounts of water, sometimes being bloated is due to water retention because you are dehydrated
4. When having protein such as meat and fish add pineapple or papaya to help tenderise them. The tenderising is due to pineapple containing bromelain and papaya containing papain which naturally digest protein.
5. Have lemon water first thing in the morning to kick start digestion.
6. Just before each meal have a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to encourage stomach acid.
7. Taking a digestive enzyme with each meal
8. Slippery Elm Soothes the digestive tract and aids milk digestion
9. Zinc contributes to normal carbohydrate metabolism
10. Green tea supports the breakdown of fat which can be supportive to weight control
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