Ah, the holidays! A time for joy, laughter, and yes—delicious food! But let’s face it, alongside the festive treats often comes an unwelcome guest: holiday bloat. If you’ve ever found yourself feeling uncomfortably stuffed after a family feast, you’re not alone. Add SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) or IBS into the mix and it can become very unpleasant. But don’t worry! In this guide, I’ll share some tips to help you beat the bloat so you can feel your best while savoring every bite. Let’s dive into these belly-friendly solutions!
Understanding Holiday Bloat
The holidays are notorious for bringing on bloating, but why is this so common? First of all, many of the traditional holiday foods are rich in fats, sugars, and spices that can be difficult to digest. Add to that the festive drinks and desserts that are often loaded with sugar and alcohol, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a swollen belly. Stress also plays a major role, as studies are finding more and more that stress correlates to more gastrointestinal discomforts (source). The holidays can be stressful, especially for those organising and executing all festive plans. Usually eating patterns are disrupted and that causes even more stress for your body and can ultimately lead to the familiar uncomfortable fullness that is bloating.
Tips to Reduce Holiday Bloat Before a Meal
One of the best ways to tackle holiday bloat is to prepare ahead of time. Here are some great pre-meal strategies to help:
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Stay Hydrated: Drinking water is crucial for keeping your digestive system functioning properly. Aim to drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially before large meals, to reduce the risk of bloating.
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Eat Mindfully: Take time to chew your food thoroughly. Eating too quickly can lead to swallowing excess air, which only adds to that bloated feeling. Slowing down also helps your digestive system work more efficiently to tell you when you’re full.
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Light Exercise: A short walk or light stretching before meals can help prepare your digestive system. Exercise stimulates blood flow, helping digestion function at its best.
- Incorporate (digestive) enzymes: Digestive enzymes may help prevent gases from gas-producing bacteria by breaking down the food so the bacteria don’t do it. (They eat the food and produce gas as a result).
How to Manage Bloat During
The holiday table is often filled with delicious dishes that you should be able to enjoy freely, but here are some tips to avoid bloating.
5. Portion Control: It can be tempting to pile your plate high with all your favorite holiday foods, but try to stick to smaller portions, especially when it comes to rich and fatty dishes. It’s absolutely okay to eat everything—just do it in moderation.
6. Avoid Bloat-Inducing Foods: Foods like dairy, carbonated beverages, and salty treats are common culprits of bloating. Try to minimize these during your meals if you want to avoid digestive discomfort later on.
7. Eat Slowly: Savor your food, and give your body enough time to signal when it’s full. Eating slowly also reduces the amount of air you swallow, helping prevent bloating.
8. Intermittent fasting: To stimulate your bowels having enough time to clean themselves. (Which they do after around 3 hours of no food – during a process called the migrating motor complex), it’s good to have a few hours of no food in between meals. So try to avoid snacking all day long and instead stick to fewer meal times, giving your bowels some rest. Obviously that means that any dessert or snack foods can be consumed during those bigger meals.
Post-Meal Practices to Ease Bloating
The meal may be over, but that doesn’t mean your efforts to fight bloat should be too. Here’s what you can do after eating to ease discomfort:
9. Herbal Teas for Digestion: Ginger, peppermint, and chamomile tea are great options for easing post-meal bloating. These herbal teas help relax your digestive tract, reducing gas and discomfort.
10. Go for a Post-Meal Walk: A gentle walk after eating can do wonders for digestion. It helps get things moving in your digestive tract, preventing that feeling of being overly stuffed. An added benefit is that you can do it with all the lovely friends and family you’re sharing holidays with and make it a fun outing.
11. Abdominal Massage: You can use light, circular motions around your abdomen to help release trapped gas and alleviate discomfort. This simple practice can be surprisingly effective. As soon as you feel and hear the gas moving, you know it’s working. It helps to press and hold lightly.
Lifestyle Habits to Prevent Bloat Throughout the Holidays
Preventing holiday bloat isn’t just about what you do before and after meals—it’s about adopting healthy habits throughout the season:
12. Prioritize Sleep and Manage Stress: Stress and lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your digestive system. To reduce bloating, make sure you’re getting enough rest and managing holiday stress through activities like yoga, meditation, or even a relaxing bath.
13. Incorporate Probiotic Foods: Foods rich in probiotics, such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut, help keep your gut bacteria healthy and balanced, reducing the likelihood of bloating. Those of you suffering from SIBO or IBS, might be better off skipping these foods and focusing on Low-FODMAP food items, these probiotic foods might be causing you other painful symptoms.
14. Limit Alcohol and Sugary Drinks: Alcohol and sugary drinks can increase bloating, so try to moderate your intake. Opt for water or herbal teas instead to keep your digestive system happy.
What to do if you did end up bloating? – bloating relief 101
Despite our best efforts, bloating can still happen, especially during the holidays. Here are some quick remedies you can use to get relief fast:
15. Quick Home Remedies: Sip on warm water mixed with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or chew on fennel seeds. Both can help soothe your stomach and relieve bloating. Another option is peppermint oil (capsules).
16. Over-the-Counter Options: Sometimes, natural remedies might not be enough. Over-the-counter digestive enzymes or antacids can help provide quick relief if needed.
17. Gentle Yoga Poses: Yoga poses like child’s pose or seated twists are effective ways to relieve gas and reduce bloating. Just a few minutes of stretching can make a significant difference. Laying on your back with your feet all the way up against a wall can also relieve gas.
18. SIBO Supplements: If you have SIBO, you may as well have slow motility. In other words, food moves slowly through your digestive tract. To help speed this up, simple supplements of ginger and artichoke extract will help to create more bile, which in turn speeds up motility. Any trapped gas in the small intestive will be guided to the larger intestine, where it can be relieved. When I started with this after 12 years with undiagnosed SIBO, I felt my bowels moving for the first time 10 minutes after taking these two supplements.
19. If you’re constipated from all the food, a cup of coffee or a laxative will help.
Conclusion
Feeling bloated can definitely put a big hamper on the holidays & the festive feeling. I know from experience that it made me want to curl up in a ball and avoid any human interaction. Since I want to prevent anyone from those nasty feelings, I hope these tips will help. Let me know if there are any other things you have found that may work. We’re all in this together after all. I wish you a good end of the year!
