A Great Time of the Year to Look at Digestion, Peter Dewdney, Nutritional Therapist, with some thoughts on digestion at Christmas…

A Great Time of the Year to Look at Digestion, Peter Dewdney, Nutritional Therapist, with some thoughts on digestion at Christmas…

Throughout the year digestion is of importance but especially at Christmas. In nutritional terms the festive season brings with it many challenges, larger than usual meals, foods sometimes eaten at different times and occasionally eating foods normally avoided in your diet.

Rather than tolerating the resulting symptoms and feelings of digestive discomfort, there may be ways to help yourself to make this year better than last.

• Try not eating too late, our bodies need time to digest  before we lie down for bed. Additional time is needed when our meals are larger than usual.
• Avoid drinkinq just before a meal as this can dilute or even flush through much needed digestive acids required to process and break down our foods.
• Drink water inbetween meals. Yes, a little boring but, maintaining good hydration throughout Christmas really can help with our digestion. In part water acts to regulate the acidity levels in our body and also assists in many other key functions. Alcoholic drinks also act as diuretics resulting in an even greater water requirement.

You may also like to know that a digestive enzyme could be used to assist with the digestion, processing and absorption of meals especially when eating late or in larger quantities. A specific enzyme is available to help with the symptoms experienced when gluten or dairy is eaten in error or without prior knowledge. You can find out more about this from a nutritional advisor.

Finally, a word on food Intolerances which are very common and different to food allergies. One way to determine whether you have an inability to process foods or whether foods need avoiding /removing from the diet is a simple home allergy test. This is a quick effective screening method to which nutritional therapists use to determine the best diet and whether further testing is required.

If you would like more information on how to further assist with digestive disorders, symptoms and complaints contact Peter Dewdney at Thame Therapy Clinic  or via his website, www.peterdewdney.co.uk or email peter@peterdewdney.co.uk