Ah, there’s nothing like the onset Christmas festivities – mince pies and chocolates on offer at every opportunity; Christmas drinks after work; indulgent meals; extra portions of rich desserts. But all too often, these seasonal treats come with a side portion of going to bed feeling heavy, bloated, and uncomfortable.
What if you could enjoy the festivities without the bloat during Christmas? If that sounds too good to be true, keep reading—you may just discover a few small changes that can bring you some big relief, and may just make this season a little more comfortable!
Keeping a food diary
If you’re someone who struggles with digestive side-effects during the festive season, then it’s time to start keeping a food diary – see template. Make sure to log what you’re eating and how you felt after eating it, and also log your drinks, medications, supplements, and anything else that you consume for any reason.
When interpreting your diary, remember that allergy symptoms can occur within seconds of consuming food and may include symptoms as wide ranging as a blocked/stuffy nose or difficulty breathing to nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhoea. If your symptoms appear a little while longer after eating, then you may have an intolerance, the symptoms of which may appear very similar to an allergy. Symptoms related to intolerances can be delayed to the point that they don’t seem to correlate with the food eaten nearest to the reaction – that could be because you’re still reacting to something you ate for breakfast, or even the day before!
If you notice any patterns, e.g. dairy foods causing bloating, then trial avoiding that possible trigger for a week to see if the bloating and digestive issues settle. Once your symptoms have settled, reintroduce the suspected trigger and see if symptoms return.
Common Trigger Foods for Festive Bloat at Christmas
Let’s be honest, wheat and gluten have earned themselves a poor reputation as the problem foods. But it’s not always about wheat and gluten. Food-wise, it could be anything causing symptoms but do watch out for dairy, soya, eggs, and high fat products, as these may be having an impact on digestion.
If you’re struggling with identifying possible links between foods and symptoms, you could also consider a combined allergy and food intolerance test such as this one. This is a simple test that uses a small sample of blood from a fingertip to provide results for up to number of allergens and intolerances discover more about how our tests work here.
What if it’s not the food causing your bloat at Christmas?
Aside from diet, consider not WHAT you are eating, but HOW you are eating. If you’re prone to eating on-the-go, or while multitasking at your desk, then you’re probably not getting in to rest and digest mode.
Make sure that you take 10 minutes away from whatever you’re doing to mentally prepare for your food – this is particularly important if you’re ordering food to be delivered to you as it’s all to easy to go from typing an email to eating your takeaway lunch, giving your digestive system no chance of preparing itself for the food. Saliva does more than keep our mouth wet – it also stimulates the digestive system to produce digestive juices.
I’m not suggesting you sit and salivate for 10 minutes before eating, but you may find that if you stop working when you know your food is on the way, and make sure you take time to plate your food up when it does arrive (rather than eat out of the packaging it arrives in), then that Christmas bloat may be less of an issue. This technique also applies to snacks between meals – take time away from what you are doing to enjoy the mince pie, rather than mindlessly grazing while multi-tasking.
Merry and bright, and well-digested too!
Identifying what may be causing your symptoms, but also taking the time to allow your body to digest what you are eating, is the key behind addressing seasonal bloat this Christmas. If you’re struggling to identify the cause despite following the steps mentioned here, working with a nutritional therapist may help you to identify and address other possible causes.
Wishing you a festive friendly gut!
