Digesting Christmas
It’s Christmas!! Everyone is happy, excited. There are cocktail parties, work do’s, more and richer food than usual, more alcohol, late nights… And it takes its toll on us!… often over many weeks. The “repent at leisure” proverb is very apt.
Here Gayle Palmer D.O. explains how to help out various problems using natural remedies, self-help strategies and commonsense.Well let’s start with the effects of too much sugary food (and drink)!
Did you know – We need only one teaspoon of “sugar” a day to provide all our energy requirements for our brain! But we get FAR more because of our predeliction for sugary foods and hidden sugar in food.
Sugar rapidly increases the sugar in our bloodstreams with sweet foods – which in turn causes our pancreas to turn on and produce a lot of insulin to stop the sugar poisoning us. This is a high burn option, but as we can only measure the amount of sugar by the RATE of increase / decrease, our insulin levels overshoot… the sugar level crashes, and we have a sudden craving! This is exhausting for our pancreas – hence the huge rise in diabetes (its mainly preventable!) and wired individuals.
Where is sugar found? – obvious options – sweet things, but also lots in soups, baked beans, ready-meals, biscuits, even granary bread! Plus any alcoholic drink or bottle of pop.
Signs of over-sugar consumption: exhaustion, yo-yo dieting and weight gain; hyperactivity; not wanting to get out of bed in the morning; thirst; inability to concentrate, weight gain, fuzzy vision, poor behavious etc Lastly, kids will get really high and then “crash” – its not just over-excitement!
Action:
Get aware of how much sugar you are eating each day – look at the labels.
Try to eat slow-release (often low GI) foods eg porridge vs Special K; wholefruit vs jams and purees
LIMIT the amount of alcohol you drink
Get checked for diabetes, esp if 40y+ if associated with the other symptoms
If you are going to go to a party & drink as well as eat snack foods – have a “simple food” day te next day and drink plenty of water.
Consider taking Candaway if you think you have Candida – a yeast overgrowth, which is fd by sugary foods! Its much more common than you may think!
If you are struggling with your gut function and need a probiotic boost as well.
Rich and fatty foods
We all love the extra large portions, and eating stuff we don’t often get the chance to. Once in a while its OK – but there’s too much of it at this time of year. Anyone with diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (furrying of the arteries) and history of heart attacks and strokes must be extra vigilant. They could literally be a killer-in-waiting.
These also markedly increase the rates of indigestion and are slow to digest, often leading to bowel problems too… eg constipation. As you get older your digestive enzymes also reduce – so you may need some help here too.
Actions to take:
Eat in moderation
Sucking peppermints may help or eating carbon biscuits!
Having an osteopathic treatment for hiatus hernia can make a big difference.
Taking FOS – a soluble bulking agent and prebiotic that tastes like candy-floss! will help IBS, constipation and general gut health.
Take digestive enzymes to ease your over-burdened gut and help with food breakdow
Many of these fatty foods also contain the wrong fat – which increases cholesterol and furring of the arteries – leading to strokes and heart attacks.
Inflammation can be a problem with a lot of this food – this causes PAIN and joint cramps. Relieve this and item No. 6 by taking Salmon Oil Plus – a natural cholesterol lowerer and anti-inflammatory.
Did you know that turkey induces the most amount of inflammation of any meat in the body!
Immune function
Being in close proximity to many people also means you come into contact with more germs too – and your immune system gets under stress. Help it out with some zinc lozenges for sore throats, also help you recover from colds more quickly.
The other thing about eating all this food and drink is that it lowers each persons overall immune function – hence so many people get ‘flu’, chest infections etc after the party season – its nature’s own way of cleaning out, re-organising and getting rid of the poisons that we have gaily plied it with for over a month! It’s a good thing!! even if, during the process you can feel rubbish!
But you can help and augment your body’s natural cleansing mechanisms by doing a detox!
All detox diets etc are similar – and you can find plenty in the newspapers, online etc but the basics are:
don’t put in any more poisons!
drink lots of water to help the body flush the rubbish through
eat lots of raw food and juice
take some gentle exercise to keep the circulation running.
Take supplements – such as those I have suggested above to help support your system.
One of the other things that all this rich food does is produce INFLAMMATION – and this causes PAIN – most notably in the joints and muscles. So, after a big meal(s), when Granny can’t move about properly it might not only be because she has eaten too much, but the wrong type of food.! Inflammation increases the likelihood of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, headaches, joint pains etc… The best, natural anti-inflammatory I have found, that is a food – so your body knows what to do with it is Salmon Oil Plus. Take 3 a day with a meal.
All of these supplements are available from the clinic directly.
For more articles:
Surviving Christmas and staying healthy
Osteopathic MOT’s – why they are such value
I hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year – and don’t forget – I am also here to help patch you up again if there’s some fallout!
Love ‘n’ hugs,
Gayle Palmer
© Gayle Palmer 2012-19
