With American Thanksgiving just a day away I thought I should do my part in helping you survive this often “toxic” time of year.
By toxic, I simply mean the overeating of heavy foods like turkey, stuffing, and pie that don’t necessarily energize your body.
You know what I mean, right?
Have you ever eaten so much that you’ve felt like falling asleep at the table?
Well, as you can imagine, this time of year is famously known for “dinner time narcolepsy”. So with that in mind, I wanted to take the next few days to give you some helpful dietary tips to prevent overeating and/or feeling the paralyzing effects of doing so.
Thanksgiving Survival Tip #1 – Food Combining is Key!
Food combining is the principle of combining certain foods together, while avoiding the mixing of other foods. The rationale is that different foods require different digestive environments (ie. acid vs. alkaline) and, thus, if such foods are combined, their respective digestive juices neutralize each other. As a result, these foods are not properly digested.
If foods are not digested properly, they cause disruption further down the digestive tract, impair proper elimination, and can seep into the bloodstream whereby they can be detected as “allergens”. Also, undigested foods that sit around in your stomach for hours are more readily stored as fat and make you gassy, bloated, and tired. Pretty tough to lose weight if this is happening.
Therefore, food combining is just one of your digestive weapons to ensure that what you eat is broken down and assimilated properly.
FOOD COMBINING 101
The basic recommendations are the following:
1. Avoid mixing starchy carbs with complex proteins
Here are some examples: pasta with meat sauce, turkey and mashed potatoes, chicken and rice.
These are combinations that you want to avoid. One of the reasons that Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are so filling (and tiring) is because we tend to poorly combine our foods.
Instead, combine starchy carbs OR proteins with healthy fats (olive oil, etc..) and green leafy or cruciferous veggies. Good examples of this include: chic peas with kale, salmon with swiss chard and spinach, and turkey and veggies (other than potatoes).
2. Eat fruit alone, and on an empty stomach
Raw fruit will digest itself (because of its enzymes) in your stomach in 15-20 minutes. And if eaten right after a meal (as dessert for instance), then its sugars will ferment on top of the existing meal that is still being processed in your stomach. As a result, you will feel bloated, gassy, and perhaps experience some discomfort in your abdomen.
Therefore, eat fruit on its own (or with sprouted nuts and seeds to moderate sugar load) to enable optimal digestion.
The important thing to remember is that you need to listen to your body. If you are gassy, bloated, tired, or experience pain in your stomach, these are signs that what you are eating is not being digested properly.
And poor digestion is the first step to numerous health-related problems.
Thanksgiving Survival Tip #2 – Food Sequencing
Food combining is powerful. But let’s say that you are given a plate full of different kinds of foods. Let’s take the typical holiday feast as an example.
On your plate you’ve got turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and maybe some greens. Wow, I’m getting tired just thinking of it!
What do you do? Is there a way to eat your meal to help your body better digest it?
Yes! It’s all about food sequencing.
In a nutshell, here’s how food sequencing works:
1 Eat SIMPLE FOODS and ENZYME-RICH FOODS first
These are generally raw foods such as salad or raw veggies. Their enzymes will assist in the digestion of the foods you eat next. Bread would fit in here as well.
2 Eat COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES + FIBER-RICH FOODS next
These include your starchy root vegetables (sweet potato, yams, etc…). We eat these before heavier protein because they are digested more rapidly and thus can pass through the digestive
tract unimpeded.
3 Eat PROTEIN + FAT last
These take the longest to digest and thus should be eaten after the aforementioned foods. This is more applicable to those who eat animal proteins. If you are a vegan than your protein will
be coming from easy to assimilate plant sources such as legumes. Furthermore, plant-based proteins don’t carry saturated fats or cholesterol (only healthy fats) which further assists their digestion.
So, now let’s turn back to our example of turkey dinner. What would be the best way to “sequence” your meal?
Ideally, this is what it should be sequenced:
Greens –> Cranberry Sauce –> Mashed Potatoes –> Stuffing –> Turkey
Now I know that most of us like to enjoy different flavours on our palate all at once, but just give this a shot the next time you don’t a have a meal that is properly “food combined”. The difference will be noticeable!
Thanksgiving Survival Tip #3 – Keep the Sugar Monster Under Control
Did you know that many allergies are caused by food that is not properly digested?
Undigested food is often due to unbalanced mineral relationships, which prevent digestive enzymes from functioning properly. When these undigested food particles enter the bloodstream they can travel to different parts of the body and wreak havoc. If they travel to the head, the result can be headaches, fatigue, dizziness; in other parts of the body they can manifest as eczema, joint inflammation, asthma, and much more.
Ok, so how does this tie in with holiday eating?
The answer – SUGAR!
Sugar depletes enzymes by upsetting the body’s fine mineral balance. Because minerals are a key component to enzymes, if they are affected, so too will your ability to digest your food.
And digesting your food properly has really been the theme of this 4-part series, hasn’t it?
So the message is that when you eat sugar with other foods, you impair your body’s ability to digest them. For instance, having a glass of orange juice (high in sugar) with your morning breakfast makes your meal susceptible to not being digested properly. Whatever is in that meal is then more at risk of becoming a food allergen, overtime.
If you’re going to have sugar, do your best to ensure that it’s a healthy source such as fruit and that it is not eaten in conjunction with other foods. Refrain from having fruit or high-sugar desserts right after your meal. Give your body at least 1-2 hours to digest and then you can consider a little holiday indulgence.
Thanksgiving Survival Tip #4 – Use digestive enzymes!
Taking digestive enzymes with your meals can be one of the most impactful things you can do your digestion and your health.
Remember that when you cook your foods, you destroy their enzymes. As such, your body spends a huge amount of energy to produce and use its own limited supply of enzymes to digest your food. Many times, these foods are not even properly digested – leading to the passage of undigested food particles into the bloodstream! You remember the allergy talk the other day, right?
Therefore, to assist your digestion taking 1-2 digestive before and/or during your meal can be a huge bonus. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.
When selecting a digestive enzyme look for one that contains a wide spectrum of enzymes such as proteases, lipases, and various other “-ases” that will work on the various macronutrients within your foods.
Enzymes are the key to life. Enzyme therapy has even been used to help treat terminal diseases! Enzymes are needed for every single reaction in your body and when you run out of enzymes,
you run out of life.
So, when that plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and whatever is placed in front of you, give your body a helping hand by supplying it with the digestive enzymes that will help it breakdown these “dead” foods.
What Happens Next Week?
So there you have my 4 dietary tips to surviving Thanksgiving and staying healthy over the holidays. However, by the time next week rolls around you may be feeling a bit sluggish and in need of a kickstart to get your body back into the healthy eating groove.
If that’s the case, then I highly recommend grabbing a copy of our Total Wellness Cleanse program – it will do your body a world of good.
