The holiday season is a time for celebration, indulgence, and spending quality time with loved ones. However, it can also bring about digestive discomfort, bloating, and weight gain, leaving us feeling less than our best. But fear not, there are ways to keep bloating at bay so you can fully enjoy everything the holiday season has to offer without the discomfort. Let's explore how.
Understanding Holiday Bloating
During the holiday season, bloating tends to increase, leaving many people feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious. But why does bloating become more prevalent during this time of year? Let's delve into a few of the reasons.
Why does bloating increase during the holiday season?
Holiday meals tend to be larger and include an abundance of delicious foods and treats that can be oh-so-tempting. These special meals make it more likely that we will indulge in larger portions than usual. This overeating puts extra strain on our digestive tract, leading to bloating and other discomforts.
Additionally, the holiday season is often accompanied by an increase in stress, which can also impact digestion and contribute to bloating. Stress triggers the release of your body's main stress hormone, cortisol. When levels of this hormone are continually high within your body, it can disrupt your digestive system, which often leads to bloating.
On top of all of that, there are a few other aspects of the holiday season that can lead to digestive discomforts like bloating, including:
- Swallowing extra air while eating. Whether it's from eating too quickly or indulging in carbonated beverages like soda, holiday meals may make you more prone to taking in extra air while eating or drinking. This air then gets trapped in your GI tract, contributing to bloat and discomfort.Â
- Eating foods that are difficult to digest. Certain foods are more likely to cause bloating than others, and the biggest culprits are those that are high in unhealthy fats, sweeteners (especially artificial ones), and dietary fiber. These foods are more difficult for your body to digest, which means they sit in your gut longer, leading to a build-up of gas that can cause bloating.
- Changes to your routine. Holiday festivities often require us to make changes to our sleep and eating schedule, and sometimes may even require us to travel. The digestive system doesn't like this, as it thrives on routine. This means that deviating from your normal schedule can disrupt this important system, potentially causing a variety of digestive discomforts, including bloating.
Combat Bloat With Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes
Now that you understand the causes of holiday bloating, you're probably wondering what you can do to beat it. While there are quite a few simple steps you can take to help yourself out this year, the easiest and most powerful one you can take is to lean on the power of probiotics and digestive enzymes.
How Probiotics Help with Bloating
Your gut microbiome is home to thousands of different species of bacteria and plays a key role in how well your digestive system is functioning. While many of the microbes in your gut are beneficial and even necessary for your overall health, some of them are known to be harmful if they are left to their own devices. When the balance of microbes in your gut gets thrown off, which can easily happen during the holiday season when your diet and schedule change so abruptly, it's possible to experience a variety of issues, including things like excessive gas and bloating. This is where probiotics become helpful.
Probiotics contain living beneficial microbes that help to seed your gut microbiome with the good bacteria it needs to stay balanced and healthy. Whether you get them from foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, or kimchi or take them in supplement form, having probiotics in your diet can help keep your gut microbiome balanced and healthy. That way, your digestive system can continue working optimally and you can look and feel your best before, during, and after the holiday season.
Digestive Enzymes and Their Role in Digestion
Another key component of your body's ability to efficiently digest food are compounds known as digestive enzymes. Tasked with the job of helping your body break down foods as it moves through your GI tract, digestive enzymes are key to promoting optimal digestion and reducing digestive upset.
These important enzymes are naturally produced by the human body. However, certain factors, such as high stress levels, unhealthy diet, and aging can lead to a decrease in natural digestive enzyme production. That decrease plus the fact that holidays often come with larger meals, makes it easy to see that your body may not have enough of these digestive warriors to effectively get the job done. Thankfully, there are a variety of foods and supplements that can help ensure your body has enough digestive enzymes to keep you feeling your best this holiday season.
Can Supplements from New Earth Help You This Holiday Season?
Here at New Earth, we know just how important gut health is, especially during this festive time of year. That's why, we've worked hard to create a range of supplements that are specifically designed to support your digestive health during the holiday season and beyond, so you can keep bloating at bay and truly enjoy all that life has to offer. Let's explore some of our fan-favorite options for this time of year.
Spectrabiotic®
New Earth's Spectrabiotic is a probiotic supplement designed to support digestive health by seeding your gut with an array of the beneficial bacteria it needs to stay happy and healthy. This blend brings together 12 premium strains of probiotics to give your gut microbiome a boost of beneficial bacteria. Spectrabiotic is also infused with the superfood known as organic Wild Microalgae™ as well as the prebiotic inulin, which work together to provide those good bacteria with all the nutrients they need to thrive.
By incorporating Spectrabiotic into your daily routine this holiday season, you can enhance your digestion and improve your body's ability to absorb nutrients, which will help keep that holiday bloat at bay.
Enzymes
Enzymes from New Earth is the perfect tool to have in your holiday toolkit. Designed to aid digestion and reduce digestive discomfort, Enzymes includes a blend of 15 plant-based digestive enzymes that help your body break down meals so you can take advantage of all of the nutrients you eat.
Your body may not have a large enough supply of digestive enzymes to handle the large holiday meals that are ahead, but you can give it a helping hand this year by supplementing with Enzymes. That way, you can truly enjoy the delicious holiday feasts without having to worry about discomfort.Â
Essentials
If you're looking for a simple and convenient way to support your digestive system during the hustle and bustle of the holidays, then look no further than Essentials. These daily gut-health packs have probiotics, digestive enzymes, and organic Wild Microalgae all in a single convenient packet designed to make supporting your gut easier than ever.
With a single packet of Essentials, you can rest assured that you are giving your digestive system everything it needs to thrive through the holidays and beyond. Plus, the daily packets are easy to toss in your pocket or purse, so you can take optimum gut health with you wherever you go this holiday season.
Beat the Holiday Bloat with New Earth
Whatever your plans are for the upcoming season, take one thing off your plate by leaning on New Earth to help you beat the holiday bloat by taking care of your gut.
Whether you are looking for a probiotic supplement, an extra dose of digestive enzymes, or a simple and convenient way to care for your digestive system on the go, New Earth has a gut-loving supplement that can help.
The best part? You can put any of our products to the test risk-free with our 60-day money-back guarantee!