Are you suffering from indigestion?

Christmas is nearly over and New Year is just around the corner. It’s time for family get-togethers and parties with friends filled with delicious food and festive drink.

Eating large, fat meals (as you do during the celebration time!) often leads to indigestion, manifesting itself with: feeling of fullness, discomfort, belching, abdominal pain and bloating. Add to this a substantial dose of alcohol and you have a perfect recipe for wrecking your digestive system.

Are you already stuffed with stuffing, packed with chocolate and overflowing with mulled wine?

Since we still have few more festive days to come, here are few simple tips that will help you get back on track and help your body recover from effects of overindulgence.

Chinese medicine views proper digestion as the most essential component in living a long and healthy life. Without healthy digestion, you can become malnourished and toxins will build up in your body. The cause of indigestion is food stagnation, but it may be accompanied by a spleen deficiency. Indigestion is caused and made worse by overeating-especially rich, fatty, spicy foods, alcohol, coffee, and acidic foods.

5 Tips to help your digestion:

• Listen to your body. If a food or drink is causing discomfort reduce the intake.
• Eat lots of fiber – it fills you up and prevents overeating as well as helps you to clean you out. Eat lots of vegetables and whole grains to get a boost of this essential nutrient.
• Avoid or minimize rich and spicy foods.
• Hydrate! Your body needs water to function at an optimal level and support its natural ability to flush out toxins. Dehydration will slow digestion and potentially cause constipation.
• Try to cook most meals, as raw food can be extra effort for the body to digest and cause further bloating and discomfort.

What to do when you overindulged & suffer from indigestion

1. Think probiotics. Naturally fermented foods contain probiotics, which help balance the environment in your tummy and help improve your digestion. Try sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, yogurt or kimchi.
2. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a natural version of Alka-Seltzer. It’s a very quick-acting antacid helping to neutralize the acids in your digestive tract, breaks down food and makes digestion easier relieving excess gas and bloating. Try it with warm water.

• Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup of warm of water
• Stir in a few drops of lemon juice (optional)
• Mix well and drink to get relief from upset stomach within 10–15 minutes

3. Dried orange peel. Orange Peel has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is an excellent cure for indigestion. Use these three herbs as a tasty and tummy taming after dinner treat. This recipe is easy and you will get all ingredients at your grocery or spice store.

• 1 tablespoon minced candied ginger
• 1 tablespoon dried orange peel powder
• 3 tablespoons fennel seeds
  Mix it all together and serve it after your Christmas feast!

4. Enjoy some ginger. Ginger has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to calm upset tummies and ease indigestion. That’s why people often recommend drinking ginger ale when you feel queasy. Forget sugary soda, steep some fresh ginger in hot water and enjoy a tummy-soothing sip.

5. Walk it off. After a large meal, take a 10- to 20-minute stroll. Apart from the proven benefits to your heart, walking is the perfect gentle exercise for promoting digestion and encouraging cleansing of the lymphatic system. It helps to move food along the digestive tract, improving digestion and absorption.

6. Massage your abdomen with your palms, in a circle around your belly button.
7. Try herbal tea. Steep 1 teaspoon each of mint, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, sage, and basil and in a cup of hot water. Drink after each meal to soothe and prevent bloating. Peppermint, chamomile, and ginger tea are other good choices for settling the stomach.

6 TCM Hangover Cures

1. Banana peel: boil 60 grams and drink the water
2. Mandarin juice: drink fresh
3. Strawberries: eat fresh, 8 – 10 at a time
4. Watermelon:  eat 500 – 1000 grams at room temperature twice daily to quench thirst, relieve bad breath, clear a bitter taste in the mouth and reduce hangovers and dark yellow urine.
5. Watermelon rind:  save and dry-out in the sun. Boil 50 grams of dried rind and drink as a tea for hypertension, diabetes, nephritis and hangover.
6. Star Fruit (Carambola): detoxes and cools, relieves painful urination, hangover, mouth sores, hemorrhoids, cough, fever, kidney and bladder stones (+ 2 teaspoons of honey), (eat 2 x twice daily or drink juice of 3).

Try these tips for recovering after overindulgence and you’ll feel better in no time!

What are your tips for getting back on the healthy track?

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Sources:
http://luvoinc.com/blog/what-to-eat-after-you-overindulge/
http://www.baysidechinesemedicine.com/remedies/summer-diets-hangover-cures/
http://jadelotuswellness.com/category/nutrition/
http://www.souviatea.com/blog/?paged=2
http://www.mymiracletea.com/DeTox-From-Holiday-Overindulging.html
http://www.esgreen.com/info/about-dried-tangerineor-orange-peel-chen-pi/