Are you worried about your digestion when you eat out? When you go on vacation, does your digestive well-being also become a concern?
The appearance of heavy digestion, bloating, reflux… can be a real headache, and even more so when we are enjoying our holidays.
Here are some practical tips to improve your digestion even when you're away from home:
• Make sure you eat enough fruit and vegetables, and quality protein when you eat out.
• Choose simple cooking methods such as grilling, baking, steaming… and avoid fried and breaded foods.
• For dessert, choose fruit; pineapple is a common option in restaurants and is full of digestive enzymes like bromelain. Alternatively, you can have coffee, tea, or iced herbal infusions. In addition, herbal teas such as fennel, licorice, anise, chamomile, and ginger will aid digestion.
• Look for and choose bitter vegetables such as escarole, arugula, endive, artichoke… they increase the secretion of bile as well as gastric juices and pancreatic enzymes, improving digestion.
• Try to drink water between meals, this helps prevent the dilution of stomach acid.
• Be careful with alcohol, soft drinks and spicy food, you will only further irritate your gastric mucosa.
• Eat fruit and vegetables when you get hungry between meals; it's quick, easy to eat and carry: cherries, apricots, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks… Plus, summer fruit is the best!
• Maintain your usual consumption of fermented foods for their probiotic role: yogurt, kefir, kombucha, pickles… You may also find it useful to take probiotic supplements (1, 2).
• Try to eat slowly, mindfully, and in the amounts your body truly needs. I always advise practicing mindful eating , which is essential for good digestion.
• Don't eat constantly; our gut needs at least 4 hours between meals to cleanse itself of food debris and toxins. Intermittent fasting under the guidance of a professional can be beneficial; I recommend reading the previous article about this interesting approach .
• Take advantage of having more time to go for a walk or move around after eating.
• Avoid using so-called “stomach protectors” like omeprazole. In the long run, they reduce your secretion of gastric juices, worsening your digestion.
• Take a digestive enzyme and/or betaine supplement with you. Just like we find them in pineapple or papaya, we can easily get them in supplement form, which makes eating out much easier. Many also contain specific enzymes for lactose, fructose, histamine, etc. Betaine hydrochloride can also be a useful supplement in cases of hypochlorhydria, a condition characterized by low gastric acidity that hinders proper digestion and can result from gastritis, prolonged use of stomach protectors, stress, etc. (3, 4).
However, if your digestive problems aren't just occasional and happen frequently, even limiting your daily life, I advise you to see a professional. You may be suffering from an intolerance, gastritis, bacterial overgrowth, or something similar without realizing it, and it's important to treat it as soon as possible to prevent it from worsening.
It's not normal to always be bloated, you can live better!
I hope you enjoyed this article and have a wonderful vacation. Your digestion will thank you for it!
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Coral Martín is a dietitian and psychologist. Every Tuesday she offers nutritional counseling at Salud Mediterránea Manuel Becerra: C/Ortega y Gasset 77.
Click here for more information and pricing for this service.
Bibliographic references:
1. Dimidi, E., Christodoulides, S., Fragkos, KC, Scott, SM, & Whelan, K. (2014). The effect of probiotics on functional constipation in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100(4), 1075-1084.
2. Ford, AC, Quigley, EMM, Lacy, BE, Lembo, AJ, Saito, YA, Schiller, LR, Soffer, EE, Spiegel, BMR, & Moayyedi, P. (2014). Efficacy of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics in irritable bowel syndrome and chronic idiopathic constipation: Systematic review and meta-analysis. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 109(10), 1547-1561; perhaps 1546, 1562.
3. Yago, MR, Frymoyer, A., Benet, LZ, Smelick, GS, Frassetto, LA, Ding, X., Dean, B., Salphati, L., Budha, N., Jin, JY, Dresser, MJ, & Ware, JA (2014). The use of betaine HCl to enhance dasatinib absorption in healthy volunteers with rabeprazole-induced hypochlorhydria. The AAPS Journal, 16(6), 1358-1365.
4. Kines, K., & Krupczak, T. (2016). Nutritional Interventions for Gastroesophageal Reflux, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Hypochlorhydria: A Case Report. Integrative Medicine (Encinitas, Calif.), 15(4), 49-53.