2020 Re-Vision. Your Body, Your Life

“Eat, Drink and Be Merry” and some Healthy Holiday Strategies

“Eat, drink and be merry” is the slogan of the holiday season, and there’s plenty of opportunity to do just that, with parties and festive dinners featuring eggnog, chocolate, and cocktails as just a few of the festive favourites. It’s easy to get swept up in the celebratory eating and drinking part, but digestive disturbances can leave you feeling not so merry.

With the abundance of decadent dishes and sugary snacks over the holiday season, overindulging is considered by many to be part of the fun! However, even the healthiest of us can suffer some uncomfortable consequences, including tummy aches, gas, bloating, constipation, and nausea.  And the celebratory fare isn’t the only thing to blame – holiday stress also interferes with healthy digestion and is difficult to avoid in all the social obligations and merry-making.

But there are some great digestive-protective strategies that can help see you through the busy holiday season with minimal discomfort. Here are some helpful tips to help keep digestion running merrily along.

BE PREPARED!    

There’s no joy in saying no to all your favourite traditional holiday treats. Enjoyment in moderation and stocking up on some digestive-supporting natural health products can help.

Digestive enzymes. These are helpful if you anticipate some harder to digest foods in your near future. Adequate stomach acid ensures we digest proteins adequately.  Most people I work with have weakened stomach function and therefor digestive distress, also known as hypochlorhydria. A good digestive supplement containing Apple Cider Vinegar, HCL and Betaine taken at the beginning of a meal, can go a long way to easing digestive discomfort when indulging in those extra rich foods.  

Soda water with lemon or lime is great to have on hand as celebratory beverages, and are a healthier alternative to alcohol which can be disruptive to the gastrointestinal tract as it can irritate the stomach lining and pulls nutrients from your body.

Plenty of fibre keeps digestion moving smoothly and helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. Keep fibre-rich foods stocked up at home and on hand for on the go snacking including raw vegetables, small amounts of whole grains or even a fibre supplement.

Ginger tea or natural ginger chews can help to quell nausea and soothe an upset tummy.  

Also - plan ahead! Stress plays a huge part in our digestive health and how our body processes food! Filling out the calendar and to-do lists ahead of time can help manage stress, and prepare you and your family for parties, parades and potlucks by remembering to pack water bottles or contribute a healthy dish.

Stress, alcohol, too many processed foods and sugar can upset the balance of intestinal bacteria which doesn’t just lead to bloating, it can also affect our immunity, which can make or break our holiday plans (as they happen to coincide with prime cold & flu season).  Fermented foods provide an excellent and easy way to help keep the good bacteria plentiful in your gut, such as sauerkraut. A great immune balancer that also supports gut health is colostrum - use only one from grass fed, drug free cows.  Keep your adrenals healthy and fully nourished with Adaptogenic herbs such as Astragalus and Schizandra, Rhodiola and many more.  Your body needs support during busy, high stress periods.  Your mood can be improved as well as your sleep.

Fruit and Sugar Content

A healthy balanced diet should always include some fruit since they are some of the healthiest carbohydrates a person can consume (yes fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates!). They contain antioxidants, vitamins, phytonutrients and fibre which keeps blood sugar in balance.  I recommend consuming 2-3 servings of fruits daily with a lower sugar content and small amount of fruit occasionally with a higher sugar content.  For the most efficient digestion of fruits, they should be eaten alone and before other food (eating fruit after a meal often causes indigestion and gas).  They are nicely digested with a full fat organic yogourt (3-4%).  Choosing low glycemic (sugar) foods becomes especially important for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics or glucose sensitive individuals (those prone to hypoglycemia). The question then becomes, which fruits have the lowest But how do we measure the sugars in a particular fruit, and which fruits have the lowest amounts?

First of all, it’s important to understand how the sugars in fruit are measured. We don’t actually take a piece of fruit, examine it in the lab, and quantify the grams of sugar in each portion. What actually happens is that we measure the effect that that fruit has on our blood sugar levels. There are two ways to represent this – Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL). First I’ll explain how these measures work, and at the end of article I have included two tables with the numbers for various fruits.

Glycemic Load Is A More Useful Measure Than Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index of a food is a numerical unit describing how far eating a food will raise one’s blood sugar level; effectively, it represents how ‘sugary’ the food is. The Glycemic Index uses a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is pure glucose. A food which has a high GI will cause a large increase in blood sugar, while a food with a lower GI will not have much impact at all. As a rough basis, mid-50s to mid-60s in a food’s GI is considered average, while 70 and above is considered high. Foods with a GI of less than 55 are considered to have a low glycemic index, and thus will have smaller impact on blood sugar levels.

The main problem with the Glycemic Index is that it does not factor in typical portion sizes. In fact, it standardizes each food to include 50 grams of carbohydrates. This leads to some peculiar distortions. For example, to obtain 50 grams of carbohydrates you would need either 2.8 ounces of a Snickers bar or 35 ounces of pumpkin. It hardly seems fair to compare the two when these portion sizes are so unrealistic!

In 1997, researchers at Harvard University introduced the concept of Glycemic Load with the aim of solving this problem. The Glycemic Load seeks to balance the Glycemic Index by accounting for serving size. Let’s take a watermelon as an example. It has a high GI, as the carbohydrate will increase blood sugar levels rapidly, but it contains a relatively small amount of the carbohydrate, meaning that it has a low glycemic load.

A food’s Glycemic Load is calculated directly from its Glycemic Index. We simply take the food’s Glycemic Index, divide it by 100, and multiply it by the grams of carbohydrate (excluding fiber) in a typical serving size. A GL of above 20 is considered high, the 11-19 range is considered average, and below 11 is low.

Let’s look again at watermelon. It has a Glycemic Index of 72, which is relatively high. However, a typical serving size only has 5 grams of carbohydrate. This means we can calculate the Glycemic Load like this: 72/100*5 = 3.6. Although the Glycemic Index is high, the Glycemic Load is relatively low. Which one is more useful to us? The Glycemic Load.

Watermelons are an unusual case, insofar as they have a high Glycemic Index (above 70 is considered high), yet have a low Glycemic Load (below 11 is low). This is not common, as most foods with a high GI will have a correspondingly high GL.

The Glycemic Load Of Fruits

Here are two tables containing the Glycemic Load of various fruits, taken mostly from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002 (full version here) and the American Diabetes Association in 2008 (full version here). Remember that a GL of more than 20 is considered high, a GL of 11-19 is considered average, and a GL of below 11 is considered low. I have created a table showing the fruits in alphabetical order, and one showing them ordered by Glycemic Load.

Fruits (Alphabetical)

Fruit	Glycemic Load	Serving Size (grams)
Apple	6	120g
Apricot	3	120g
Banana	11	120g
Blueberries	5	120g
Cantaloupe	4	120g
Cherries	9	120g
Dates	18	60g
Figs	16	60g
Grapefruit	3	120g
Grapes	11	120g
Guava	4	120g
Kiwi	7	120g
Lemon	3	120g
Lime	1	120g
Mango	8	120g
Nectarines	4	120g
Oranges	4	120g
Peach	5	120g
Pear	4	120g
Pineapple	6	120g
Plum	5	120g
Prunes	10	60g
Raisins	28	60g
Strawberry	1	120g
Watermelon	4	120g

Fruits (By Glycemic Load)

Fruit	Glycemic Load	Serving Size (grams)
Lime	1	120g
Strawberry	1	120g
Apricot	3	120g
Grapefruit	3	120g
Lemon	3	120g
Cantaloupe	4	120g
Guava	4	120g
Nectarines	4	120g
Oranges	4	120g
Pear	4	120g
Watermelon	4	120g
Blueberries	5	120g
Peach	5	120g
Plum	5	120g
Apple	6	120g
Pineapple	6	120g
Kiwi	7	120g
Mango	8	120g
Cherries	9	120g
Prunes	10	60g
Banana	11	120g
Grapes	11	120g
Figs	16	60g
Dates	18	60g
Raisins	28	60g

Bear in mind that a high GI and GL does not necessarily mean that fruits are unhealthy and should be avoided. 

Muscle Mass: Your Key to Healthy Living at Any Age

It's no secret that diet and exercise are the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of your age, there’s a direct correlation between how you treat your body and how good you feel.
When we’re young, we’re naturally more active. As we get older, life tends to slow down and the effects of good nutrition and exercise (or the lack thereof) become more apparent to us.
But why does this happen? And what can you do about it?

The Link Between Exercise and Health
Regular exercise is beneficial at every age. But for older adults, making a conscious effort to exercise regularly is a necessity.
While the cardiovascular benefits of aerobic exercise are well known, that’s only part of the picture. To maintain optimal health, you can also benefit from strength training to fight the loss of muscle mass.
As early as age 30, we begin to experience the loss of muscle mass and strength. Loss of muscle mass and strength can lead to the reduced mobility and loss of balance we associate with the aging process.
The great news is that you can fight muscle loss without spending every waking hour at the gym. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these simple weekly exercise suggestions for older adults:

• Perform 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week.
• Include at least two sessions of weight and/or resistance training per week that work all major muscle groups.

If it's been a while since your last workout or if you struggle with mobility issues, the National Institute on Aging offers information about exercises that can help you avoid injury and regain flexibility. Before you integrate a new workout routine into your life, be sure you consult with your doctor.

The Importance of Protein
You know you need to eat well to feel well. Choosing nutrient-dense foods is important at any age. As we age, protein becomes even more crucial to the maintenance of healthy muscle mass.
A study appearing in the online journal Sports Medicine concluded that raising daily protein intake in conjunction with weight or resistance training can help adults better maintain muscle mass. According to a recent article published by the National Institutes of Health, not only should we consider the amount of protein consumed in a day, but also the timing in which we eat it. The study summarized that adults 65 years of age and older should consume between 0.8 and 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.  
To make sure you’re getting enough protein, simply:

• Add more lean meats like chicken and turkey to your meals.
• Drink high-quality protein shakes after exercise or between meals.
• Add eggs or nuts to meals or snacks for an extra protein boost (and a dose of good fats!).
• Add protein to your early meals so you more evenly consume it throughout your day.

The same article asserts the importance of spreading your protein intake evenly throughout the day, rather than consuming it all during one meal.

Get Your Daily Dose of Vitamin D
Along with the primary benefit of keeping your bones healthy, studies show that vitamin D can help maintain muscle, which helps older adults maintain balance. Vitamin D is easy to find in foods like salmon, tuna, eggs, milk, and mushrooms.  Supplementation is also helpful in northern climates with typically less sun.

Consistency Is Key
Adding exercise to your routine and more protein to your diet is definitely a lifestyle change. But it doesn’t have to be a dramatic change. Making smart choices around eating and exercising can lead to healthier habits and a healthier you. The effects can be amazing now and can continue to be for years to come.