Feel refreshed after the Christmas break

There are simple steps you can take to avoid feeling sluggish, says James Colquhoun.

Christmas time can be a lot of fun. It can also be a huge challenge if you’re trying to stay healthy and not overdo it. Here are my tips for reaching the New Year feeling replenished, not sluggish.

There are two things we encounter each Christmas that are the antithesis of long-term good health: heavy foods and alcohol. Our body can deal with these in the short term and in small doses, but Christmas tends to be an extended period of celebration with family and friends, and we’re likely to consume them in larger servings.

To counteract momentary indulgences (and make sure you’re still having fun), my approach can be broken down into three steps: cleanse, support and digest.

Before you eat something, ask yourself the question: will this cleanse me or will this clog me? You don’t need to be anywhere close to a nutritional scientist to answer the question – you’ll be able to hazard a guess simply by looking at the type of food you have in front of you. Even if you can’t answer the question every time, or don’t want to, this will make you eat more consciously.

When we talk about cleansing, hydration is always at the crux of the matter – drinking water will clear out toxins in the body like you can't imagine. One caveat here: don't drink too much around your meal time. Try to reserve this time for eating. This allows your digestive juices to be at their most powerful so that you can break down your food. Sipping water is fine, but your digestive juices are most effective when they haven’t been diluted by too much water.

Any time you over-eat or over-drink, you're putting stress on your immune system.

To combat this, focus on two key immune-supporting nutrients: zinc and vitamin C. Oysters, a popular dish around Christmas time, are high in zinc. Pumpkin seeds and raw chocolate are also good sources. Vitamin C can be found in a lot of seasonal fruits, including oranges, lemons and limes, plus goji berries and acerola cherry (which normally comes in a powder).

When you know you’ll potentially be putting your immune system under some stress, take steps to be proactive and support it by adding in these vitamin-rich foods.

When you start to overwhelm your body at Christmas, you're also going to be putting strain on your digestive system. And chances are, you've probably done some damage to your gut wall. Is that a big deal? In the short term, a little bit; in the long term, yes.

Your gut wall and your gut lining are one of the fastest repairing systems in the body. You actually shed the lining of your gut about every seven days, repair it, and make a new one.

But our body tends to work a bit like a photocopy machine. If we've done damage, then it starts to photocopy that damage. It becomes hard to repair the damage unless we're focusing on really repairing the gut wall and keeping our gut wall healthy.

Gluten and sugar can be harmful to the gut wall – and we tend to eat a lot of these at Christmas. If your gut wall is being broken down and there's an element of permeability, you could reach an early stage of leaky gut, which means there are macro particles getting into the bloodstream that shouldn't normally be there.

According to research, this is how autoimmune conditions begin. So, how do you repair the gut after doing damage to it?

The answer is by eating fermented foods and fermented beverages – things like yoghurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, kefirs, kombucha and pickled vegetables. Even just fermented vegetables. Ideally, when you're having your Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner, add in some of these foods to make sure you're repairing your gut, ready for the year ahead.

Christmas is a time for us to connect with family – and that’s what is most important. Eat as consciously as you can, feel gratitude for the experience and take care of your body as you enter the New Year with a reinvigorated step.

Filmmaker of 'Food Matters' and 'Hungry For Change', and founder of FMTV, James has dedicated his life to discovering the truth behind nutrition and our food supply. James, alongside Laurentine ten Bosch, has transformed the 'Food Matters' film into a global wellness hub, with a community of over 3.3 million followers across email and social networks. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.

Disclaimer:
The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional, tax or other advice. It does not take into account any individual’s personal situation or needs. You should consider obtaining professional advice from a financial adviser and/or tax specialist, or medical or health practitioner, in relation to your own circumstances and before acting on this information.