As you prepare your menus, your invites, your shopping lists, and your homes for this Thursday's Thanksgiving Feast - you should add one more extremely important item to your list - the preparation of your own tummy. Now you might be thinking "what the heck does she mean by that?"

Well, let me ask you this..
...how did you feel the last time you ate a holiday dinner that included hors d'oeuvres, wine, bread stuffing, meat, potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, and pie topped with whipped cream or ice cream?

It's not unusual for people to complain about eating too much, but the complaint is often accompanied by whines about bloating and grunts about pain. This discomfort can be some serious stuff! I know I've been there! - and I want to do the best I can to avoid it - short of depriving myself all of the food. Even if it's organic and whole - the combining of those foods can play havoc on our gastrointestinal system.

So what can we do to prepare our own tummy for these treats?

Two things - and you can start right away.

I. - acidophilus
II. - digestive enzymes (Excerpt from Blog November 20)

Additional info:

I. Take your acidophilus or probiotics on a daily basis to help to populate the gut with some good bacteria - the kind that will help balance the eco-terrain of your internal environment. It's important to take these on an empty stomach even - if you read some labels that say to take with food.

Actually, I have found the less expensive acidophilus (the kind they sell in pharmacies or places like CVS) say to take with food. My hit on that is they don't have many or any live cultures in them - if they did, they wouldn't tell you to take with food! Taking a good quality acidophilus on an empty stomach helps ensure that the bacteria will take and not be diluted with food.

Besides taking capsules of acidophilus/probiotics - there are other ways to get these good live cultures into your belly-Yogurt (preferably plain unsweetened) kefir and cultured foods such as cultured vegetables (culturedvegetables.com).