‘Tis the season for overdoing it.
Sometimes, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs — and the holidays are prime time for stuffing your face and quickly regretting it.
If you’ve already feasted enough to make a Santa suit feel a bit snug, there are a few drinks you can chase it down with to help settle your stomach, stat.
Ginger tea
Ginger is a powerhouse ingredient for digestive issues. Numerous studies have shown it can reduce nausea, vomiting, bloating and gas.
Gingerols and shogaols — two active compounds in ginger — can relax stomach muscles and stop the cramping that leads to farting and throwing up. That’s good news for you and whoever you share a bathroom with.
Ginger also speeds up gastric emptying — meaning how everything makes it’s way through and out of your stomach — to get you back to normal.
“As a dietitian who has always struggled with gut issues, ginger tea is one of my go-to remedies. I always recommend a soothing ginger tea with lemon and honey to help ease stomach pain and discomfort,” Crystal Orozco, RD, told EatingWell.
Fennel tea
The fennel plant contains anethole, which relaxes intestinal muscles — so using the seeds in water or tea can relieve gas, stomach pain and muscle cramps.
It’s also been shown to make you poop more, moving all that excess food out of your system faster. If your issues are more chronic, it may help with IBS as well.
Lemon water
Squeeze some lemon juice into your tea or a glass of water — it can significantly speed up how quickly your stomach empties. In fact, one study found it increased the rate by 1.5 times.
But it’s also acidic, so don’t go overboard — and if you have acid reflux or GERD that’s acting up, you may want to avoid it altogether.
Baking soda in water
Perhaps the least tasty of the bunch, water with a bit of baking soda may be the quickest fix to reduce acid if you’re feeling heartburn, queasiness or the urge to hurl.
“Some people find that drinking water with a spoonful of baking soda helps relieve indigestion,” Jennifer Christman, a registered dietitian nutritionist, told The Skimm. “That’s because baking soda — which is sodium bicarbonate — is a base that can, if used in certain quantities, lower the pH of an acidic solution.”
Just make sure you’re not overdoing it, since too much baking soda can actually cause diarrhea and vomiting. A quarter teaspoon will do.
It’s also definitely not meant to be an everyday remedy, as using it too regularly will increase your sodium intake
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