Halloween Gut Health: Preparing Your Digestion

Starting with Halloween, the holiday season can be a test to a diet, healthy lifestyle, and especially your gut health. Eating too much sugar is the primary culprit that fuels inflammation and damages your digestion, immunity, and overall health. Here’s how you can strengthen your gut and stay healthy without derailing your winter wellness goals.  

Refined sugar is enemy number one for your health, and finding ways to minimize its impacts—especially the fall and winter holidays—is one of the keys to long-term vitality, optimal weight, and healthy aging.  

• Blood sugar and insulin spikes and crashes 
• Inflammation in the gut and throughout your body 
• Damage to the gut lining and overall digestive function 
• Overgrowth of harmful bacteria and microbes in the gut microbiome 
• Reduced mood and cognitive function  

These sugar-related issues can impact how you feel and look— from your energy and immune health, to your skin, weight, mental health, and more.  

Prepare your gut with nutritious foods leading up to eating your Halloween sweets. Eating fiber-rich snacks and foods including whole grains and legumes, or fresh green vegetables before you reach for a piece of candy or other sugary treat, can slow the release of glucose into your blood stream and limit inflammation caused by eating refined sugar. Fiber also improves overall digestive health and bowel regularity, and helps to detoxify the gut, while supporting a healthy microbiome.¹  

One of the primary ingredients to good digestion is water. Many of us are chronically dehydrated, so be sure to drink plenty of filtered water or herbal teas. Adequate hydration can curb excessive food cravings, especially for sweets. It can also help flush out toxins and free radicals that come from eating too much refined foods.² 

There are a variety of natural remedies that can help improve digestion, including certain aromatic herbs known as “bitters” that strengthen digestion and promote long-term health. These include ginger, chamomile, mint, fenugreek, juniper, licorice, and many others. The essential oils and compounds that produce the bitter flavor help to stimulate digestive enzymes and overall digestive function, soothe discomfort, and support a healthy gut environment.

Probiotic supplements supply healthy bacteria and microbes to the digestive tract, and can be especially important for protecting against the impacts of sugar and other dietary indulgences. Many friendly probiotic bacteria strains consume sugars for their own fuel, so they can be a helpful antidote to support blood glucose when we eat too many sweets. They also help to rebalance the microbiome when bad bacteria gain a foothold, while supporting a healthy gut environment. Importantly, probiotics are shown to support a healthy mood and cognitive function, which may help combat the effects of a sugar crash.³ 

ecoProbiotic is a certified organic probiotic supplement that has 8 live beneficial strains, 19 different digestive bitter herbs, plus prebiotic fiber to nourish good bacteria—fermented in an organic berry liquid formula. As a live-fermented drink, ecoProbiotic works quickly to deliver fast-acting gut support and microbiome balance, with additional benefits for healthy digestion, immunity, mood and brain health, and overall wellness.

Halloween can be a time of fun and celebration, without the added stress and discomfort that comes from overindulgence in sweets and other holiday foods. By adopting a mindful approach and preparing with digestive support, we can avoid common gut issues, prevent weight gain, and increase our energy for celebrating the joy of holiday traditions.   

Sources

1. McRae MP. Dietary Fiber Intake and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses. J Chiropr Med. 2018;17(1):44-53. doi:10.1016/j.jcm.2017.11.002
2. 10 Warning Signs of Dehydration. Kaiser Permanente Website. Updated 2021. Accessed Oct 19, 2021.
3. Yong SJ, Tong T, Chew J, Lim WL. Antidepressive Mechanisms of Probiotics and Their Therapeutic Potential. Front Neurosci. 2020;13:1361.