Experts Teach You How to Cleanse Your Gut After the Holidays
Introduction: During the holidays, the gastrointestinal system works the hardest—continuously digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing large amounts of high-energy, high-fat, and high-protein meals for days on end, leaving it overwhelmed. Therefore, after the holidays, we should focus on giving our stomachs a good rest. Let's hear what the experts have to say.
During the holidays, the gastrointestinal system works the hardest—continuously handling the heavy task of digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing large amounts of high-energy, high-fat, and high-protein meals for days on end, leaving it overwhelmed. Therefore, in a sense, we should let it rest after the holidays. Some suggest a "vegetarian" diet, while others propose "colon cleansing." However, this is merely shifting from one extreme to another. Such "vegetarian" and "cleansing" approaches are equally detrimental to the gastrointestinal system. Not only do they fail to achieve the goal of "recovery," but they can even "add insult to injury." According to the normal physiological process of human digestion, absorption, and metabolism, the dietary intake during the Spring Festival has already completed its entire cycle. Therefore, so-called "post-holiday adjustments" will have little impact on the previous state of nutritional imbalance (i.e., the high-energy, high-fat, high-protein, and high-cholesterol diet of "big meat, big fish, and lots of oil").
Therefore, we should correct two major misconceptions about post-holiday eating:
Misconception 1: You should eat large amounts of oats, corn, celery, leeks, etc., after the holidays to balance the excess oil consumed during the festival.
If you experienced gastrointestinal discomfort from eating greasy foods during the Spring Festival, then consuming large amounts of oats, corn, celery, leeks, etc., afterward will further worsen the discomfort. These foods are rich in dietary fiber, including a significant amount of insoluble coarse fiber. On one hand, they delay gastric emptying, causing symptoms like bloating, early satiety, belching, indigestion, and reduced appetite. They can even affect the next meal, adding more strain to the intestines that have been "overworked" during the holidays. On the other hand, they can also hinder the absorption of certain macro and trace elements, especially calcium, iron, and zinc.
Misconception 2: The post-holiday diet should be "mainly vegetarian."
A "mainly vegetarian" diet will create a new nutritional imbalance, especially due to insufficient intake of B vitamins, some trace elements, high-quality protein, and essential fatty acids found in animal products.
So, how should you eat after the holidays?
In a nutshell: Let the "excess" nutrients from the holidays "land softly," emphasizing food variety and balance.
1. Four "ones". That is: a certain amount of staple food (for adult men, over 250g; for adult women, over 200g), one bag of milk (250ml), one egg, 500g of vegetables (mainly leafy greens), 50g of bean products, and one fruit (about 300-400g, eaten between meals).
2. Two "threes". Including: 150g of lean meat and 3 tablespoons of oil. The intake of these foods is necessary, but avoid fried foods, fatty meat, and animal organs.
3. You should eat "on time, at a fixed place, and in a fixed amount" regularly. That is, it is extremely important to return to your pre-holiday eating schedule.