Tips To Improve Your Digestion In The Winters

The winter season relieves long summers and presents us with fantastic, pleasant weather. As the winter settles in, we need to stay indoors and snuggle up and enjoy the comfort of our blankets. It is the best time to enjoy winter dishes, but our metabolism slows down in winter. Our bodies, being continuously exposed to cold weather, focus more on conserving heat and energy. This slows down our metabolism hence affecting our digestive systems, making stomach problems quite common.

Eating the right kind of food is important to keep digestion smooth. Decreased activity in cold weather, along with comforting calorie bombs, can intensify gastrointestinal conditions.

Here are some tips for managing your gut health and improving digestion in winter:

Consume Winter or Seasonable Vegetables

It is always recommended to eat seasonal vegetables. Winter brings with it a tremendous variety of vegetables that are great for your gut health. It consists of root vegetables like carrots, potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, etc.

Beetroots boost your immune system. Green leafy vegetables like Mustard Greens, Spinach, Fenugreek, Bathua, Cholai, etc., are packed with high fibre content that regulates your bowel movement and digestion. Consuming food with high fibre content keeps you full for a longer time hence, decreasing your urge to consume more unhealthy foods. These foods are important to regulate your blood sugar levels in winter. Include these vegetables in our soups, stews, curries, and broth. Try to consume hot and cooked foods in winter; since metabolism is slow in winter, it is difficult for your digestive system to break down cold and raw foods.

Take Warm Water and Hot Beverages

Warm drinks are obviously enjoyable in cold weather. Sipping warm water after getting up in the morning promotes good digestion. Drinking warm water 30 minutes before consuming heavy food can clean your digestive system.

You must prefer tea over cocoa & sugary drinks to maintain good gastrointestinal health. Hot tea is tasty, and you need not worry about sugar levels that can upset your digestion. You can add some herbs and spices to your tea to give you a kick of flavour, and this will also enhance your immune system as well. Ginger and peppermint tea also improves digestion.

Do Exercises

Exercising on a regular basis not only helps in improving physical health but also your gut health. It keeps cholesterol levels checked, which is important for a healthy heart. It might not seem very feasible to exercise outdoors due to cold weather, but getting exposed to sunlight will provide you with the needed warmth. You can exercise indoors and let your body warm up. Exercise improves blood circulation, which further improves digestion. It is also recommended in winter to avoid joint and muscle pain.

Stress also has a negative impact on the digestive system. Physical exercise, along with yoga and meditation, efficiently reduces stress. You can try other activities too that you enjoy, in order to reduce your stress.

Stay Hydrated

Cold weather leads to a decrease in our fluid intake. This is not good for our digestive system. Lack of water stiffens the intestines making it difficult to pass food. This also leads to constipation. It is essential to keep yourself hydrated for the smooth movement of food and excretion. Drinking water will help you eliminate toxins from your body that can hamper your immunity. Water-based vegetables like tomatoes and radishes are also very beneficial.

Add Ghee to Your Daily Diet

In north India, many people use Ghee to prepare different winter delights, like Gondh ke laddoo, Panjiri, and Moong dal ka Halwa, to keep their bodies warm & their immune systems strong in winter. In cold nippy weather, Ghee supports the immune system in addition to the functionality of the digestive system. It has fat-soluble vitamins that aid in weight loss. Ghee helps in balancing hormones and maintaining healthy cholesterol. It also helps healthy gut bacteria, which helps in smooth digestion. In most Indian households, Ghee has been replaced with refined oils, which are considered a blunder by many nutritionists and health practitioners.

High-fibre Diet

Taking high-fibre food with your meal regulates and boosts digestion, and along with this, they keep your blood sugar in level. High-fibre food maintains heart health by reducing the risk of brain stroke and hypertension. A good diet highly rich in fibre helps us to maintain our weight by keeping us full for a longer duration and curbing unwanted cravings. You can get fibre intake from many seasonal vegetables and fruits like carrots, radishes, guava, and apples. You must avoid the intake of processed and junk food and foods high in sugar content. These slow down your digestion process and cause bloating as they do not provide the nutrients and enzymes needed to digest food.

Take Herbs & Spices in Your Food

To keep your body warm and also boost your digestion in the nippy winter season, you should add spices and herbs to your food. Spices and herbs like turmeric, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamon, etc., are well known to help or boost your digestion and also trigger your digestive fire, which helps in the strengthening of your immune system. Many people use these herbs and spices in their daily tea or warm beverages like Desi Kadha, Soups, and Broth which they take in winter with curries and desserts.

Conclusion

Winter brings itself cravings to consume spicy, hot dishes, and we feel hungry often and consequently consume more food. All these factors have a negative impact on our digestive system. Fortunately, winter also brings a variety of fibrous vegetables that are a blessing to our digestive system.

Follow the above tips to maintain your gut health. Along with these tips, getting good sleep is also important for your gut health. It leads to better stress management, fewer hormone fluctuations, and controlling obesity. However, if you have a chronic problem with digestion, you can consult the certified gastrointestinal doctors at Omni Hospital. The medical professionals & staff at Omni Hospital possess years of experience and always resort to the patient-centric approach. They are highly qualified in treating basic to chronic problems while providing precise medical advice.