Between appetizers, main dishes, and desserts, Americans tend to put away a lot of food on Thanksgiving Day. The average American will eat 3,000 calories and 150 grams of fat in a single Thanksgiving meal.
Thanksgiving is a special day, so there’s no shame in indulging in sweets and treats you don’t get the chance to enjoy every day. But eating a lot of food in a single meal can have a real downside. It can wreak havoc on the digestive system, and leave us feeling uncomfortably full, sluggish, bloated, and sometimes even sick to our stomachs.
Indulging in one gigantic feast on Thanksgiving won’t have negative long-term health effects. But in the short term, there are ways to indulge in your favorite holiday sweets and treats without feeling miserable.
How Digestive Enzymes Can Aid Thanksgiving Digestion
All living things have enzymes. These enzymes are simply proteins that help speed up metabolism. Enzymes have various jobs in our body, but helping us digest food is one of the most important roles. Enzymes in our saliva, pancreas, intestines, and stomach help break down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates and turn the food we eat into energy.
The most common digestive enzymes are carbohydrase, lipase, and protease, which break down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, respectively.
Several herbs can be incorporated into your Thanksgiving fare to help increase these enzymes in your body. For example, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and papaya extract are excellent at this. In their whole food form, they are also easy to add to many of the recipes you’ll already be using.
Foods high in probiotics, like kombucha, kefir, kimchi, and some yogurts, can also help aid with digestion. Probiotics fuel the good bacteria in your gut so bad bacteria don’t take over. Think of ways to incorporate them into your Thanksgiving meal.
Don’t forget to drink enough water; staying hydrated helps support short- and long-term digestion. Aloe vera whole-leaf juice can help as well.
Digestive System Enzyme Supplements
You might also consider utilizing digestive enzyme supplements to aid Thanksgiving digestion and throughout the year. Look at the three below, from Premier Research Labs, Vital Nutrients, and Thorne Research.
Digest Full-Spectrum Digestive Support – Premier Research Labs
Digest Full-Spectrum Digestive Support from Premier Research Labs is a vegetarian supplement that uses plant-sourced enzymes to help your body break down and digest cooked food. It’s a full-spectrum digestive support supplement, meaning that it helps to break down and digest fats, carbohydrates, protein, and dairy.
This formula contains protease, the enzyme that digests protein; amylase, the enzyme that digests carbohydrates; and lipase, the enzyme that digests fat. When taken with cooked foods, Premier Digest Full-Spectrum Digestive Support supplement provides digestive support and may help cleanse and enhance your body’s ability to produce enzymes.
Pancreatic Enzymes 500 Mg – Vital Nutrients
Pancreatic Enzymes 500 Mg from Vital Nutrients is a full-strength dietary supplement that promotes healthy digestion by supplying enzymes secreted by the pancreas. Each lactose-free two-capsule serving contains 1000 mg of full-strength Pancreatin, providing 223,000 USP units of Protease, 245,000 USP units of Amylase, and 35,500 USP units of Lipase. These enzymes support the normal digestion of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
Dipan-9 – Thorne Research
Dipan-9 from Thorne Research is a lactose-free dietary enzyme supplement that supplies 500 mg pure of pancreatin per capsule for optimal digestive enzyme support. Each lactose-free capsule contains a full spectrum of digestive enzymes – amylase, protease, and lipase – to support the complete and comfortable digestion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Happy Thanksgiving!
