One of the benefits of being married to a PhD nutritionist is that I get to reap the benefits of delicious food that is also healthy. The reason I say that is because one of people’s biggest hurdles to eating healthy is the fear of the food not tasting good. And during the holidays, there’s no time to gamble on enjoying the biggest meals of the year. 

So, most people will often cheat during the holidays, put on a few extra pounds, and then get back on track in the new year. At least, that’s the ideal scenario for many people. 

The truth is that during the holidays, most of us make choices about where we will compromise for our health in order to be social, enjoy food with family, and not miss out. 

But what if there was a way that you could mitigate some of the poor dietary choices during the holidays? Or better yet, what if you could make many of the same foods but with healthier ingredients? 

This was the focus of my wife’s latest masterclass on how to make the holidays healthier. Here are a few tips from that class that can help you have a healthier holiday season. 

The holidays are a great time for people to get together with family, share a meal, and enjoy the company of those we love. However, this is not always the case for a lot of people.

1. Chew Your Food 

As taught by Dr. Christopher, one of the most important things you can do is to slow down and chew your food. Thoroughly chewing your food can help increase the acid in your stomach to thoroughly digest your food. 

Ideally, we should be able to drink our food down so that our saliva thoroughly mixes with it. The minimum amount of chewing recommended is 30-40 times, depending on the food. I would highly recommend trying this out before the holidays so that you can get used to what it feels like to be chewing that much. It’s certainly a different experience, but I find that I enjoy my food more when I do so. Of course, it can increase how long it takes to eat your food, but this is low hanging fruit in terms of what you can do for your health and the overall cost to you. 

2. Drink Water

Dr. Christopher also taught that we shouldn’t drink water with our meals because it will dilute our digestive juices. This is very true, and it can hamper the body’s ability to properly digest our food. 

However, if we drink about two cups of water about an hour or 30 minutes before we eat, it will actually stimulate our digestion and get our body ready to eat. In fact, it can boost your metabolic rate by up to 30% within an hour. If you’re trying to lose weight, or keep it from developing, drinking water can significantly impact your efforts there. 

Whether it is Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can avoid the problem of overeating by starting your day of right with lots of nutrients and carbohydrates from whole food sources.

Believe it or not, dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale can help stimulate your digestion and provide lots of needed calcium to overcome increased sugar intake. 

3. Alkalize

When we increase our refined sugar and fat intake (like we usually do during the holidays), the body becomes more acidic, which makes it more prone to becoming sick. If we aren’t going to make different dietary choices during the holidays, then the least we should do is to compensate for this increase in acid-forming foods. 

One of the first things I would do is to increase my dark leafy green consumption. Not only are these good for digestion, but they are also excellent sources of dietary calcium. One of my other favorite sources of calcium is Dr. Christopher’s Calc Tea. 

Another thing we might consider is supporting the lymphatic system. Because of the increased acidity, the lymphatic system will have an increased burden, which means the immune system might become overburdened as well. Lymph brushing ought to be a daily activity during the holidays to keep the lymph moving throughout the body. 

We might also want to consider immune-boosting herbs such as echinacea, VRL, Immucalm, elderberry, HMCTN, or whatever herbs and formulas you are drawn to.

Sometimes our health is a game of compromises, especially when family is involved who may or may not be on board with our dietary or health choices. But that doesn’t mean that our health has to suffer if we do make a compromise. The key is to know what you can do so that you can stay on track with your own health goals. Hopefully, this will help us to have a happier holiday season. 

Jordan Gundersen is a Master Herbalist graduate of the School of Natural Healing and is a Diplomate of Holistic Iridology from the International Institute of Iridology. He is the founder of Health Saves Holistic Wellness where he helps people find the root cause of their health problems. You can find Jordan on Instagram @thealfalfamale or by emailing jordan@healthsaves.org.