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Dietitian Approved 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Digestive Health

A smiling woman sitting down to eat a healthy green salad.
Dietitian Approved 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Digestive Health Featured Image

With the holiday season fast approaching, you may be wondering what gifts you can give your gut to breeze through the holidays. It can be a challenging time of year if you have GI issues! Or perhaps you have a friend or family member you’re shopping for who has digestive woes. This time of year can be filled with stress, alcohol, fatty foods and carbonated beverages. All of which can be triggers for an IBS episode! For the 2023 holiday season, Ignite Nutrition has your gut covered. Here are some of our favourite gut-friendly gifts to get you through these exhausting times.

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Revenue from Amazon affiliate links help us to keep our blog going!

three gift boxes with bows sitting on a wooden floor and a beige rug

Having a flare up? We can help!

Here is Ignite Nutrition’s 2023 holiday gift guide to help treat your bowels with kindness

Squatty Potty

Great poops start with great positioning. This small but mighty addition to your bathroom will allow you to elevate your poops to a whole new level. By raising the feet, it creates a more natural position. Where the colon can relax and make it easier to eliminate bowel movements. Our ancestors used to squat over a hole in the ground. So, it only makes sense that creating our own version of the ‘squat position’ can help with evacuating! Great for anyone, but especially those who tend to get constipated or strain when pooping.

Get your squatty potty here! For those who want something a bit more stylish, they even have a slim teak wood design. You don’t have to compromise design for function!

White squatty potty

Fibre

Have you heard that fibre is your friend? After one of those heavy meals during the holidays, you may find yourself in need of a good ol’ fibre boost to keep the bowels moving and grooving. Not to mention, our favourite holiday foods like cookies, candy, and grandma’s famous fruitcake don’t always have a lot of fibre in them! Psyllium fibre, such as metamucil, helps to add a bit of bulk to your poops and make it easier to pass. It’s a great regulator for both constipation and diarrhea. It can soften stool and can also soak up extra water in the bowels of those who are more diarrhea prone. However, it is important to make sure you are drinking enough water, or it could worsen constipation. By adding some extra fibre to your daily routine over this winter season, you may find it improves your digestion. There are lots of different types of fibre and psyllium is only one. So, if you’re not sure what would work best for you, ask a dietitian or your family doctor!

Plastic container of Metamucil

Heating Pads

Overdid it on the gravy? A little bit too much stress from having the same conversation AGAIN with your family? One solution to soothe some of that immediate pain is to utilize a heating pad. Of course, as dietitians we always find a way to make it food related – as this heating pad is made of rice and flax. Of course, we do not recommend eating the rice and flax from the heating pad. BUT, rice and flax seed are foods that can be consumed while following a Low FODMAP diet.

Woman in white shirt holding purple heating pad.

IBS Cookbooks

The Low FODMAP diet can be an effective tool to help manage IBS symptoms. Ignite’s dietitians are experts in this area. We would love to discuss this in depth with you to better manage your IBS. However, there are also MANY IBS and low FODMAP cookbooks out there to help you navigate this particular diet. We’ve chosen a couple of our favourites that we love to recommend to our clients. Using these Low FODMAP cookbooks to find ways to create new holidays memories with your loved ones may provide options that will ease your gut and also pack a flavour punch!

Get The IBS Elimination Diet and Cookbook here.

Food photos for the IBS Elimination Diet and Cookbook

and The 28-Day Plan for IBS Relief here.

The 28-Day Plan for IBS Relief cover

Poo-pourri

Sometimes we can do everything right. We manage our stress and limit our trigger foods, but can still get an IBS flare up. If you’re in a pinch, this poo-pourri spray can limit any funky smells that may come from a bathroom visit. We hope by having this de-odorizing tool in your toolkit, it can decrease some stress around the holidays.

A bottle of Poo-Pourri

FODY Bars

The lines around the holidays are known to be notoriously long. Especially if you are a fan of Boxing Day deals. It can be helpful to store Low FODMAP snacks, like FODY granola bars in your pocket for when you spend a bit too long away from home and need a snack (like when you’re shopping til you drop). If you don’t have a snack and you are out and about, it is possible to eat out on a low FODMAP diet too. It just involves a bit of extra planning.

Dark Chocolate Fody Granola Bar in wrapper

Hopefully this guide gave you some ideas on how to treat your gut nicely over the holiday season. Or perhaps you’ve been inspired to give a gut friendly gift to someone special in your life! If you are finding you need extra support with your digestive symptoms, book with one of our registered dietitians here.

In case you missed the links above here’s our quick guide for your shopping:

Happy Shopping!

three gift boxes with bows sitting on a wooden floor and a beige rug

Categorized: Gut Health & IBS, Low FODMAP

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