Everyone experiences stomach issues like heartburn, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation from time to time. The last place you want to deal with these issues is on vacation.
When stomach issues arise, they can dampen your day and throw your vacation plans off track. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Fortunately, making a healthy diet and lifestyle choices can improve digestion and avoid unwanted symptoms. This article will highlight the tips and tricks you can use to prevent stomach issues on vacation.
8 Tips to Prevent Stomach Issues
Keep reading to learn how certain diet and lifestyle choices can impact your digestive health.
1. Stay Hydrated
Drinking plenty of fluids on vacation can help you avoid a sluggish digestive system. Water is a vital part of digestion. It helps break down food, absorbs nutrients, softens stools, and stimulates bowel movements.
Staying hydrated makes bowel movements easier to pass and can prevent constipation and hemorrhoids. Drinking water also helps flush your colon of toxins and carcinogens, which may even reduce your risk of colon cancer.
You should drink water before, during, and after meals to stay hydrated and enhance digestion.
2. Eat Whole Foods
Ideally, most of your meals should consist of whole foods and contain a smaller amount of processed foods. Whole foods are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They also have a good balance of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats to fuel your body.
Heavily-processed foods like soda, candy, potato chips, donuts, and cookies usually contain unhealthy fats, sugars, and additives that can upset your stomach. For example, greasy foods take longer to digest and delay stomach emptying. This can lead to bloating, nausea, and abdominal pain.
Eating too many added sweeteners, such as xylitol and mannitol, can cause diarrhea. This is because sugar alcohols are poorly absorbed in the digestive tract. They also pull fluid into the colon, which can cause watery diarrhea.
3. Consume Enough Fiber
Fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and lentils are excellent sources of fiber. Eating enough fiber can help your digestive system run smoothly.
Adding fiber to your diet can improve the frequency and consistency of bowel movements. Fiber absorbs water, which bulks and softens stools. This can prevent constipation or hard, painful stools. If you’re feeling backed up on vacation, eating more fiber may help get things moving.
Men 50 years or younger should consume at least 38 grams of fiber daily, and men over 50 should consume at least 30 grams daily. Women 50 years or younger should consume at least 25 grams of fiber daily, and women older than 50 should consume at least 21 grams daily.
4. Eat Probiotic Foods
Eating probiotic foods on vacation may support digestion. Probiotics are live bacteria or yeast that naturally occur in fermented foods. These foods are also usually rich in vitamins, minerals, and prebiotic fiber.
Natural sources of probiotics include:
- Yogurt
- Kimchi
- Kefir
- Kombucha
- Sauerkraut
- Miso
- Tempeh
- Pickles
- Sourdough bread
- Aged soft cheese
- Acidophilus milk
Research on probiotics in humans is sparse. But there’s evidence that probiotics may help alleviate digestive symptoms such as abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, and nausea.
5. Stay Physically Active
Getting regular physical activity can improve digestion. Whether you enjoy exercising at the hotel gym, doing yoga on the beach, or exploring your destination on foot, there are many ways to stay active on vacation. Your digestive system will thank you for it.
Light or moderate exercise increases blood flow to the muscles in the digestive tract, which helps regulate bowel movements and reduces the risk of constipation.
Staying physically active also has the added bonus of boosting the health of gut bacteria. This has lasting benefits for digestion and keeps your system functioning correctly.
6. Manage Stress
Vacations should be relaxing and stress-free. But sometimes the stress of traveling can get the better of you. It can be challenging for your body to adjust to different eating or sleeping schedules. Getting stuck in traffic or crowded airports can also send your stress hormones soaring.
All of these factors can stress your digestive system and increase inflammation in the gut. Stress can lead to physical symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.
Finding healthy ways to manage stress can work wonders for your digestive health. The following stress-management techniques can help you enjoy your vacation with minimal stress:
- Practice calming strategies such as deep breathing or meditation
- Make time for daily exercise
- Get a good night’s rest
- Arrive at the airport early to avoid rushing to catch your flight
- Plan out your itinerary ahead of time to avoid last-minute hassles
7. Eat Mindfully
Being mindful about your eating habits on vacation can save you the pain of unwanted stomach issues. You should always eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly to improve digestion. Digestion begins when your teeth and saliva break down food into small pieces. This allows the digestive enzymes in the stomach to digest food better.
Eating mindfully also involves listening to your body. You should eat until you’re satisfied but stop when full. An overfilled stomach can cause discomfort.
You should also avoid snacking right before bed. Eating late at night can cause heartburn and indigestion. When you lay down, the contents of your stomach press against the lower esophageal sphincter. This makes it more likely for stomach acid and undigested food to flow backward into the esophagus. Acid reflux can produce burning chest pain, known as heartburn.
8. Don’t Overindulge
It can be tempting to overindulge on vacation, but it’s best to enjoy food and alcoholic beverages in moderation.
Drinking alcohol increases stomach acid and can heighten your risk of heartburn and acid reflux. Especially if you drink a lot of it. Overeating can also cause heartburn and other stomach issues, such as bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.
Consuming large meals can stretch out your stomach and increase pressure on your abdominal organs. What’s more, filling your stomach with too many unhealthy foods like saturated fats, sugars, and additives can make your stool too hard or too watery.
Don’t Let Stomach Issues Get You Down
Stomach issues shouldn’t spoil your vacation. Whether you experience occasional or frequent digestive symptoms, there’s a solution to your problem.
Staying hydrated and eating a plant-based, whole foods diet that’s rich in fiber can transform your digestive health. Healthy lifestyle choices such as staying active, managing stress, and eating mindfully are also helpful for optimizing digestion.
If these tips don’t provide relief from your stomach issues, you should see a doctor to diagnose and treat the root of your problem. Persistent symptoms may be a sign that something more serious is going on. For any digestive health concerns, you can request an appointment online or call our office at (806) 696-4440.
