Fiber can be a blessing for holiday digestion.

Thanksgiving’s just around the corner, and besides the joy of spending time with beloved family and friends, and expressing gratitude for our many blessings in life, there’s something else to look forward to…food, and lots of it!

Americans consume nearly 740 million pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving, and that’s on top of the plethora of other traditional (and generally carb-laden) side dishes and desserts. With so much food to enjoy, you can sometimes pay the price by being bloated for hours, and worse, backed up for days.

Ideally, food should remain in your system for only twelve to eighteen hours before your colon eliminates it as waste. But, the wrong kind of diet, especially the dishes so synonymous with the holidays, makes it difficult for the colon to do its job. When you eat large amounts of refined carbohydrates or sugar, its gluey, starchy residue binds with mucus to create a layer of hardened feces that builds up on your colon walls. In addition, consuming lots of heavy meat, turkey and dairy products can bury your colon under a load of putrefying protein.

Add this to all the toxins, medications, pollutants and heavy metals already in your system, and your colon can literally weigh you down. You may be carrying extra pounds in excess waste, which from the outside looks like tummy fat, but from the inside is dried, encrusted fecal matter. Adding insult to injury, this encrustation keeps you from getting the most out of the food you eat, preventing your body from fully absorbing and assimilating nutrients. Many people notice that when their colons are cleansed, they can eat a third to half the amount they used to before, yet feel even more satisfied, energized, and nourished.

Thank Goodness for Fiber

We all know that fiber helps to keep food moving swiftly through the GI tract. Fiber binds to belly-bloating yeasts, toxins, unexpelled wastes, and excess fluids. It helps to flush them out of the body like no other “non-nutrient.”

Just as helpful for maintaining a tiny waist, soluble fiber contained in the skins of fruits, root vegetables and seeds, functions as a prebiotic that nurtures the beneficial bacteria. Soluble fiber also provides a feeling of fullness that can help control your appetite.  As probiotics ferment fiber, they form short-chain fatty acids, among their many benefits. These natural substances can inhibit growth of Candida (the fungus among us that can pooch out the belly) and reduce bad bugs like E. coli while helping to heal the digestive tract. Best of all, short-chain fatty acids tamp down inflammation which can contribute to asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 Diabetes.

Super-GI Cleanse, an especially rich soluble fiber supplement, is simply one of the best products I have found to cleanse the GI tract and provide the right kind of fiber that will keep your beneficial bacteria happy and your belly flat. It also offers special herbs which are helpful in maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and act as natural digestive aids to keep pathogenic bacteria away.

Here are some special features of the key ingredients:

• Cranberry powder, a substance rich in organic acids that appear to function as natural digestive enzymes to assist in the elimination of toxic wastes from every organ, tissue, and system, especially the lymphatics. Cranberry powder also helps with pH balance—so critical in protecting us from becoming a breeding ground for microorganisms, yeast, and other toxins.
• Psyllium seed husk fiber, the “carbohydrate gum” found in the cell wall of psyllium, known for its ability to absorb water and speed bowel transit time.
• Flaxseed fiber, an abundant source of lignan precursors, which exhibit properties such as anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activity.
• Apple pectin, the gel-forming properties of which are responsible for lowering cholesterol by binding the cholesterol and bile acids in the gut and promoting their excretion.
• Alfalfa leaves, high in saponins, which help to reduce serum cholesterol levels and possibly reverse atherosclerotic plaque.
• Butternut root bark, known for ages as one of the safest and mildest laxatives while helping in the secretion of bile. Also helps to prevent and ward off worms.
• Fennel seed, a natural digestive aid that helps to eliminate flatulence.
• Peppermint leaves, used for centuries to aid digestion, absorb intestinal gas, inhibit constipation and diarrhea, and stimulate the secretion of bile. Peppermint also has the ability to fight off and eliminate microorganisms such as parasites, influenza, and many other viruses.
• Irish moss, a bulk laxative that soothes and coats the complete GI tract and helps eliminate heavy metals.
• Licorice root, a protector and healer of irritated mucous membranes that also supports adrenal gland function.
• Aniseed, an antispasmodic that helps eradicate bloating and gas.
• A special enzyme blend that targets digestion of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
• A probiotic blend that enhances immunity and helps with the absorption of the B vitamins and vitamin K.

The perfect complement to Super-GI Cleanse is the powdered probiotic formula, Flora-Key. A gut-flushing combo, this dynamic duo works together to support a healthy intestinal environment on a daily basis. Flora-Key contains acidophilus, bifidus and FOS, which makes it an ideal sweetener and a convenient way to take probiotics in your smoothies, yogurt, and on fruits.  Now fortified with the flatulence-fighting L. plantarum flora, take Flora-Key daily to keep the “good” bacteria in, the superbugs out and your tummy tamed throughout the holiday season and beyond.