It’s not foie gras…
We are there to enjoy ourselves and have fun but to still protect our digestive system a little, there is a festive feast to avoid. No, it’s not foie gras. This flagship product of French gastronomy is not so bad for your health, provided you choose it of high quality (always favor those with a label) and eat it in reasonable quantities. Foie gras contains vitamin A or retinol, necessary for the proper functioning of photosensitive nerve cells and therefore, for vision. Vitamin A also contributes to the proper functioning of the immune system.
On the other hand, be careful with the charcuterie often served as an aperitif. “Charcuterie is a processed product which combines all the components that are difficult to digest: salt, sugar and fat, underlines Sophie Pihan, naturopath. Deli meats are mixtures of saturated fats, which, in combination with gluten or dairy products, are extremely difficult to digest. The perfect example of cold meats to avoid during the holidays is pâté en croute, a combination of red meat and gluten that is much too difficult for the intestines to handle.
Gluten is a processed and refined product, mainly derived from wheat. “Gluten has undergone so many transformations that it is sometimes difficult to digest, because it is not properly recognized and assimilated by our intestines. If you add fatty cold cuts to bread or if you eat pâté en croute, the food bolus will remain in the stomach for a long time. It will secrete a lot of bile and pancreatic lipases, and all the digestive organs will work at full capacity. And if you think that fish rillettes are better, that’s not the case. Same thing for sausage, rosette, meat rillettes, liver pâté or even duck pâté spread on a slice of gluten flour bread… Avoid.
Instead, choose lean cold meats such as grisons meat, speck, fat-free poultry terrine or even homemade monkfish terrine. And if you have eaten too many cold cuts, don’t hesitate to apply a hot water bottle to your liver in the evening. “The main support of the digestive system is hydration. Drinking water is the simplest and most effective advice to apply to digest properly”finally recalls Sophie Pihan.
Thanks to Sophie Pihan, naturopath and member of FENA (French Naturopathy Federation).