6 Easy Ways To Avoid Stomach Issues At Your Next Barbecue Party

Believe it or not, Labor Day is just a few weeks away. Many of us celebrate with some sort of backyard cookout with our friends and family. Even though we enjoy all of the yummy food, our tummies don't always feel as joyous.

Nutritional consultant Dr. David Magnano has come out with a few suggestions on how we can ensure that not only our taste buds have a wonderful time at our next outdoor cookout, but that our gastrointestinal system doesn’t suffer any painful “barbeque blowback”, including stomach aches, gas, bloating, belching, and constipation.

Here are Dr. Magnano’s tips for a trouble-free tummy during the 2016 barbecue season:

The brain gets a signal to supply digestive enzymes for whatever food type you eat first. If you start to chew a second and third type of food too early, the signal to produce new enzymes won’t be processed as quickly and the new foods will not be properly digested, causing bloating, gas, heartburn, and stomach pain. Additionally, you won’t get the energy from the food you’re eating because the body will now have to spend energy getting rid of the toxins that are forming from these wrongly mixed foods. Chew each bite slowly, a dozen or more times before swallowing, to trigger the proper enzymes and to aid absorption. Side benefit: You’ll feel full sooner and won’t eat as much.

One huge mistake most people make is eating their steak along with a baked potato or a potato side dish -- mixing heavy starches with heavy proteins. Eat steaks, burgers, and hot dogs first, slowly. Once your steak is pretty well gone, after 15 minutes, have some potatoes. Then, if you want desert, wait about 20 minutes. If you consume heavy sugar or fruit on top of meat or carbohydrate, the fruits and sugars will begin to ferment because they wouldn’t be properly broken down, and that causes a lot of gas.

Don’t eat an assortment of “unfamiliar” foods and food combinations. It’s difficult for your body to signal a need for certain enzymes when your body has never experienced a particular food or food combination before.

If your body is under physical or emotional stress or discomfort it will shut down enzyme production and digestive activity, so any food you eat will not be digested and will ferment in your digestive tract. Don’t eat after baking in the sun; cool down in the pool first.

Certain cultures add garnishes, herbs, and spices to help with digestion, like ginger, which is super for digestion. Others add hot peppers, which are a stimulant to the digestive tract and help the body secrete more hydrochloric acid. Some cultures use turmeric to help digestion. Others add pineapple to their meats, which allows the bromelain in the pineapple to help break down the protein.

As we age, our body’s ability to produce digestive enzymes diminishes. To help break down different types of foods and improve digestion and nutrient absorption, these key enzymes can be taken individually or as a combination supplement (like AbsorbAid).

Health educator Dr. David Magnano is one of the nation's top chiropractic physicians with more than 30 years of clinical practice. A highly popular speaker, he has designed and presented hundreds of wellness workshops for both patients and practitioners where he's addressed a wide range of health issues with a focus on the role that digestion plays in maintaining a healthy immune system.