Don’t’ let traveller’s tummy derail your holiday plans. Nutritional Therapist, Sarah Brereton’s simple steps to lower the risks will help you arrive feeling your best.

With the promise of brighter and longer days, we look forward to heading off on holidays at home and abroad for some much-needed R&R. Now really is the time to plan and prepare our bodies for this change in climate, cuisine, water, and travel conditions to prevent issues like abdominal cramping, bloating, nausea, constipation, and diarrhoea, as well as traveller bugs, as these nasty symptoms can ruin a precious holiday. If you are already prone to these symptoms in day-to-day life you may be more easily triggered by different and even minimal travelling factors. I suggest topping up your friendly bacteria in the weeks prior to travel and while away with a high quality microbiotic supplement and have a digestive enzyme supplement to hand with meals on holidays also.

Here are some practical tips I’ve found handy for travelling to different countries; only eat foods cooked to the appropriate temperatures, avoid raw foods if you already have a sensitive tummy, only drink filtered water from a sealed bottle and avoid ice in drinks.

Before flights, avoid gassy and windy food and beverages such as garlic, onions and beans as they can take a long time to digest and lead to bloating and constipation. Drink water on flights, not carbonated drinks, sparkling drinks and remember alcohol can further add to indigestion, bloating and dehydration. Constipation can be a knock-on effect of many factors, like sitting down for hours, feeling tired and stressed for the journey.

On holidays we are less in control of what we eat and when. As we are in ‘holiday mode’ we may have more snacks and desserts, less fibre, and more fats than we would consume if at home, again this can compound any problems.

Consider a microbiotic supplement like Udo’s Choice Super 8 Immune. It is a hi-count microbiotic blend that contains eight strains of lacto and bifido bacteria including lactobacillus acidophilus, rhamnosus, plantarum and bifidobacterium bifidum and longum. Each daily capsule contains 42 billion 'friendly' bacteria plus vitamin C. Udo’s microbiotics can be unrefrigerated for short periods of time, making them convenient for travel.

I always travel with Udo’s Choice Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend, whether in Connemara or Crete! A unique blend of seven plant based digestive enzymes assist in the breakdown of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and fibre. Ensuring meals are fully digested when under stress, eating quickly or eating foods our digestive system is not used to. Take 1 capsule before or just after meals. For heavy meals consume an additional capsule during the meal, up to a maximum of 6 capsules per day.

In Udo’s Choice Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend the enzymes are expressed in guaranteed Food Chemical Codex (FCC) units of activity. This is internationally recognised as the most accurate method to express levels of enzyme potency and activity, making it a high-quality enzyme blend.