In this festive month of December, many families are already thinking about the holiday meals that will be placed on the tables for Christmas and New Year's Eve. It is not rare to see in the plates of our guests mixtures as well as food associations very indigestible and rich in fat, sugar but also in salt of all kinds.
Turkeys, foie gras, chocolate cake, Christmas log or the so famous tartiflette which warms up or the raclette which allies melted cheese and delicatessen. So many dishes that knock out our digestive system.

We are indeed far from the frugality that we should show to protect our body.

However, we don't celebrate Christmas every day and some deviations are obviously allowed. Naturopathy does not wish to put the individual in a sectarianism whether it is food or other and therefore, the convivial meals are also part of a balance related to the well-being and health.
To forbid some deviations could, in any case, cause other disorders much more rooted in us. These would then be more difficult to remove in the long term.

Let's talk about orthorexia, for example, which places the individual in a situation that forces him - obsessively - to eat in a dietary correct way continuously, without allowing himself any deviation whatsoever. In some cases, people in pain forget about their social lives, preferring the daily menus they enjoy, free of dietary irregularities.

So let's not get carried away with the extremes and enjoy these festive moments that are approaching. Of course, if you are used to a healthy diet all year round, big party meals can be scary and you might fear, not for your scale that might show you a few extra pounds, but for your digestive system that might have trouble digesting those dishes that are too fatty, too rich and too sweet.

Natural methods can be put in place to help you. Let us turn today to the essential oil of lemon. Used as a first aid, this essential oil is the best remedy to face digestive abuses.

Lemon oil as first aid

The essence of lemon (in fact, it is wrong to call it essential oil because it was not extracted by distillation but by extraction. It is rich in monoterpenes (limonene) and will be of great help to clean the liver and purify the digestive system. Understand therefore that to overcome the negative effects of the aftermath of holidays rich in foods unsuitable for our body, lemon is really the perfect essence.

Its qualities are numerous and very interesting because it also has the capacity to facilitate the drainage and therefore the digestion and the storage of fats.

To make it simple and straight to the point: lemon essential oil is a depurative of the liver, gallbladder and pancreas. Thanks to its capacity to evacuate the bile more easily towards the intestine, it will facilitate the digestion in general. It is also very effective in case of nausea.

How to use this lemon elixir?

Since it is not recommended to use it pure on the skin because of its photo-sensitizing properties. Indeed, it could burn the skin and bring brown spots if sun exposure - even a winter sun - follows the application on the skin. We therefore advise not to use it in local massage on the digestive area, i.e. the stomach-liver-intestine area.

We therefore prefer an oral intake: in fact, we recommend taking one drop of lemon essential oil on an empty stomach. You can put it on a neutral tablet, a spoon of olive oil, a spoon of honey or an organic cane sugar. The last two solutions are the least suitable for the situation because sugar would worsen your digestive condition and therefore would not contribute to the positive effect of lemon on your body.

Still, even if lemon is the miracle cure, remember to please your taste buds but don't overdo the good stuff. Don't we say "excess is bad for everything"?

Let's hear it...