PREVIEW

How festivals can impact your gut health. Summer festivals usually mean disrupted sleep, late nights, unhealthy food, port-a-potties and limited washing facilities. While this may seem like an adventure, it could have a negative impact on your gut health. Adrienne Benjamin, nutritionist at ProVen Biotics, reveals the biggest festival gut health offenders and how you can counteract their effects. Poor diet Festival food, often consisting of burgers, chips and pizza, may be delicious, but it's not nutritious. ”The bacteria in our microbiome feed off high-fibre foods such as legumes, whole grains and lots of vegetables and these can be in short supply at some festivals and it can be difficult to find healthy options and particularly to get the recommended vegetable quota each day.” "Doing your best to limit your intake of processed and sugary foods, taking some healthy long-life snacks with you, such as low-sugar protein bars, nuts and dried fruit, and getting back on track as soon as you get home, can all help to minimise the impact of the lack of food choices.” Dehydration Many festivalgoers will find themselves drinking more alcohol than usual and forgetting to drink water, which can lead to dehydration and gut health problems. ”Water helps keep the food moving through your intestines. When you're dehydrated, you're at an increased risk of constipation as the water in the body gets diverted out of the bowel for other essential functions, leaving the stool dry, hard and difficult to pass and contributing to other digestive symptoms, such as bloating.” "Try to match each of your alcoholic drinks with at least one large glass of water to help prevent dehydration.” Sleep It's hard to get a good night's sleep at a camping festival “When you don’t get enough sleep, your stress hormone cortisol rises and this can impact digestive function, which is downgraded when our body perceives that it needs to divert energy to dealing with the stress.” "This can lead to a variety of gut symptoms, including bloating, constipation and stomach pains.” THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT