Gut Health Tips for the Holidays

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Holiday meals can delight our taste buds while the food puts real strain on our digestion. Host Kendra Pierre-Louis talks with Northwestern University gastroenterology expert Kathryn Tomasino about why digestion is influenced not just by diet but also by stress, sleep and mindful eating. Together they share practical tips for enjoying Thanksgiving and other holiday feasts without the stomach aches. Recommended Reading Northwestern Medicine Diaphragmatic Breathing for GI Health. Northwestern Medicine, December 5, 2022 This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors. E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Black Friday at Abercrombie is here with 25 to 50% off everything and Spotify listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code Spotify AF. It's the sale you've been waiting for. Shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. 30% off everything valid in stores and online from November 24th, 2025 to December the 1st, 2025 in UK-EU. It excludes clearance and gift cards.
0:21.7	Online price reflects discount.
0:24.1	Use code Spotify AF to get an additional 15% off everything.
0:28.2	In stores and online at checkout from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in the UK-EU.
0:29.2	It includes clearance and gift cards.
0:29.9	See details online. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pier-Lewis, in for Rachel Feltman.
0:51.8	It's mid-November, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which is great news for our taste buds.
0:58.2	But the holiday season may also bring stress that can be hard on our stomachs, causing issues such as bloating, heartburn, or just general feelings of discomfort.
1:07.2	Here to walk us through how we can treat our guts well this time of the year, without skipping
1:11.7	out on the stuffing, is Catherine Tomasino.
1:15.1	Catherine's an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School
1:19.0	of Medicine, who specializes in GI Health.
1:22.8	Thank you so much for joining us today.
1:24.3	I'm really excited for this conversation.
1:26.1	Thank you.
1:27.1	Can you tell me kind of what
1:28.9	piqued your interest in gastroenterology? So I have trained in health psychology. That's always what my
1:36.6	background was. But for almost the last decade, I've been working in gastroenterology, working with people
1:42.8	to help improve symptoms, so digestive symptoms,
1:48.6	and improve coping with chronic digestive illness. And I was interested in it because,
1:55.2	number one, there's just a huge need. And number two, because our treatments really work.
1:59.3	And so you can see people really improving and
	...

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