For many, holidays are synonymous with quality time and long-standing traditions. Typically laden with delicious foods, it’s not uncommon to eat more during the holidays than you usually would.

You likely know that feeling of being too stuffed – the point when you’re pleasantly satisfied one moment and uncomfortably full the next. On top of that physical discomfort can come extra helpings of guilt for eating more than you wanted or expected.

The physical and psychological pressure of holiday meals can be challenging. As a registered dietitian, I want to assure you that your body knows what to do with that extra food and drink, and that your overall health and well-being are defined by much more than a few days of indulgence. In fact, the experience of eating and sharing food may play a valuable role in creating lasting, positive memories of the holiday season.

Still, if you’ve ever wondered what’s happening inside your body after a big meal, you’re not alone. Understanding a bit about how digestion works can make the post-meal feelings a little less mysterious and a lot less stressful.

Slowing down digestion

Food is made up of three main macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Your gastrointestinal tract uses both mechanical and chemical processes to break down these nutrients into their simplest form so they can be absorbed and used for energy, repair and carrying out biological functions.

When you eat a large holiday meal, you will likely consume more of all the macronutrients than you usually would, in a shorter period of time. The larger quantity of food will require a bit more time to digest, meaning it will move more slowly along your GI tract.

Protein and fats also naturally take longer to break down. While more carbohydrate-rich foods, such as a granola bar or a glass of orange juice, give you a quick burst of energy, adding more protein- and fat-rich foods, such as eggs or chicken, to your meal provides energy that lasts longer.

In this case, the slower digestive process can actually be beneficial for steady energy and appetite control.

Physical discomfort

Rest assured, your digestive system will carry on no matter how big the meal. Rather, the question is how long digestion will take and whether that may cause some temporary discomfort along the way.

When you eat, your stomach stretches to accommodate the food you consumed. As the stomach works to pass food contents into the small intestine, there is an increased chance of heartburn – a backflow of acidic stomach contents that can cause a burning sensation in your chest or sour taste in your mouth. Extra food can also lead to stomach pain, nausea, gas and bloating, as well as a general sluggish feeling.

Even before the first bite, your body begins preparing for digestion. The first sight and smell of food increases your body’s production of saliva and stomach acid in anticipation of the work ahead.

When the workload is greater than usual, your body temporarily expends more energy to fuel the digestive process, both in breaking down macronutrients and in absorbing that fuel for use later. As a result, it is typical to feel more tired after a large meal.

To reduce the physical discomfort of digestion, try staying upright after a meal. While lying down may be tempting, it can increase stomach pain and the risk of heartburn. Give your body time and let gravity work in your favor by staying upright for at least two to three hours after eating. A 10- to 15-minute walk can also be beneficial to the digestive process, increasing stomach contractions and overall blood flow to the GI tract. This can in turn move food out of the stomach and into the small intestine more efficiently.

Moving past food guilt

One day of indulgence alone will not cause permanent weight gain or lasting changes to your physical health. But repeated patterns of food guilt can, over time, lead to an unhealthy relationship to food.

Beyond digestion, the way you think and talk about food can be just as important as how you feel after eating. Food does not have moral value, and yet it is easy to become caught in the habit of labeling foods as “good” or “bad.” This mindset often shows up during the holidays. Think about how often you hear yourself or others say, “I was good all morning so I can eat more tonight” or “I’m going to be bad and have the pie, too.” How you speak about food directly shapes how you feel about eating it and about yourself.

Food can also bring positive emotions and good memories. When your body recognizes a strong emotion tied to a food smell, the emotional center of your brain – the amygdala – alerts the part of your brain that forms and stores long-term memories, your hippocampus. This explains why the smell of grandma’s pie can transport you to a vivid memory.

This holiday season, focus less on the calorie count and more on the company, the laughter, and the scents and flavors that make your traditions special. Eat the foods that bring you comfort and connection; you’re nourishing more than just your body.

Bryn Beeder, Visiting Instructor in Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health, Miami University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

’Tis the season for giving – and that means ’tis the season for shopping. Maybe you’ll splurge on a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal, thinking, “I’ll just return it if they don’t like it.” But before you click “buy,” it’s worth knowing that many retailers have quietly tightened their return policies in recent years.

As a marketing professor, I study how retailers manage the flood of returns that follow big shopping events like these, and what it reveals about the hidden costs of convenience. Returns might seem like a routine part of doing business, but they’re anything but trivial. According to the National Retail Federation, returns cost U.S. retailers almost US$890 billion each year.

Part of that staggering figure comes from returns fraud, which includes everything from consumers buying and wearing items once before returning them – a practice known as “wardrobing” – to more deceptive acts such as falsely claiming an item never arrived.

Returns also drain resources because they require reverse logistics: shipping, inspecting, restocking and often repackaging items. Many returned products can’t be resold at full price or must be liquidated, leading to lost revenue. Processing returns also adds labor and operational expenses that erode profit margins.

How e-commerce transformed returns

While retailers have offered return options for decades, their use has expanded dramatically in recent years, reflecting how much shopping habits have changed. Before the rise of e-commerce, shopping was a sensory experience: Consumers would touch fabrics, try on clothing and see colors in natural light before buying. If something didn’t work out, customers brought it back to the store, where an associate could quickly inspect and restock it.

Online shopping changed all that. While e-commerce offers convenience and variety, it removes key sensory cues. You can’t feel the material, test the fit or see the true color. The result is uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes higher rates of returns. One analysis by Capital One suggests that the rate for returns is almost three times higher for online purchases than for in-store purchases.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the move toward online shopping went into overdrive. Even hesitant online shoppers had to adapt. To encourage purchases, many retailers introduced or expanded generous return policies. The strategy worked to boost sales, but it also created a culture of returning.

In 2020, returns accounted for 10.6% of total U.S. retail sales, nearly double the prior year, according to the National Retail Federation data. By 2021, that had climbed to 16.6%. Unable to try things on in stores, consumers began ordering multiple sizes or styles, keeping one and sending the rest back. The behavior was rational from a shopper’s perspective but devastatingly expensive for retailers.

The high cost of convenience

Most supply chains are designed to move in one direction: from production to consumption. Returns reverse that flow. When merchandise moves backward, it adds layers of cost and complexity.

In-store returns used to be simple: A customer would take an item back to the store, the retailer would inspect the product, and, if it was in good condition, it would go right back on the shelf. Online returns, however, are far more cumbersome. Products can spend weeks in transit and often can’t be resold – by the time they arrive, they may be out of season, obsolete or no longer in their original packaging.

Logistics costs compound the problem. During the pandemic, consumers grew accustomed to free shipping. That means retailers now often pay twice: once to deliver the item and again to retrieve it.

Now, in a post-pandemic world, retailers are trying to strike a balance – maintaining customer goodwill without sacrificing profitability. One solution is to raise prices, but especially today, with inflation in the headlines, shoppers are sensitive to price hikes. The other, more common approach is to tighten return policies.

In practice, that’s taken several forms. Some retailers have begun charging small flat fees for returns, even when a customer mails an item back at their own expense. For example, the direct-to-consumer retailer Curvy Sense offers customers unlimited returns and exchanges of an item for an initial $2.98 price. Others have shortened their return windows. Over the summer, for example, beauty retailers Sephora and Ulta reduced their return window from 60 days to 30.

Many brands now attach large, conspicuous “do not remove” tags to prevent consumers from wearing items and then sending them back. And increasingly, retailers are offering store credit rather than cash or credit card refunds, ensuring that returned sales at least stay within their company.

Few retailers advertise these changes prominently. Instead, they appear quietly in the fine print of return policies – policies that are now longer, more specific and far less forgiving than they once were.

As we head into the busiest shopping season of the year, it’s worth pausing before you click “purchase.” Ask yourself: Is this something I truly want – or am I planning to return it later?

Whenever possible, shop in person and return in person. And if you’re buying online, make sure you familiarize yourself with the return policy.

Lauren Beitelspacher, Professor of Marketing, Babson College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.