When it comes to the holidays, we all have different traditions. But there does seem to be one commonality when it comes to Thanksgiving: feeling absolutely terrible after working your way through the turkey and all those sides.

It’s a state that Dr. Trisha Pasricha is familiar with. She’s a gastroenterologist, and she runs a lab studying the gut-brain connection at Harvard Medical School. On Thanksgiving, there’s a good chance you’ll find her working a shift at the hospital. “The classic thing we see is maybe four or five hours after dinnertime is people coming in with food stuck in their throats,” she told Vox. “So then we end up doing endoscopies to help get some of that food out. So the lesson for everyone who’s listening is to chew really carefully.”

Besides chewing our food, what are some other ways to set ourselves up for gastrointestinal success? Pasricha tells us on the latest episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in podcast. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@vox.com or call 1-800-618-8545.

What are things you can do early in the day to set yourself up for success?

First, you have to decide if you are a family that turkey trots together or not. The argument in favor of a turkey trot is........

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