Tummy Tonic

Styling by Liz Duffy/Photo by Judd Pilossof

After a long season of holiday overindulgence, just looking at a dish of baked Brie makes a belly ache. For post-feast relief, many chefs swear by shots of the stomach-settling digestif  Fernet-Branca. But Dante de Magistris, chef-owner of Dante and Il Casale, prefers the preventive approach. Before eating, he drinks a two-to-one mixture of absinthium (a blend of blessed thistle, centaury, juniper berry, peppermint leaf, wormwood, anise fruit, elecampane root, anise hyssop, and sage root) and artichoke extract. “I put 30 to 40 drops in an ounce of warm water and down it,” says de Magistris, who gets both the ingredients from Cambridge holistic center East-West Health Services. “I don’t get that sluggish feeling you get after eating a big meal.” So, little-known remedy or hocus-pocus? The new year is the perfect time to find out.

5A Lancaster St., Cambridge, 617-547-4133, eastwesthealth.info.