Do you Suffer from BLOATING?
Everyone has suffered from it before - That dreadful bloating feeling in your stomach. Bloating makes our insides feel uncomfortable and makes our stomachs stick out that extra inch - so how can we prevent it?! There are a ton of different reasons why you could be feeling bloated whether it is how you are eating, what you are eating or your overall gut health.
Here are my top 7 tips to help you avoid bloating to get your stomach back to feeling and looking great!
1. Probiotics
Probiotics are a great supplement to take in order to keep your gut healthy. The health of your gut is super important for many reasons as it plays a huge role in your overall health - you can learn more about gut health HERE. When it comes to gas and bloating, something that can cause this is an unhealthy gut. Your gut becomes unhealthy when the bacteria and microbes inside it become unbalanced. Probiotics can help to balance out these microbes. You can get more probiotics into your body in 2 ways, either you can use a probiotic supplement or you can incorporate more foods into your diet that contain probiotics, such as bananas, garlic and yogurt. By incorporating more probiotics into your daily diet or routine, you can help to improve your gut health which can help reduce or eliminate bloating.
2. Food intolerances & sensitivities
Sometimes you can be faced with gas and bloating because your body has an intolerance or sensitivity to specific foods. Some of the most common food group intolerances are gluten, lactose/dairy or fructose/sugar. To find out if you have an intolerance or sensitivity to a specific food group, try to cut out each group for a week or so and see how you feel. If you continue to feel gassy and bloated,then try cutting out the next food group the following week and so on. If you stop feeling bloated after any of these ‘test’ weeks then you can adjust your diet from there to help reduce any gas or bloating in the future.
If you are still feeling discomfort try looking into FODMAPs. FODMAPs are a specific group of carbs that are hard to digest for a lot of people. Some foods that FODMAPs are common in are fructose, lactose, and polyols (certain sugar alcohols). FODMAPs tend to cause bloating, gas and stomach pains only in certain people. In order to figure out if FODMAPs are causing your gas and bloating, try cutting out these foods and see how you feel.
3. Salt
Who else loves their salt?! Salt is a great spice to help add a little bit of flavour to your food. Although salt is tasty, too much of it can be the reason you are feeling some gas and bloating. As you might already know, salt makes us feel dehydrated because it makes us RETAIN water. Water retention can cause us to feel gas and bloating! In order to help reduce water retention, try reducing the amount of sodium in your diet!
4. GET ACTIVE!
Physical activity is good for many different reasons and can make us feel more energized, strong and happy - but did you know that it can also help reduce your gas and bloating?! How is this possible?! Getting active can actually help your body move gas or stool out of the body. If we are not going to the bathroom regularly, we can become constipated, which causes more gas and bloating! By exercising, you can avoid constipation and therefore avoid getting gas or bloat!
Exercising can also help reduce the amount of sodium in our bodies which can reduce water retention and overall, reduce gas and bloating!
5. Avoid eating too fast
Are you eating too fast?! If you are feeling gas and bloating, you could be! Most commonly, we are told to eat slower to avoid overeating - which can be an issue too, but did you know that fast eating can also cause gas and bloating?! When we eat too fast, we could be swallowing extra air into our stomachs. This extra air can cause our stomach to swell which can cause gas and bloating! As mentioned above, eating too fast can cause us to overeat, eating too much at a time can cause our stomachs to become too full which is another leading cause of gas and bloating. To avoid this, try playing more attention to how fast you are eating, take time to chew and enjoy each and every bite!
6. Foods that cause Gas
There are specific foods that can cause us to feel gas and bloating. Some foods, especially foods high in fibre, contain a substance called raffinose. Raffinose is a substance that our bodies need to breakdown, in that breakdown process, gas is produced. Foods that contain high fibre and or raffinose are beans, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc. This is especially important for anyone incorporating more vegan or vegetarian dishes into their diets. Since you will be eating more fibrous foods, you can be faced with extra gas and bloating. Not to worry though, your body will adjust and the gas and bloating will reduce once you are used to a high fibre diet.
7. Drink more WATER!
Drinking a lot of water is crucial for your overall health and is important to incorperate into your daily routine for many reasons, but did you know water can also help reduce gas and bloating? As mentioned above constipation is one of the leading causes of gas and bloating. Drinking more water can help reduce the chances of you becoming constipated, therefore helping to reduce gas and bloating!
There you have it squadies! My top 7 tips to help you reduce gas and bloating!