Bloated Stomach? Here’s What to do About it.

Bloating. It’s a very common problem which affects most of us at some time or other. However, unfortunately a lot of the time it can be persistent, uncomfortable and even escalate as the day goes on.  Read on discover what may cause a bloated stomach, and some simple home remedies to try.

Often clients will complain that their clothes fitted them perfectly well in the morning when they were getting ready for their day, but by the time the afternoon rolls around they feel as though they’re six months pregnant and bursting out of their clothes.  Not nice at all. Luckily, in most cases the dreaded bloating can be alleviated by making a few simple changes to your diet and routine.

(If you’ve got persistent bloating that won’t shift, no matter what you try, then always pop along to your GP to get them to check it out).

What causes a bloated stomach?

In most cases it boils down to one or more of the following –

Insufficient breakdown of carbohydrates and sugars

This is due to a lack of enzymes needed to do this. You may have heard of the low FODMAP diet – this method involves removing the harder to digest carbohydrates from your diet, temporarily alleviating symptoms. It’s not a method I recommend using for too long as there are far too many very healthy and delicious foods which are high in FODMAPs! It’s far more beneficial to unearth why you’re not digesting these foods efficiently.

Poor protein digestion

This may also be due to a lack of enzymes.

Disturbances in your gut microbiome

In other words, too many non-beneficial species and not enough of your beneficial species. There are a few strains of bacteria that are notorious for causing excessive bloating. Not only that, but they can damage your delicate gut-lining and hinder your absorption of vital nutrients. Gut testing can reveal whether or not you have excessive levels of these.

Yeast overgrowth

Particularly candida, can cause bloating among other numerous symptoms.

Food allergies or intolerances

The easiest way to determine whether or not a suspect food is aggravating your system is to remove it from your diet for a week or two and see if your symptoms subside. You may then like to try reintroducing it very slowly to see what happens. Dairy and gluten-containing foods commonly cause bloating and other issues for people. (Needless to say don’t try this with foods you have a known severe allergy to).

Dehydration

You may notice your bloating is much worse if, for example, you’ve been out for the evening eating salty food or drinking more wine than usual. Although it seems counter-intuitive drinking more water will help things flow much more easily through your digestive system.

SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)

This is when you have bacteria living in the wrong part of your intestine. We want the bulk of your bacteria residing happily in your large intestine. If it starts migrating up to your small intestine you may get some very uncomfortable symptoms, including bloating. Testing will show whether or not this is causing your symptoms.

If you’d like to learn more about eating to alleviate bloating, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support your digestive system whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Most importantly, how do we alleviate a bloated stomach?

Fibre

You want to be aiming for 25-30 grams of fibre each day in your diet. If your diet contains a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits, together with plenty of legumes such as lentils and chickpeas, whole grains (if you tolerate them) along with nuts and seeds you’re probably on the right track with your fibre intake. If you know you’re off-track and you’re getting plagued with bloating this would be a great place to start. Increase your fibre intake very slowly though, to allow your gut to get used to it.

Herbs & Spices

Have plenty of delicious herbs and spices on hand! My favourite is by far chamomile tea – it’s superb for so many ailments, including anything gut related. Two or three cups should help to bring balance back for you. Other useful ones to have to hand are ginger (in all its forms – fresh, diced into a cup of boiled water is great, as is tea), mint and fennel.