Abdominal bloating is a very common digestive problem among my clients. Bloating can cause pain, cramping, and the discomfort of your clothes fitting too tightly. Bloating can be experienced all throughout the abdomen such as around or below your navel, under your ribs, or even higher into your chest area. You can feel normal in the morning but then feel like you’re 6 months pregnant by the evening!
Bloating is a typical sign that something is imbalanced in the digestive tract. Here are my top 8 reasons you’re bloated and my tips to deflate the bloat.
1. You’re Eating Too Fast and Not Chewing Enough
If you eat quickly, you’re likely not chewing your food well enough. You know the drill: you’re busy so you shovel your food into your mouth, chew 2-3x times, and swallow while your next forkful is already entering your mouth. Yeah, I’ve done it too.
Your digestive tract is like an assembly line, and chewing is the first step. Chewing breaks down large bites of food into smaller pieces while mixing your food with saliva. These smaller pieces provide more surface area for your digestive enzymes to work with. Saliva is purposeful as it assists in swallowing and contains enzymes that further aid the digestive process.
Unchewed food remains in big pieces and doesn’t fully digest. These undigested pieces can over ferment in your intestines causing bloat. Other signs that you’re eating too fast are difficulty swallowing, heartburn, burping, nausea, and feeling sick to your stomach right after eating.
Tips: Chew your food
- Don’t multi-task while eating such as working, running a meeting, or driving your car.
- Sit down to eat and focus on your meal.
- Take 3 deep breaths before eating to help settle your nervous system and prepare your digestive system.
- Chew each bite 10-30 times each. 30 times is the recommended amount but if you’re a shoveler, start with 10 to make this practice more attainable. Put your fork down in between bites and take another deep breath to help you slow down.
2. You’re Eating a Lot of Hard-to-Digest Foods
This list of foods can vary from person to person, but I often see that beans, lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts cause bloating; raw broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts especially. Gluten, dairy (especially high lactose dairy, such as milk and ice cream), and sugar are also common culprits of bloating.
This type of bloat tends to show up hours after food has traveled through your digestive tract to the small intestine. You probably won’t feel it right after eating but instead 3-8 hours later or even by the next day. This makes the cause hard to track. If you’re feeling bloated by dinnertime or by bedtime, think about what you ate for breakfast and lunch that day. Something in those meals may be your offender.
Tips:
- Cook hard-to-digest vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts rather than eating them raw.
- Find your triggers: Keep a food journal to track what you’re eating and when you’re feeling bloated. Look at your previous meals from 3-8 hours ago or even your meals from the previous day.
- Look for patterns: If you feel bloated every time after eating beans or that raw, shaved Brussels sprout salad you’ve found a trigger.
- Drink peppermint tea to deflate the bloat when it does arise.
3. Your Stomach Acid or Digestive Enzymes are Low
Back to the digestive tract and the assembly line analogy: one action must take place to trigger the next action. These actions break down your food into very small pieces so you can absorb it. I mentioned above that chewing is the first step. The next steps take place in the stomach.
Stomach acid is needed to break apart protein and fats and to help absorption of B12 and minerals. To do all these jobs, stomach acid turns the food in your stomach acidic on purpose. Acidity helps to digest the food. Next, as the food moves out of your stomach and into your small intestine, it’s this acidity that triggers your pancreas to release digestive enzymes (to digest fats, carbs, and protein) and your gall bladder to release bile (to also digest fats). Without stomach acid, enzymes, and bile, your food will not digest properly causing that food to excessively ferment in your gut and leading to abdominal bloating.
Tips:
- Take 1 tsp – 1 TBSP of apple cider vinegar at the beginning of your meal. This can stimulate acid production.
- Eat bitter foods to stimulate acid production such as dandelion greens, arugula, collard greens, purple kale, and mustard greens.
- Try taking digestive bitters before meals which give a signal for your stomach cells to make stomach acid. Look for bitters containing gentian.
- Try taking digestive enzymes with meals.
- Supplementing with enzymes or bitters can be confusing because for some people they will help but other people may feel more bloated. It depends on a person’s gut health (see Reason #4).
- Caveat: If you have heartburn, GERD, gastritis, or an ulcer I do not recommend taking digestive enzymes, apple cider vinegar, or digestive bitters as they can worsen these conditions.
4. Your Gut is Inflamed and Irritated
I see this a lot. A person’s symptoms and even their stool test results point to low enzymes or low stomach acid, but their gut is too inflamed to tolerate those types of supplements. What does this look like? You take one of these supplements and feel worse.
What leads to gut inflammation and irritation? Lots of things and they are different for everyone. Common contributors are dysbiosis (see Reason #5), stress, coffee, dryness associated with hormone levels changing during menopause, antibiotics, stomach bugs and stomach flu, celiac, SIBO, GERD, heartburn, food sensitivities, alcohol, chronic diarrhea, and more.
Tips:
- Choose gut soothing foods such as cooked vegetables instead of raw. Make soups and stews for easier digestion.
- Drink bone broths.
- Drink aloe vera juice.
- Drink herbal teas w/ marshmallow, calendula, chamomile, and slippery elm. I love Boulder-based Rebecca’s Apothecary Tummy Tea:
- Probiotics: there is a dizzying number of probiotic choices out there and each target different digestive problems and microbiome support. Work with a practitioner to help you choose one that’s best for you.
- Supplements such as L-Glutamine, DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice), Butyrate, and Zinc carnosine can soothe an inflamed gut. Again, I recommend consulting with practitioner before starting any supplements to find the right fit for you and to make sure they do not conflict with any of your medications.
5. Your Gut Bacteria Are Imbalanced (aka Dysbiosis)
This is an imbalance of the gut microbiome: either an undergrowth of the good, commensal bacteria; an overgrowth of unfavorable, inflammatory bacteria and yeast; or both.
Either can lead to an inflammatory environment of the gut and bloating. Very often an overgrowth of bacteria can contribute to excess fermentation of carbs and/or protein leading to bloating. Think of it like this: the bacteria eat and ferment your food which creates gas. That gas gets stuck in your gut and distends your intestines – and voila you’re bloated and your pants don’t fit.
Tips:
- Try spore-based, bacillus probiotic strains or yeast-based Saccharomyces Boulardii probiotic. Neither tend to cause excess fermentation and can help balance your gut bacteria ecosystem.
- Ginger and peppermint tea can greatly reduce this type of bloat.
- Experiment with your diet. Do you feel better when you’re eating more fiber or better when eating lower fiber such as the Low Fodmap diet?
- If increasing fiber consumption from vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and beans help to decrease your bloat, your good bacteria may be low. Fiber feeds the good bacteria and helps increase their anti-inflammatory properties thereby decreasing bloat.
- If decreasing fiber intake with the Low Fodmap diet decreases your bloat, then your gut bacteria may be overgrown. If this is the case, I highly recommend you work with a doctor or health practitioner to figure out why there is overgrowth and how to rebalance it. The Low Fodmap diet is not a long-term solution, and it should be modified for your situation while you’re correcting the imbalance. I work in this realm a lot, so if you need help, I got you. Schedule a free 20-minute consult here
6. You are Constipated
What’s the ideal bowel movement frequency? It is different for everyone. I see optimal gut health and my clients feeling their best when they have 1-3 banana-sized bowel movement(s) every day. In my opinion having a bowel movement only 3-4x week or a very small (think rabbit pellets) bowel movement daily is slow gut motility and is not ideal. Slow motility allows your food to sit around longer in your digestive tract, interact more with your gut bacteria, and create more fermentation and gas build up leading to bloating. Additionally, waste will back up in your colon and cause distention and bloating.
Tips: Get pooping!
- Drink more water. Drink at least half of your body weight in ounces per day, plus more if you’re out in the hot sun or sweating a lot.
- Increase your movement. Exercise, walk, dance, hike, bike, whatever you like to do. Movement helps your gut move which helps bowel movements.
- Eat more vegetables including raw salads for more roughage. However, for some people cooked, warm foods are better on their gut especially if their constipation is from irritation (see Reason #4).
- Eat more fruit but stick to lower sugar varieties such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, and pears.
- Drink ginger tea to facilitate movement of the digestive tract.
7. [For the Women] Your Hormones are Fluctuating and Changing
This is for the women readers. You may notice more bloating right before or during your period. The uterus is just behind the intestines so any uterine inflammation can translate into bloating that looks digestive or even adds to digestive bloat. The fluctuations and drops in hormone levels right before your period can cause temporary water weight gain leaving you feeling bloated and swollen. Do you notice that this type of bloat goes away on day 2 or 3 of your period? If so, that’s the hormone changes. Plus, if you have painful periods with cramping your uterus is inflammation during that time and that feels like bloat.
During perimenopause and menopause digestive bloat can increase. This is due in part to the dryness experienced with decreased estrogen levels. The mucus layer of the intestines can be impacted by the dryness of menopause just like dry skin, dry eyes, sinus irritation, vaginal dryness, and even joint pain from lack of synovial fluid. Menopause is dry. Similar to reason #4 with gut inflammation and irritation, your gut needs moisture.
Tips for hormone balance:
- Eat sulfur-rich vegetables for hormone balance: collard greens, broccoli sprouts, kale, arugula, and green onions (regular onions and garlic are helpful also but these can cause bloating on their own, so stick with the green onions for the benefit without the bloat).
- Drink matcha tea which is high in antioxidants and helps estrogen balance.
- Eat ground flax seeds which have an adaptogenic property to balance estrogen.
- Limit sugar, especially around your period, as sugar will exacerbate inflammation
Tips during perimenopause and menopause:
- Limit coffee. I know, I love it, too, but it’s very drying on your gut.
- Follow the tips from Reason #4, plus:
- Eat estrogen-boosting foods, including organic, unprocessed soy such as miso and edamame.
- Include a variety of vegetables at every meal.
- Eat healthy fats such as olives and olive oil, avocado, coconut or MCT oil, nut and seed butters.
We help women of all ages and all stages of their life rebalance their hormones. Visit our website to learn more about Nutrition for Hormone Balance.
8. You’re Not Moving Enough
Recently I was on vacation in Spain where we walked 6-8 miles every day including up hills, upstairs, climbing up church bell towers, walking up staircases that are considered roads, and basically moving all day long. During the trip, I noticed I was much less bloated by the end of the day. Once back at home and sitting at my desk, my evening bloat had returned! In addition, I was hunching over my laptop rather than sitting up straight. I could feel my intestines crunching up.
Sitting for most of the day slows your digestive tract. Moving your body increases blood flow and helps the muscles of your intestines contract and release to move your food along. This aids digestion, decreases bloat, and as mentioned above, alleviates constipation.
Tips: Get moving!
- Take more walks: in the morning before work, after lunch, and after dinner. Walking after meals greatly helps digestion and balances blood sugar for weight loss.
- Climb the stairs when possible.
- Sitting a lot for work? Get up and do some squats, stretches, and walk around the office.
- Go for a hike when possible.
- Stick to your exercise routines.
Need Help?
Is your head spinning with all these scenarios? I get it. Something as simple as feeling bloated can be from one or all these reasons. Finding out why bloating occurs for you can be difficult. If you need help, I’m here for you. I specialize in digestive symptoms, why they are happening, how these relate to other symptoms and systems in your body, how to find balance, and, ultimately, how to feel better.
Learn more about our Digestion Relief services here.
Schedule a free 20-minute consult with me to learn how I can help you.
Always consult with your doctor or health practitioner before starting any supplements.
Summer Mint Sun Tea
Mint is cooling, refreshing, and aids digestion to reduce bloat. Summer is the perfect time for sun tea. Yes, you can also make this simply by boiling water on the stove top but putting a glass container out in the sun with mint leaves or tea bags helps me appreciate the intensity of our summer sun rather than cursing it.
Ingredients
A large glass container such as a mason jar or pitcher. An old roommate of mine picked up a special jug from a yard sale once that has a spigot on the bottom. This is special treat to use but really any glass container will do. Be sure to cover it when it’s outside so no bugs get in.
1-2 handfuls of fresh mint, either from the store or from yours or a friend’s garden; or mint tea bags (2 tea bags per 32-ounce of water)
Instructions
- Fill container with water
- Add fresh mint or tea bags
- Cover container
- Let it sit outside in the blazing sun for 1-2 hours
- Bring it inside
- Remove tea bags or fresh leaves using a slotted spoon
- Put tea in fridge to cool down
- Serve over ice
Variation: Serve with cucumber slices or fresh mint sprigs.
Nutrition therapy is not intended as a diagnosis, treatment, prescription, or cure for any disease, or as a substitute for medical care. Our nutrition therapists are not licensed medical providers. Nutrition plans are not intended as a substitution for traditional medical care, nor should be interpreted as medical advice, but instead is an adjunctive and supportive therapy.