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No matter how healthy your diet is, chances are you’ve experienced bloating. More commonly known as inflammation, bloating often occurs in the belly and results in discomfort, a feeling of tightness and often even a rounder appearance than normal.
There are several ways to treat bloating, commonly a hot cup of tea or warm bath are recommended. Even holding a heating pad or hot water bottle to the area of inflammation can help reduce inflammation.
Many experts even recommend introducing new vitamins and supplements into your diet to reduce or prevent bloating, though often your best bet would be to prevent bloating by identifying its cause. And usually, chronic bloating is caused by a simple diet mistake.
While there are many causes of bloating - ranging from lack of sleep to drinking too many carbonated beverages - the first step you should take when trying to limit inflammation is to take a good, hard look into what you are eating.
“We all have experienced feeling bloated, some more than others. Diet plays a main role in bloating and indigestion, certain foods alone can trigger this adverse feeling,” Henry Harrison, vice president at Blue Biology, explained to SheFinds.
Harrison said that bloating is very often caused by food intolerances - and many of us don’t even realize how many foods we are actually intolerant to.
“Intolerances are simply food allergies,” he explained. “Food intolerances typically stems from our bodies being unable to produce a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes.”
According to Harrison, “Digestive enzymes are small peptides that are naturally occurring in our pancreas, saliva glands, stomach, and small intestine that work by breaking down the foods we consume into simpler foods that are able to be digested and absorbed.”
Certain enzymes are responsible for breaking down specific foods. So if we are deficient in an enzyme, there will be some foods our bodies cannot break down properly, resulting in bloating and abdominal discomfort.
If you experience frequent discomfort and bloating, your first step should be looking closely into what foods you eat during occasions when the bloating occurs. And it is also important to note that it isn’t only unhealthy foods or foods high in carbs that can be causing bloating.
“One mistake that many of us make that contributes to bloating is eating foods to which we personally react negatively,” confirmed Rob Arthur, CSCS, PN2, PHC Health and Happiness Coach.
Arthur warns that there is a whole category of food that causes several people bloating and discomfort: FODMAPs, which is “a term used to describe a handful of specific types of carbohydrates.”
He continued, “High-FODMAP foods include wheat, garlic, onion, brussels sprouts, beans and legumes, and even some fruits like apples. Many of these foods are generally regarded as being just fine for a generally healthy diet, but some of us may want to avoid them.”
The best way to determine if your diet is a source of inflammation and chronic bloating is to pay closer attention to everything you eat.
“To identify potential foods - FODMAPs or others - that may be causing bloating, it might be worth keeping a food journal for a bit,” Arthur advises. “Such a journal would include how you feel before, during, and after eating, as well as what you ate.”
