Who hasn’t been there, you’re enjoying one of your favourite meals or a new dish at your favourite restaurant, and then you are met with that all too familiar feeling of bloating. If you know this feeling all too well, this blog is definitely for you.
Bloating is normal, you’re not alone…
We want to start off by letting you know that bloating is normal and lots of people experience bloating. It happens when our digestive tract is filled with gas. The causes of bloating may differ between people, but usually bloating is caused by our body’s natural digestive process.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should ignore the bloating as it may be down to a genuine food intolerance, which can be very painful and uncomfortable. So, if you are experiencing persistent pain and other symptoms, for example:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Constipation/diarrhoea (or any changes to bowel movements)
- Weight loss
along with the bloating then it is important to speak with your Doctor.
Easing Bloating
If you don’t have any pain or major discomfort associated with bloating, then the best thing to do is to try to change how we think and feel about it. You need to remind yourself that bloating is completely normal and that most people experience it at some point in their life. It is a completely natural process during digestion and it will pass. Having said that, here are things you can do to beat the bloat.
Are you eating enough?
If you’ve got a certain outfit that you want to wear, it can be very tempting to not eat throughout the day, but, if you’re trying to avoid bloating, this is the worst thing you can do. Food restriction can actually contribute to, or even exacerbate, bloating by slowing down digestion, which then lowers the production of important digestive enzymes and decreases the production of healthy gut bugs.
Stress Management
Do you feel more bloated when you’re stressed? This may be because stress has a significant impact on our gut health. This is because it can make the nerve endings in our digestive tract more sensitive, which causes a greater level of discomfort as a response to the distension in our gut that is associated with bloating.
If you would like to learn more about bloating, read our other blog on the subject here, otherwise feel free to browse our full list of blogs here.