Ever wonder why you are feeling so bloated? Don’t worry, this article breaks down the four root causes of bloating to consider when optimizing your gut health.
Abdominal bloating is a common, uncomfortable symptom experienced by many. Patients report feelings of fullness, tightness, or distension in the stomach area. Bloating can results for a number of reasons so understanding why you feel bloated is essential to help determine how to treat and improve your quality of life.
1. Eating Habit Architecture
One of the #1 reasons people can feel bloated is by practicing certain eating habits. I call this “eating-habit architecture” and is similar to the concept of good sleep hygiene for optimal sleep quality.
Good eating-habit architecture isn’t necessarily whether you have a “clean diet” or not, but rather if you eat too much, too quickly, without chewing thoroughly or in a more stressed out state. Eating with intention, such as sitting down with a loved one or colleagues at work, can help naturally help you take breaks between bites of food by chatting. You are less likely to be watching your phone or computer in this situation. This can also help minimize standing at your pantry and eating everything in site at 4 pm if your breakfast or lunch were eaten more intentionally. All of these things can improve digestion and decrease the likelihood of feeling bloated in our modern world.
2. How Foods Digest (or Don’t) in Your Gut
Your gastrointestinal tract has the incredible ability to break down different foods to absorb into your body to help keep you moving and grooving. Certain foods are not only broken down and used by you, but by the bacteria in your gut too. If a food is broken down by bacteria and creates too much gas as a byproduct, you can experience the unpleasant side effect of bloating.
Some situations where you can experience bloating as a result of the above include:
- Lactose intolerance: This is very common. Your body doesn’t create the enzymes to break down lactose, a type of carbohydrate founds in dairy products. When you don’t break it down and use it yourself, bacteria will instead, and this creates lots of gas that makes you bloated.
- Fiber overload: If you are trying to increase the fiber content of your diet via foods or supplementation, but you increase too much too fast, this can cause bacteria to much and crunch on what your body can’t use up, creating gas and bloating.
- Fermented foods/drinks: Certain foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and kombucha can make bloating worse as they naturally contain bacteria that will create gas and cause bloating.
- Gluten intolerance: It’s less common than people think, and celiac disease must be ruled out, but it can happed when the proteins aren’t broken down properly in breads, pastas, pizza, cakes, cookies, etc. Bacteria gobble this up to create gas and bloating.
- Carbonated drinks: Whether it’s a pop, club soda, sparkling water, or even beer, the fizzy drinks can exacerbate bloating too as the gas gets trapped in the stomach and intestines, leading to fullness and discomfort.
3. Digestive Disorders
Bloating is linked to many digestive disorders, including but not limited to:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Functional constipation
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- H. pylori infection in the stomach leading to stomach ulcers
-
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Crohn’s Disease
- Ulcerative Colitis
- Diverticulosis / Diverticulitis
- Celiac Disease
Its very important to get assessed if you are concerned about your bloating and how severely it impacts your quality of life, as you don’t treat all of these conditions the same way. Book an appointment with me here to help get you started on this path.
4. Hormonal Changes or Foods that Cause Water Retention
For menstruators, hormonal fluctuations are another common cause of abdominal bloating. Many experience bloating as part of their premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or during menstruation. Hormones such as progesterone and estrogen can cause the body to retain water and salt, which leadings to feeling bloated and uncomfortable. This is extremely common but not normal!
Certain foods can also promote water retention thereby increasing abdominal bloating and discomfort. If you find that you eat more foods containing higher amounts of sodium and lower amounts of potassium over the course of a few days, this can increase the bloat around your midsection.
To help combat feeling bloated due to hormonal fluctuations or foods high in sodium and lower in potassium, concentrating your diet on water-logged foods can help! Here are some options below:
- Fruits like oranges, cantaloupe, apples, watermelon, strawberries, peaches
- Vegetables like bell peppers, cucumber, tomato, romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, celery, watercress, zucchini
- Meals like soups, stews and stir-fry’s with broth, smoothies or smoothie bowels, fresh salads
- Beverages like herbal teas (bonus if there is less or no caffeine), coconut water, water with lemon or cucumber or frozen berries, skim or lactose-free milk, alternative milks like almond or soy milk
—
I hope you enjoyed learning about 4 root causes of bloating. If you want to learn more about how to support your gut health goals, book an appointment here with me, Dr. Liz Dalglish, ND. I focus my practice on digestive health, IBS, chronic constipation, and heartburn.