Beat the Bloat
Jul 14, 2021
No one likes bloating; it’s painful and uncomfortable both physically and mentally. I have clients who come to me all the time saying their main issue is bloating, but honestly, it always stems from something deeper.
I used to deal with terrible bloating when I had a lot of health issues before I balanced my gut and healed my body. I would walk around feeling so uncomfortable and had so many clothes that would fit one day and then wouldn’t the next based on how bloated I was that day.
Bloating can stem from gut health issues, stress, inflammatory foods, or your food not being properly digested and potentially causing a leaky gut. Plus, there are a variety of other hormonal issues that can cause bloating too!
I really recommend getting to the root cause of what’s causing your bloating, but in the meantime, here are some things you can do to heal beat the bloat.
1. PROBIOTICS
Probiotics keep things movin’ (if ya know what I mean) and help populate your gut with good bacteria to keep you UNBLOATED. Here are some faves:
2. DIGESTIVE ENZYMES
One thing that has helped me helps so many of my clients is taking a digestive enzyme before each meal. My favorite ones are the Plantizyme ones from Thorne.
3. DETOXIFYING FOODS
The biggest tip I recommend is balancing your body through cleansing and detoxing foods. It sounds so simple, but often it’s the hardest change for people to make. These are foods I eat daily, and I encourage clients to have regularly to lower inflammation and improve gut health.
— Celery Juice: improves GI health, lowers inflammation, boosts energy, promotes clear skin
– Lemon water: alkalinizes the body, boosts energy, aids the liver, boosts digestion, improves immunity, promotes clear skin
– Green Tea: Many of its benefits are due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, especially a substance called epigallocatechin-3-gallate
– Limes: Citric acids can boost metabolism, helping you burn more calories and store less fat.
– Ginger: Ginger is a potent digestive aid that has been used to alleviate gas, bloating, and stomach pains for centuries. It naturally stimulates the body's digestive enzymes and is an anti-inflammatory, helping to relieve inflammation and protect the stomach lining.
– Turmeric: consuming 1 gram of curcumin daily combined with black pepper causes a significant decrease in the inflammatory marker CRP in people with metabolic syndrome
— Leafy greens: Consistently eating greens leads to having a stronger, healthier digestive system that's less prone to bloating
– Fresh berries: Berries contain antioxidants called anthocyanins. These compounds have anti-inflammatory effects that may reduce your risk of disease.
– Bananas: packed with potassium and soluble fiber, they help the body flush out excess sodium and reduce inflammation. Soluble fiber also helps to relieve constipation, which can be another cause of bloat.
– Apples: Soluble fiber helps slow down digestion, allowing you to feel full, and also slows the digestion of glucose, which helps control your blood sugar.
– Avocados: Avocados offer various beneficial compounds that protect against inflammation and may reduce your cancer risk.
– Spirulina: spirulina supports gut health as people age. It healthy gut bacteria during the aging process.
– Cilantro: reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and seizure severity, as well as raising energy levels and healthy hair and skin.
– Asparagus: Asparagus is an anti-bloating superfood. Sure, it makes your urine smell, but it also makes you pee, period—helping you flush all that excess water, thus relieving any discomfort and bloat.
– Dark chocolate: packed with antioxidants that reduce inflammation. These may reduce your risk of disease and lead to healthier aging
– Beans: Fiber from beans helps keep you regular and seems to protect against heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and digestive illness.
– Tomatoes: Lycopene may be particularly beneficial for reducing pro-inflammatory compounds related to several types of cancer
– Cucumbers: Cucumber is high in potassium, which helps negate the ill effects of sodium that is known to cause bloating.
– Olive oil: The effect of oleocanthal, an antioxidant found in olive oil, has been compared to anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen
– Oatmeal: It increases the feeling of fullness, which is good for general satiety when you're eating meals, but it also softens your stools, making them easier to pass, which in turn stops bloating.
4. EAT SLOWLY AND WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS
Simple tip, but it makes a big difference. You want to chew your food 25-30 times before swallowing. This allows the digestive enzymes in your saliva to activate so that you can properly digest the food. Plus, when you have done a lot of the work for your stomach and intestines with your mouth by turning the food into liquid, it makes it easier for your body to assimilate the nutrients from the food.
Put your phone away and close your laptop. Take deep breaths before you begin eating to help you relax. Your texts and emails can wait! When you’re relaxed, you can digest your food much better because the blood flow is available to do so! When you don’t have a screen in your face, you can actually taste your food and eat more mindfully, and you are effectively turning off your stress response.
5. ELIMINATE FOODS THAT CAUSE INFLAMMATION
I like to focus on eating real food with minimal ingredients and less packaged processed. You can also do a food sensitivities test to see if there is anything you’re regularly eating that is aggravating your GI tract. I like the one from EverlyWell.
You may also want to ease up on gluten and dairy. One study found that 87% of people who had suspected non-celiac gluten sensitivity experienced bloating, and dairy is the second most common sensitivity.
6. DETOX BATHSI like to use lavender, Epsom salt, and ginger, or just a little baking soda. Taking baths with magnesium salts will relax you and promote good digestion!
7. REDUCE STRESS
Stress can cause bloating by stimulating the body's fight or flight response which negatively impacts gut health and impedes our digestion.
Try meditating! It taps into your parasympathetic nervous system, so you’re not living in that cortisol mode which keeps you in a state where digestion is put on the back burner.
8. NO GUM!
First, the fake sugars in gum are known to disrupt the gut microbiome. Plus, you’re swallowing air, so it’s no surprise that when you don’t chew it, you don’t feel full of air.
9. DITCH THE STRAW AND DRINK WATER BEFORE MEALS
Try drinking from the side of the cup vs. straw; you’re sucking in air with the liquid, which can lead to bloating.
Plus, you want to make sure you’re drinking water either before or after a meal, not during. Research shows that drinking a glass or two while eating interferes with digestion. Our stomachs know when you're eating food and, in turn, start releasing digestive enzymes. If you start drinking water at the same time, you are actually diluting the digestive juices being released to digest your food, thereby hindering them from breaking down food.
Limiting carbonated beverages is also known to help decrease bloating.
10. ADD IN A BLOAT SUPPLEMENT & TEAI love the JS Health Detox and Debloat supplement. The blend of herbs targets possible causes for bloating, so you will feel relief. I don’t take this every night and recommend taking it as needed after trying all the other tips above.
Dandelion tea naturally decreases water weight by increasing urine output, so have one cup at night in combo with your supplement.
