Bloating — Why It Happens And How to Reduce It

What Causes Abdominal Bloating?

Ten to 25% of all people have experienced belly bloating. In this day and age, we live really fast-paced lives that require us to always rush somewhere, to constantly be on the go. As soon as we start gulping food, ingesting it very quickly without proper chewing, we start making a mess in our guts.

Whole bits of food going down and not breaking down properly causes the emission of gas throughout the process of fermentation. This is probably the most common cause of a bloated stomach. It’s very important to sit down and eat slowly, really breaking the food down and not letting any non-chewed up food go into the digestive tract.

By drinking fluids with meals, you’re slowing down the enzymes and dissolving them. The ideal time is to drink water or juice is 30 minutes prior to meals and 30 minutes after. Carbonated drinks and sparkling water are also a common cause of a bloated abdominal area.

Candida Albicans, a type of yeast infection present in the mouth and guts, is also a common reason people get a swollen abdominal area. It’s very important to discover and treat it on time, because if it’s left unchecked in the digestive tract, it can break down the intestinal walls and enter the bloodstream.

Tips To Prevent Abdominal Swelling

• You should avoid smoking. If you do smoke, do your best to quit.
• Avoid chewing gum and drinking carbonated drinks.
• Try to avoid foods that tend to cause flatulence such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beans and lentils. Don’t banish them completely because of their high nutritional value. The best time to eat them is for dinner, or when you’re planning on staying home the whole day if you’re embarrassed by the bloated abdominal area.
• Don’t eat too quickly, chew the food properly.
• Don’t drink water right before and after meals.
• Don’t slouch while eating. By slouching, you’re crushing the digestive system, there’s no space for food movement and it can cause gas.
• Keep the meals basic and simple and they can’t hurt. Eat well-balanced meals which include a small piece of protein (20% of the plate) and a nice big portion of veggies (50%). The rest (30% of the plate) should be carbohydrates and healthy fats. Don’t think too much about food combinations, the blood type diet, etc. Keeping your meals simple like our ancestors did will help to keep the intestines healthy for a long time.
• Try not to eat fruits together with main meals because fruit digests fast and it stays to rot in the stomach the whole time while the other food is being digested.
• Don’t lay down right after meals, but don’t get too active either.

Home Remedies to Get Rid of Bloating

Turmeric

One of the best anti-inflammatory agents is turmeric. Its bright orange color is due to curcumin — a compound found to be twice as effective as a placebo for indigestion problems.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is great for bloating prevention. It contains plenty of fiber, vitamin A and potassium, all important for proper digestion. Steam, bake or broil pumpkin on a daily basis if you tend to suffer from digestive problems and they will become a part of the past.

Fennel Seed

This little seed can do wonders to ease bloated a abdominal area due to its pain-reducing, anti-microbial and diuretic properties. Chew the seeds or prepare and drink warm tea! You should cook seeds and leave them in covered cup for half hour, then drink it.

Ginger

Ginger, with its active and pungent compounds gingerol and shogaol, reduces inflammation in the intestines and relaxes gut muscles. Put some ginger into the cup, add lemon and honey and pour some hot boiling water over it. Drink slowly after 10 minutes.

Peppermint tea

Our grandmothers used peppermint tea to ease stomach problems decades ago. Certain compounds in peppermint relax the stomach muscles and help the food to pass easily and quickly. For even better results, add some fennel together with fresh peppermint leaves. If you don’t like tea, chew some fresh peppermint  leaves.

Bananas

Try eating a fully raw diet, mainly bananas, for a day (even longer if you can). People living on a fully raw diet shared some great stories about how they cured their chronic bloating. Bananas have a lot of fiber, so they help to prevent constipation, which can be a cause for bloating. Fruit high in potassium like bananas, kiwi, oranges and avocados prevent water retention by regulating the body’s sodium levels.

In Conclusion

Bloating is not dangerous most of the time, but it’s not esthetically pleasing either. One solution is to write down everything you eat until you find what type of food exactly causes the bloating and then avoiding it, but of course, this won’t be a solution for everyone, because for some people it would be plenty or all foods to avoid.

Another possible solution is to try is to chew slowly and thoroughly each mouthful. Not chewing well can lead to swallowing a lot of air and it causes gas. If the bloating keeps getting back no matter what you try, get a medical checkup, because you may have some serious underlying stomach problem. Colon hydrotherapy was shown to be successful with bloating. If you visit someone well-trained in this kind of therapy, they can pick up other possible reasons that can be aggravating the bloating.