Have you ever felt as if you gained twenty pounds after a meal? I have always wondered myself; “where did I get this food baby?”
But, little did I know, bloating is a common occurrence for most people. For me, it is not a pleasant feeling and I had to do my research on how to get rid of bloating fast! Here are 6 easy and simple tricks I found that can help you reduce your bloated feeling and get the flat stomach you’ve been wanting.
1. Cut Back On “Sugar Free” Products
Eating healthy and cutting back on candies, drinks and other foods that contain artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol and aspartame, can help reduce bloating. Artificial sweeteners cause bloating because these additives can’t be digested.
Fructose is another additive to look out for. Fructose is a natural sugar added to many processed foods, which is also difficult for many people to digest. Many sugar free gums and other foods contain artificial sweeteners to make up for the “sugar free.” Be aware, that just because it says, sugar free, doesn’t necessarily mean it is healthy for you.
Stick to drinking more green tea and water instead of sugar-free sodas too!
2. Don’t Eat in a Hurry
This trick is something I always forget to keep in mind! When you chew your food quickly, you tend to swallow a a lot of ‘gas producing air’ at the same time. Also, you can end up not chewing food as much as you should. As a result, large pieces of food sit uncomfortably in your gut.
When we chew our foods slowly, we are increasing the amount of saliva and enzymes that are mixed into the food to begin digesting it. Digestion starts in the mouth. Most people forget this! I’m a sucker for eating during my lunch break with a sandwich in one hand and my cell phone in the other hand. If you have been eating your food too fast with very little chewing, there is a possibility that there could be some inflammation somewhere in your gastrointestinal tract because of it.
Try slowing down while eating and chewing. This will help produce more saliva to aid the healing of your GI tract. Taking a little extra time to enjoy your meals might just save a lot of discomfort later on.
3. Watch The Raw Vegetables
Although cooked vegetables are great to add to a healthy breakfast, raw vegetables and produce can be difficult for your body to break down. According to The University of Chicago, many vegetables contain raffinose or starch, which can also cause excess gas, and bloating.
Raw vegetables are high in enzymes which are said to aid digestion. However, many of your digestive systems are too weak to digest raw vegetables in spite of all their natural enzymes. Yes, raw foods do contain great enzymes, but raw vegetables also contain cellulose.Cellulose is a fiber that is poorly digested by humans. In order to break cellulose down, humans require the enzyme called; cellulase which is produced by intestinal bacteria. These enzymes break down cellulose fiber into blood sugar.
Steaming or cooking your vegetables can help with your bloating too!
4. Don’t Freak Out
We all have stress hormones and they can affect your digestive system. Stress hormones speed everything up in your body.
Kristi King, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says: “You may experience gas and diarrhea, which can cause bloating, when stressed.” She suggests that when you’re anxious, try getting up and going for a walk to move the bubbles out of your tummy and relax your nerves.
Anxiety and stress also shuts down a part of your brain that handles digesting the foods you eat. Stress itself puts a great deal of pressure on your stomach and your abdomen. This can also lead to your hormones being upset and leave you with neurotransmitter imbalance. All of this may create an environment where foods that could normally be digested easily end up being digested poorly, leading to the creation of gas and bloating.
5. Exercise Often
It is also important to follow simple exercises. Regular practice of specific physical exercises may be helpful in relieving bloating. Lack of physical activity can result in constipation and cause you to experience abdominal bloating. So be sure to start working out regularly if you don’t already.
6. Get Tested
Chronic bloating and gas can be caused by an intolerance to lactose or fructose absorption. This is a sensitivity to the sugars found in milk, or to fructose, a sugar found in fruit juice, table sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.
It’s important to get tested if you have reoccurring symptoms of bloating. Getting tested for reoccurring symptoms will give you a better understanding of what is going on in that tummy of yours.
