(Newswire.net — June 15, 2016) — Even if you follow a healthy diet and take part in a good amount of exercise, you still may feel bloated after eating. After you’ve had a great meal, you’re ready to get on with the rest of your day, but this can be marred if you experience stomach bloating, causing your clothes to feel tighter and your stomach to feel twice its normal size. On top of that, you could even experience some nasty effects such as cramps, belching and gas – all which are symptoms of excessive bloating. Whilst sometimes bloating can be caused by underlying health conditions, it can often be controlled by making some small changes to your diet.
Common Food Triggers
If you’re experiencing severe stomach bloating after eating, it’s good to know which the most common food triggers are so that you can avoid them. Infamous dietary triggers for bloating include apples, beans, dairy products, lettuce, onions, peaches, pears, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli or cabbage. Although these are all healthy food options which should be included in your diet, simply reducing the amount that you eat of each food at a time or eating one potential bloat-triggering food at a time rather than avoiding all of them altogether can help to reduce your symptoms.
Be Careful with Fiber
Although fiber is a hugely important part of your diet and essential to the healthy working of the digestive system, it can also be a massive culprit for stomach bloating. Whole grain foods may well be a lot healthier than their refined counterparts, however it’s important to be careful when it comes to portion size as their high-fiber content is much more likely to cause bloating. If you’re thinking of switching from refined grains to whole grains in order to eat healthier, don’t completely replace them all at once. Instead, gradually increase the amount of whole grains that you eat or replace one version at a time in order to get a good idea of how your body will react.
Limit Fatty Foods
High fat meals, depending on the type of fat, may be good for your body – but, the downfall is that they take longer for the digestive system to process. Because fat moves slowly through the digestive tract, meals that have high fat content are far more likely to produce bloating. If you find that bloating is a common occurrence after you have eaten a high-fat meal, cutting down on the amount of fats in your diet should help to keep the symptoms at bay.
Cut Down on Salt
Eating too much salt is already well-known to cause a whole range of long-term health problems, including high blood pressure. But, did you know that in the short-term, too much salt in your body can lead to water retention, which in turn causes excessive bloating? If you pour salt on every meal, this could well be the reason why you’re experiencing the symptoms of bloat – instead, replace salt with flavorsome herbs and cut down on processed foods.
Feeling bloated can be an uncomfortable and even painful experience. By making these simple diet changes, you can avoid feeling bloated after any meal.