Top 3 Dietary Triggers to be Aware of if you Experience Bloating
As mentioned in previous posts, bloating and distention can be caused by a wide variety of factors. Adjusting your diet can play a pivotal role in supporting good digestion and improving symptoms. Additionally, taking note of your dietary triggers can help us to identify the possible cause of your bloating. Here are our top 3 dietary triggers to help stop bloating.
DIET
General dietary changes that can help include: ensuring adequate fibre in the diet, reducing/eliminating processed foods and large amounts of sugars and processed fats. Keeping a food-symptom diary and reviewing with a health practitioner can be very useful too to identify potential triggers.
Many exclusionary diets can be very beneficial but they should only be attempted with the supervision of an experienced health professional.
Dietary triggers that you could explore with a practitioner include
- Food Intolerances: FODMAPs (certain fibres/sugars in foods that can cause problems in some people), Fructose and Lactose Malabsorption, Gluten Sensitivity and Food Chemical Sensitivity (Amines, Histamine, Salicylates, Glutamates and Food Additives).
- Inadequate, Excessive or Incorrect Types of Fibre: Fibre feeds our good bacteria which produce Butyrate. This substance can reduce gut nerve sensitivity, however too much fibre can also cause bloating and distention.
- Other Food Triggers: Fizzy drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, food additives, excess oils and sugars: all these can cause disruption to the gut bacteria, gut movement, and volumes of gas in the gut.
If you are experiencing regular bloating our Naturopaths can help, book in here!
By Jad Patrick – Counsellor, Mindful Self Compassion Teacher, Naturopath
