Bloating. What’s causing yours?

Whether you have IBS or not, bloating can seriously mess with your head. When you look down and see a bloated stomach your logic disappears from your mind. You know that is it legit not possible to gain 10kgs in a day, but in that moment you fricken believe it!!

This is part of being a women too and having the brain that we have. We will create the story that we didn’t eat well enough, we have to starve ourselves to have a flat stomach, we can’t eat if we don’t want to be bloated etc etc. All this mean girl talk and guess what…it only creates MORE stress and stress creates havoc on your gut…leading to more BLOATING!!

It’s important that you figure out what is triggering it:

• Is it related to your period?
• Does it happen after you eat lunch? If so, what are you eating for lunch? Did you actually chew your lunch? Were you eating and doing something else at the same time?
• Is it worse when you are stressed? (It is for me!)
• Did your IBS begin after a relationship break-up or a period of disordered eating?
• Did it start after food poising or after a holiday/travel?

If it is starting during the time before your period it is likely to be estrogen dominance and therefore you need to detox your liver more. I’ll teach you all about this in my 8-week program coming October 3rd.

If it is starting after you have had a meal, try to figure out what was in your meal that caused you to bloat. Common foods that cause bloating is fruit, gluten and grains, dairy, coffee. Try removing these from your diet for a trial period of 4 weeks and see how you feel.

Also, drinking water during your meal can cause bloating. Your stomach pH range should be 1.9 which is so acidic it would burn you if it touched your skin but for many people, their stomach acid isn’t acidic enough and isn’t ideal for optimal digestion. Animal proteins are best digested at a pH level of 1.9 while starch is best at a pH level of 2.1. Whilst the two levels might not seem that different, it can be the difference of feeling bloated or flat after your meal. Lemon juice and apple cider vinegar help the stomach acid before a meal. Drink lemon water throughout the day if you find you get bloated easily. This helps me SO MUCH throughout my day when it then comes to meal times. Also, when possible have a shot of ACV before your meal. To start off with, dilute it in some water and work your way up to just shotting it straight like a shot from the bar! (But a shit load better for you!)

Water has a pH level of 7 or above and when you add a ph level of 7 with one of 2, you dilute your stomach acid causing bloating. Avoid water 15 minutes before your meal and 15 minutes after your meal. Trust me, it works - I've changed my drinking habits because of this.

Stress also affects your gut. The cells that line your gut can come apart during adulthood as a result of the production of a protein called zonulin, gastrointestinal infection or stress. The chronic stress affects the strength of the gut cells and signals them to move further apart so that more nutrition can get into the blood as nutrient requirements increase during times of stress. The problem though is that we are stuck in this response and toxins are getting through the gut wall and into our blood stream creating inflammation and your gut losing its integrity creating 'leaky gut’.

If you have started getting bloated after you returned home from travelling you may have caught a bug. This has happened to me and can completely F up your gut balance. Go and see a naturopath and get a stool sample to determine what your gut imbalance is so you can work towards fixing it.