Beat Belly Bloat This Summer
Beat belly bloat this summer.
- Summer fun foods may contribute to belly bloat.
- Eat these foods to help beat bloat this summer.
- How summer heat and dehydration causes bloating.
Its back again: that too-full, bloated feeling in your gut. As temperatures go up, your stomach swells up too. Summer activities including eating and drinking certain foods and beverages may be causing the discomfort.
Here are some of the usual suspects when it comes to the food and beverages you may be consuming this summer that cause bloating.
Alcohol And Bloating: How Does Drinking Affects The Stomach
According to the National Institutes of Health, bloating is often the result of irritable bowel syndrome. This intestinal disorder can cause actual damage to the intestines, which will manifest in pain and discomfort in the abdominal area.
Those who suffer from the condition will often have constipation and diarrhea. Many factors can cause irritable bowel syndrome, but one of the most impactful ones is alcohol.
Heavy or occasional alcohol drinking can lead to irritation and inflammation in the abdominal area. This is the reason for the bloating.
However, to really understand the bloating contributors, you will need to figure out how alcohol affects the stomach and its role in the gastrointestinal tract. Research indicates that alcohol can interfere with multiple stomach functions.
Here is a simple overview of the various ways heavy ethanol consumption can impair stomach health:
If you or anyone in your family is suffering from chronic alcohol abuse, check out our inpatient alcohol rehab center for men in Dallas-Fort Worth or give us a call at 993-9733! Here, you will get access to a safe facility with experienced medical professionals who will make sure that you overcome your drinking habit.
Drinking Too Much Soda
Carbonated beverages, such as soda or sparkling water, are a common reason for bloating. The fizz in your favorite sodas can cause gas to get trapped in your stomach, which can lead to bloating and belching.
Try limiting the amount of soda you drink and switch to a healthier alternative. Water with cucumber or lemon can offer a flavorful drink with your meal, and black tea can provide the caffeine kick you may need in the early afternoon. If youre already feeling bloated, peppermint tea is a common remedy that can be used to help reduce the discomfort.
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Why Does My Stomach Hurt After Drinking
In some cases, alcohol-induced bloating can cause a certain level of pain and discomfort. While it isnt as debilitating as other stomach complications, its still a troublesome thing to deal with.
Its crucial to note that the pains can sometimes be associated with something other than alcohol. You might be experiencing health issues that affect the stomach lining. So, its best that you consult a doctor to rule out any serious complications.
The medical experts at the our inpatient alcohol rehab center for men or women in Dallas-Fort Worth can provide you with all the information you need. Their team of specialized experts will make sure that all alcohol-dependent individuals get the treatment they deserve.
Foods That Cause Bloating And Gut Discomfort
Your diet is often to blame for belly bloat. That goes for both foods that cause bloating as well as dietary habits and underlying medical conditions.
When your belly is bloated, you haven’t gained weight. Instead, you’ve likely gained water weight or are suffering through digestive issues that cause a distended belly. Unlike fat gain, bloated stomachs are oftentimes temporary.
There are many different reasons why you’re experiencing bloating:
- your diet is high in sodium, which can cause water retention
- you have a sensitivity to certain foods that cause bloating
- you might be experiencing a food intolerance
- you’ve increased the fiber in your diet
We explain more about the dietary causes of bloat below, but let’s start with the 19 most common foods that cause bloating.
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You Aren’t Cooking Your Food
Raw food does have a ton of nutritional benefits but it is also more difficult for our bodies to digest. The cooking process softens the fibre and unwinds the protein, making them a bit easier for our bodies to digest and less likely to cause gas and bloating.
Tip: Lightly steaming your veggies can give you the best of both the raw and cooked worlds.
You May Be Getting Your Period Soon
Bloating typically accompanies the natural hormonal fluctuations of the menstrual cycle, Dr. Christmas tells Good Housekeeping, and it happens most often during the luteal phase. Thats the time when your hormone levels are rising because its right after you ovulate and your body starts to prepare the uterus for an impending pregnancy, she explains. The luteal phase ends when your period actually begins.
During this time, the hormones estrogen and progesterone increase in the body and are usually to blame for bloating. Estrogen can heighten water retention, and progesterone can slow the gastrointestinal tract, causing constipation in the long run. You might counteract some of this around your cycle.
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Eating More Calories Than Usual
Lets face it. When youre off your schedule, sometimes the most interesting thing you can do is bake. But consuming excess calories especially those found in cookies, cakes and bread can pack on the pounds and cause your belly to bloat.
If cooking is your jam while sheltering in place, reserve high-calorie recipes for special occasions, or cut it back to one meal a week.
Another Reason For Summer Bloating: Dehydration
Dehydration is a loss of fluids in your body. It can be caused by a few activities you may be doing during the summer months, including:
- Getting too much sun or a lot of exposure to heat
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Eating salty snacks
When you’re in the sun too long, your body starts retaining water as a safety measure. Think of it as a form of self-defense, since your body doesnt know when it will have its next intake of fluid.;
For instance, when youre in the sun too long, it causes water loss. In response, your body starts retaining water as a safety measure. Think of it as a form of self-defense, since your body doesnt know when it will have its next intake of fluid. Yet even as your body is conserving water, the retention is what may also cause you to feel bloated.
Its important to note that serious illness can result from being dehydrated. You should get help right away if you have one or more of these symptoms after being in the sun too long or you havent been staying hydrated:
- Intense thirst
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Youre Swallowing Too Much Air
Inadvertently swallowing too much air when you eat or drink, a condition known as aerophagia, may cause bloating and belching, Dr. Fisher says, So drinking through a straw or having carbonated beverages are things that tend to contribute to upper GI bloating.
Eating too fast and chewing gum may also cause you to ingest too much air, adds Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian in the Good Housekeeping Institute. Try your best to slow down when you eat, properly chew your food, and make sure youre staying hydrated throughout the day, she says.
You Eat Lots Of Packaged Foods
Once again, the culprit here is sodiumit’s used as a preservative for tons of processed convenience foods. You know that crackers and chips are sodium bombs, but even healthy-looking items such as soups, salad dressings, cereals, and tomato sauce can have crazy-high amounts of sodium that easily lead you to exceed the 2,300 mg daily recommended limit.;”It’s a good bet that pretty much any product that comes wrapped in a package contains more sodium than you’d think, and you’re unlikely to even taste the salt,” says Brill. Dodge the belly-bloating effects by reading labels and going for packaged foods that contain less than 500 mg per serving. And of course, try to cut back on the processed stuff and fill your plate with naturally low-sodium or sodium-free fresh fruits, grains, and veggies.
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Reasons Your Clients Are Always Bloated
Being bloated is the worst. Your abdomen feels full, tight, swollen and maybe even painful. It’s uncomfortable, annoying and really messes with your mood. Sometimes it even affects your social life because when you are bloated, you just don’t feel like doing anything. No bueno.
Bloating can be inevitable and caused by our monthly cycles or medical conditions like celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome or hernia. But more often bloating is a direct result of the food we are putting in our bodies.
It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing us to feel bloated. Pay attention to what your body does after you eat. Identify your triggers and consider how you can avoid them so you can keep that belly flat and bloat-free. To help you get started, here are some common reasons you might be bloated and some tips on how to fix it.
Changing Fat Cell Type
One particular area of menopausal weight gain popped up in my search for answers recently: Changing fat cell type.
According to the two 2015 studies found, bone marrow in a womans body is more apt to produce cell-derived fat cells than in a mans body. Thats not good news for us.
Science just so happens to suggest that estrogen is the main culprit behind this fact because of the fat cells production drastically increasing with age.
The fat cells are more common in a womans body plus a womans age increases production; that process equals weight gain for us.
As my research on the changing fat cell type went on, I found that the specific bone marrow produced cell, in turn, produces cytokines. Whats worse is that cytokines inhibit insulin sensitivity almost automatically, increasing the risk for Type II diabetes and additional weight gain.
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Food Sensitivity And Intolerances
Most people will have a sensitivity to one or more foods which will cause them to feel bloated.;So doing an elimination diet to figure out which food might be the culprit is a good idea.;A simple way of doing elimination diet is to eliminate foods that are not good for your system and see if bloating gets better and then reintroduce them back one at a time to figure out which food is the culprit.;Most commonly people will eliminate gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, sugar, peanuts, alcohol, carbonated beverages, alcohol, red meat.;And then they do this elimination for 3-4 weeks and then slowly introduce them one at a time.;
A large number of people are able to find out the cause for their bloating with elimination diet.
How To Get Rid Of A Bloated Stomach
One of the most effective bloated stomach remedies is improving your diet, since the foods you eat play a huge part in regulating how much air and poop;is trapped inside your digestive tract.
To keep things flowing smoothly, you want to make sure to;eat a high-fiber diet, aiming for about 2530 grams every day or even more.
This isnt too difficult when you eat plenty of whole foods, including veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and ancient grains. It can certainly help you to track your symptoms after eating certain foods known to cause bloating, but remember that a bloated stomach is caused by your entire lifestyle, not just the food on your plate.
Some of the best foods for helping to battle stomach bloating include:
Now that you know what you should eat, lets look at some of the foods that might make your bloating even worse. More often than not, some of these foods might be the culprit:
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What Are The Symptoms And Causes Of Indigestion
Most of us have experienced indigestion and its symptoms, for example, upper abdominal pain and cramping, bloating, belching, nausea, vomiting, and the feeling of fullness after only eating a few bites. There are common causes of indigestion like GERD or pregnancy. More serious causes include cancers or heart attack.
The best way to relieve and even prevent symptoms of stomach bloating and gas, is a healthy diet and regular exercise, however, there are many things you can do to prevent and relieve bloating and gas.
When Is It Serious
Most of the time, you can manage bloating on your own. But if you also feel weak or lose your appetite, or have diarrhea, weight loss, fever, belly pain, or blood in your stool, talk to your doctor. To find out whatâs going on, they may take a stool sample or an X-ray of your small intestine, or test you for lactose intolerance or celiac disease.
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You Eat Dinner Too Close To Bedtime
If you eat a typical-sized dinner within an hour or two of hitting the sack, you’re setting yourself up for morning discomfort. Lying down impairs digestion, so if you hit the bed with food in your stomach, it won’t be broken down as quickly, leaving you bloated in the a.m., says Rumsey. It’s not always easy to shift your schedule, but try having supper at least three to four hours before turning in for the night. Stay on your feet as much as possible to keep things moving before you fall asleep. If you have no choice but to eat right before bedtime, make it something small, like a piece of fruit or yogurt, and refuel with a bigger meal at breakfast, when your metabolism is running high again and your body will benefit from the energy jolt.
Other Ways To Reduce Bloating
Bloating is a very common problem, but can often be resolved with relatively simple changes.
There are several strategies that can help reduce bloating, outlined in this article.
If you have persistent digestive problems, then you may want to consider a low-FODMAP diet. It can be incredibly effective, not just for bloating but for other digestive issues as well.
However, make sure to also see a doctor to rule out a potentially serious medical condition.
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Swallowing Too Much Air
Most people think of taking in air when they inhale, but it can also be done a number of other ways. Common daily habitssuch as drinking from a straw, chewing gum and eating too quicklyare ways to add air into your digestive tract instead of your respiratory system.
When you swallow too much air you can start to feel bloated, Hoffman said. If its becoming a problem, start cutting out gum and straws and see if that helps eases your symptoms.
How Is Bloating Treated
Bloating will usually go away by itself if you adjust your diet for a while. Cut down on salty foods, carbohydrates and fizzy drinks. For some people, it can help to avoid foods that contain onion or garlic, wheat, rye, lactose products or stone fruit.
Bloating caused by constipation can be treated by eating more high-fibre foods, increasing the amount of water that you drink, and exercising regularly. Some people may need laxatives to treat constipation.
If you have a medical condition such as coeliac disease, you will need to follow a strict diet to prevent bloating and other symptoms. If you have IBS, following a high-fibre diet and the low FODMAP diet may help. This involves cutting out some dairy products, wheat and other grains, and some fruits and vegetables. Talk to a health professional such as your doctor or a dietitian before starting this diet to make sure it is right for you.
If you have a food intolerance, you may need to try an elimination diet to find out which food or foods are causing your problems. Your doctor or dietitian will advise you.
Some people find that probiotics containing lactobacillus and bifidobacterium can help with bloating by reducing the production of gas in the gut.
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You Aren’t Getting Enough Sleep
A lack of sleep affects us in so many ways. When we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies release a stress hormone called cortisol, which disturbs our digestive system to cause things like bloating and constipation. A lack of sleep also causes us to crave carbohydrates, which lead us to overeat and feel bloated.
Tip: We all set a morning alarm, but try setting a bedtime alarm to remind you it’s time to hit the sheets.