Some Tips to Avoid Bloating

Quick shout out to everyone that's been experiencing bloating!🌪

 

This is super common for vegans so I figured I would give you all my two cents.

 

So let me start with saying that #1, when you eat... your belly grows. At the end of the day, you should have SOME SORT of little food baby because well that's just how things work! So that's caveat #1.

 

Caveat #2. is that if you're brand new to vegan/plant-based off of the standard american diet, you're starting to have to eat more mass to get the same amount of calories you did before. This means inevitably, a bit more bloating.

 

Our bodies also aren’t used to having to work so hard to digest more whole foods if this is the case. Higher processed foods, while much less healthy, are usually easier to digest. Our stomach muscles will get stronger as we stick to a more WFPB diet!

 -Now that we've got those things out of the way. Let's talk about some other things that cause bloating, and how you could potentially eliminate it.

Tip #1. 

Eat slower and more mindfully.

This one is pretty straightforward. The more you can break down your food before you put it into your stomach, the better off you’ll be. Slow down. Eat a bit more mindfully. If we’re slower when we eat, we can chew our food more, which helps it be more digestible. We can let the saliva do its job to break down food as well. These things make it easier for the stomach to do its job. and we’ll also be swallowing less air(big factor in bloating). 

When we eat a bit slower, we also give the stomach time to PREPARE! Digestion starts in the brain, which sends signals to the stomach that it’s time to start producing enzymes necessary for digestion. 

I’d like to stress here again that SWALLOWING TONS OF AIR is going to exacerbate your bloating by a huge margin. Gum, mouth breathing, and mouth dryness are all things that will contribute to bloating as well. 

Tip #2. 

Exercise. 

When we exercise more, we increase the strength of our muscles in our core. When these muscles are stronger, we can digest food more effectively. 

Just about everything increases core strength. You don’t have to do specific ab workouts(if you know anything about my training philosophy, I think ab focused workouts are a massive waste of time for the majority of people based on their goals), but you should make sure that fitness is a regular part of your lifestyle. 

Tip #3. 

Cut back on processed foods. 

Processed and refined foods can lead to an increase in growth of a gut fungi called Candida Albicans. Candida is going to release gas as a byproduct of it’s own digestion. Where’s that gas going? Right to your gut hun. 

There are a million and one reasons to cut processed foods, but this is just one of them! 

Just a few tips to help you combat that annoying bloating! 

You can also consider drinking more water and eating smaller, but more regular meals. Both of these things will help to keep your digestive system moving things along, and could help you to curb that bloating! 

Hope this stuff helps :)