Admit it; you’ve been there before… you’re so excited… you see your food coming out at the restaurant; you open up your lunch container after thinking about it for the last two hours at work; you get home from work and open the fridge looking for a snack.

Snap. It’s gone. You’ve virtually inhaled your food.

Now your stomach hurts, you’re bloated, you’re gassy, and you can’t even remember if you enjoyed your food.

Sound familiar?

Bloating after meals is extremely common. I see it almost weekly in clinic. But just because something is common, it does not mean it’s normal.

Your stomach will stretch after meals (duh, there is food in there) but bloating that you’re sore, you look pregnant, or you’re extremely gassy is NOT normal.

While health gurus or marketing ploys will try and sell you the latest supplements for #guthealth, I explain to my clients 3 simple tips to not only reduce their bloating after meals, but improve their overall digestion and subsequently, quality of life.

TIP NUMBER 1 – CHEW YOUR FOOD

• • Sounds simple, huh? Digestion begins in the mouth. Do you take 3-4 bites of your food before wolfing it down? Chewing your food begins mechanical digestion (mastication), an extremely important part of the digestive process. By breaking down food in your mouth, your stomach doesn’t have to work as hard. Chewing creates and adds saliva to the food. Saliva contains enzymes that contribute to chemical digestion, which is ESPECIALLY helpful for carbohydrate metabolism (a culprit of bloating and gas).
  • Chewing also stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach. HCl regulates your stomach’s pH levels, helps break down proteins, activates enzymes that contribute to the breakdown of food and absorption of essential nutrients, kills viruses and bacteria that enter the stomach, and signals gastric motility (the movement of food along the digestive tract).
  • So yes, chewing is essential for better digestion. Try to chew your food at least 30 times before swallowing.

“Drink your solids and chew your liquids.”

TIP NUMBER 2 – SLOW DOWN

• Whether it’s excitement, stress, a quick lunch break, being distracted, or simply just being hangry… many of us eat far too quickly for our digestive system to operate as it should. When we eat, we want to be in a parasympathetic state, also known as “rest and digest”. When our body is in a sympathetic state, aka “fight or flight”, it slows down or stops non-essential processes, including digestion. Stress is a huge culprit of digestive distress, particularly IBS-like symptoms.
• Slowing down and eating mindfully can help reduce overeating. Stretch receptors within the digestive tract stimulate the Vagas nerve (neuronal pathway to the brain) to trigger satiation and reduce appetite.

Try taking smaller bites of food or cutting your food into small pieces, put your cutlery down between mouthfuls, smell and observe your food, and even take 10 deep breaths before beginning any meal, to activate a parasympathetic state.

TIP NUMBER 3 – DIGESTIVE BITTERS

• What do you taste when you eat food? Is it salty? Is it sweet? Is it bitter? Is it sour? These are examples of senses/tastes that receptors on your tongue detect. Each sense alerts the brain to begin a variety of physical and chemical mechanisms throughout the body.
• Bitter foods stimulate bitter taste receptors on the tongue, which acts as a first line of defence to protect your body against the ingestion of potentially harmful compounds. These receptors send signals through the digestive tract (even into the intestines) to trigger defence systems and increase digestive secretions in the stomach to help break down food.

Feeling gaseous, nauseated, or bloated after eating?

Try incorporating bitter foods into the start of your meal to activate digestion pathways. These include coffee, dandelion greens, kale, citrus foods, spinach, watercress, sprouts, cabbage, coriander, and many more.

Struggling with uncomfortable tummy feelings? Get in touch with me here for a free, confidential chat to get you back to feeling your best self again.

References:

Taste and the Gastrointestinal tract: from physiology to potential therapeutic target for obesity

Food, Eating, and the Gastrointestinal Tract