Bloating!

bananas can do it for me at times.

Welcome to the bloating arena! Stress is the cause of my bloating and apparently it's IBS. I have had a gut 2 inches bigger than normal for 2 weeks straight now. It's awful. And yes, it tends to get bigger as the day goes. I totally feel your pain.

I deal with this too... it's quite amazing the difference between a bloated and a non-bloated day. Peppermint tea is good to soothe stomach ailments, and fennel tea is good for excess gas, bloating, stomach discomfort. (it doesn't taste so great though, so I have to mix it with the peppermint).

I have found that when I am careful to eat foods in a way that my body can digest them properly, it helps quite a bit. For me, that means avoiding eating animal protein and starch in the same meal, and always eating fruit alone. It has to do with the body's digestive enzymes. The enzymes needed to digest animal protein are different from the enzymes needed to digest starch. When they are present at the same time, they will neutralize each other, leaving the food sitting, undigested and rotting in your system until your next meal forces it onward. The reason for eating fruit alone is that fruit is the most quickly digested food (from what I understand). It can be absorbed into your system in about 20 minutes. But if eaten with other foods, the body's energy and digestive enzymes tackle the other foods first, leaving the fruit to ferment... leading to bloating, gas, discomfort.

I always used to think that bloating I'm feeling now is directly related to what I ate last. But doing research on the digestive system helped me realize that our food lingers in our bodies for up to 72 hours before digestion is complete. Therefore, bloating in the abdominal area may be more a result of what I ate 2-3 days ago than what I had for my last snack. It is important to pay attention to how you feel not only immediately after consumption, but to sort of track how you feel for the next 48-72 hours to see if you can find a correlation.

I realize that the "normal" person probably doesn't need to go to this extent. Please forgive me if I seem like I'm on a soapbox. I by no means want to assume this is right for everyone. . Pretty sure there are lots of various reasons and factors people get bloated, and this is just one of them. I just know that it seems to be helping me a lot, so on that basis, it is worth sharing. My bloating is significantly less when I follow these guidelines, and considerably worse when I don't. :flowerforyou:

You would be suprised what dairy products can sneak into, are you checking to make sure food does'nt contain whey protien etc? Maybe there could be a minor wheat intolerence, as lot of people with lactose intolerence can't have wheat either. I think you would have to be having a lot of sodium to cause that much difference, but maybe up your water intake or try some herbal teas. Nettle tea is quite good for fluid retention & general cleansing.
I suffer a lot from bloating as i have so many intolerences, i live through herbal teas to control the symptoms and it really helps. Hope you find the cause

Youmight consider looking at the wheat issues as suggested above. I have the same problem with bloating. I figured out that I am wheat intolerant. Once I cut out wheat the afternoon bloat decreased. Sadly it has not stopped. Certain vegetable get me also - broccoli is one.

For me its excess sugar that makes me bloat - goes straight to the belly. As long as I drink tons of water, stay away from processed sugar (fruits don't bother me), and exercise it pretty much keeps the belly down.

Just took a quick peak at your diary. I am not familiar with VitaQuench, but I looked at the ingredients [Natural Flavours, Acidity Regulators (296, 330), Maltodextrin, Salt, Sweeteners (955, 950), Vitamins (Ascorbic Acid (C), B1, B3, B5, B6, B7, B12) ] And although I have no idea what “Sweeteners” or “Acidity Regulators” are, these may in fact be the culprits behind your bloat.

Aside from being unable to tolerate the aftertaste, artificial sweeteners universally upset my stomach. And, if you do in fact have a gluten intolerance, the maltodextrin may be triggering a reaction. Do you get bloated if you drink only water and no VitaQuench?

Edited to Add:
Just googled. Sweetners 950 is Acesulfame Potassium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acesulfame_potassium)
Sweetners 955 is Sucralose (http://www.australianbeverages.org/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=ASP0002/ccms.r?PageId=10091#WHAT_IS_SUCRALOSE_AND_HOW_IS_IT_MADE?)

Try an anti gas or magnesium pills, but yes this can happen!

A TON of "diet" foods are loaded with sodium which causes water retention (and therefore bloating). I'm guilty of eating this stuff. :-/ :-)

Flavored rice cakes, sugar free Jell-o, pickles... if it's low cal and tastes pretty good they're making up for it somewhere. :-D