chronic bloating?!

Hi,

Digestive health is often ignored and yet it is so vital to good health and weight loss. Have yogurt low fat with, 1 tsp of crushed sesame seeds, 1 tsp of crushed linseed, 2 tbs of wheatgerm top with 1/2 cup of fruit. I like to squeeze half an orange onto the dry ingredients and top it with either fresh mango or blue berries. Put it in a nice glass and it feels like a treat. You could also add to this a product called DigestEZE to your diet. Try and stick to a healthy diet, so limit white flour, rice and pasta along with sugar. Avoid processed foods and additives.

I hope this helps.

Marie

i had some similar issues recently- so far i have found artificial sweeteners and broccoli to be major offenders! I have a pretty sensitive digestive system so i'm pretty in tune with what can cause bloating. If you want to add me as a friend or open up your food diary to public i'd be more than happy to have a look and make some suggestions?

I'd suggest googling: Leaky Gut Syndrome, Probiotics and Prebiotics

I have suffered from this myself for about a year and a half now. It came out of the blue and was really weird because I had always considered myself to have "an iron gut". I still do not know what causes it and if I am not careful it comes back, but recently I have found some relief in easing up on simple carbohydrates, as well as my fruit intake. I am really sad about the fruit because I love it; but in researching issues, I feel that I may have a problem with fructose absorption (sugars in fruit and some sweet vegetables). It is still an ongoing "trial and error" for me, but like you mentioned, you can try and eliminate common causes one at a time. I also started taking a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme (you can find them in the supplement isle of most supermarkets) and it helped tremendously! Hope that might give you some ideas to consider.... I know it is frustrating! Good luck to you!

Lol.... one more thing to consider (sorry to keep posting, but I know how miserable and frustrated I have been with my battle and want to try and help)!

The people above may be on to something with the probiotics idea. In some of my reading, it sounds like the bad bacteria in our digestive system create gases as a waste product (like we do with exhaling CO2) and when they feed on sugars and starches (hence why I have cut simple carbs out of my diet) they go crazy on releasing those gases. There is no where for those gases to go, except build up pressure in the abdomen (bloating). When the good bacteria from a probiotic supplement begin to reclaim their territory they kill off the bad guys that cause all the gases, which should help your symptoms.

Also, you mentioned you are sensitive to coffee.... If you have not cut it out of your diet yet, I would try to do so (difficult for me, but it helped). Coffee supposedly speeds things up and causes "gastric emptying", which means the contents of your stomach tend to move along to the small intestine before they have had the time to break down and digest properly. Therefore, food continues to digest in your intestines, instead of your intestines absorbing nutrients and the digestion process causes more gases to be released (think a compost pile). Again, no where for it to go but bubble around in your abdomen, which is so unpleasant. They also say that this effect from coffee lasts for hours, so even if you have a cup in the morning and then eat a snack or lunch it will move too quickly through your system.

Ok, I am done giving you random advice now! Ha ha.... Good luck!

Sorry you are dealing with this. It can be very frustrating because it often takes some time to figure out what the cause is. I've learned that I cannot tolerate grains, legumes and dairy. I've also added probiotics into my regime and that has helped too. Good luck.

LindaLee2015 wrote: »

I'm not an expert on this but my daughter has lots of food allergies and sensitivities. Milk/lactose is the first thing that comes to mind to cause bloating. She also eats these little probiotic bars that she says helps a lot. Be diligent - you will figure it out!

That's the first thing that comes to mind for me as well. I spent years feeling ill and bloated every time I ate, assuming it was normal because I wasn't particularly healthy as a teenager. I moved out at 15 and didn't cook, so I ate a lot of mac and cheese and poutine. When I was 17 I decided to axe the junk and develop healthier eating habits, and started buying my lunches from the organic grocery store across the street, and I was eating a lot of yogurt. I still felt awful every time I ate until I decided to cut out the yogurt, and that's when I realized what my problem was. I have since avoided eating dairy and now I don't feel bloated anymore. It may not be a lactose-intolerance that you have, but it is likely an intolerance of some sort unless your diet consists of very high amounts of sodium. My suggestion is to cut out certain trigger food-types one at a time, and see which elimination helps. Make notes in your food diary about how you feel after each meal, identify potential trigger foods that come up often when you feel ill, and start with eliminating them one at a time until you find the right problem foods.