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All of us have been bloated at one point or another in our lives, and it is definitely not a pleasant feeling. You are taken over by sluggishness, pressure, discomfort, and maybe even the sense that you are swelling up like a human balloon. There are various medical conditions that lead to chronic bloating, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s disease and lactose intolerance, but many people swell up because of a much more controllable problem: overeating. In order to understand how overeating affects bloating, we must first understand how it works and then identify strategies to get rid of your case of the bloats!
When you feel bloated you will feel a fullness and heaviness in your abdomen. It can also be accompanied by sharp pains and stomach cramps. These symptoms are caused when food is not being properly digested by the body, which is often a sign that the body is not hydrated enough: hydration supports that body’s main functions, including digestion. These symptoms can be caused by a medical condition, like those stated above, but they can also be caused by a build-up of excess fat that blocks the body’s ability to digest food and empty the stomach because fat cells are developing that block these processes. Engaging in eating habits that are full of fatty, sugary, starchy foods contribute to this process, and overeating and overindulging on junk food leads directly to it. If you are experiencing chronic bloating and it is not due to a medical condition, you might want to pinpoint your diet as the culprit. If you are suffering from chronic bloating, here are some ways to attenuate your symptoms while you build up better eating habits:
- Exercise! If you are feeling bloated then nothing helps more than physical activity. Take a walk, stretch, go for a jog-anything to keep your body in motion. You should be doing this regularly anyway, but the bloats give you a good incentive to make exercise a habit.
- Hydrate! Get that water flowing through your body! Dehydration leads to severe bloating so your body needs lots of water to fight the bloats. Most people do not drink the 8 glasses of water their body needs a day, so challenge yourself to stay properly hydrated.
- Lemon squeeze! The bloats can be mitigated by sipping on a glass of diluted lemon juice-or straight lemon juice for the brave. Lemon is an alkalizing citrus that will help your body steady its salt levels, detox toxins, and squeeze out the bloats.
Nobody likes coming down with a bad case of the bloats, but the good news is you don’t have to if you know how to manage your eating habits by avoiding overeating. Nobody is perfect and nobody will eat perfectly, so if you do find yourself swelling up after a particularly heavy meal, use the tips above to get rid of the bloats and back to feeling like your perky, healthy, self.
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