Your stomach feels so swollen you can barely button the trousers or skirt that fitted perfectly a few days ago. What’s going on? Bloating is caused by excess gas in the intestines. Bad eating habits, certain foods, or hormones can bring the feeling on – and it’s extremely common in women, especially in the run up to a period. To help you feel better fast, check out these smart ways to beat the bloat.

1. Drink up: Boosting your water intake can work wonders. Water flushes waste out of your system and helps get things moving if you’re constipated – a frequent cause of bloating, especially in pregnant women and new mums. And don’t forget to eat lots of fruits and veggies, because they’re about 80 to 90 percent water. Oranges and watermelon are two great options.
2. Think Zen: Be mindful of your eating habits. Chew slowly and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Gulping fast food and drinking on the run causes you to swallow too much air, which can cause bloating. Listen to your body’s timeless wisdom and choose healthful, nourishing foods you enjoy for meals and snacks; then savour every bite. Digestion begins in the mouth. If you chew slowly, it helps your digestive system operate more effectively, allowing your body to get the proper nutrients and energy it needs from the food you eat. Avoid drinking with food so that your digestive system can work at its optimum.
3. Eat more fibre: Fibre prevents constipation by adding bulk, which helps everything move through the intestines more quickly. Women need at least 25 grams of fibre daily, yet most of us get barely half that amount. To fix the fibre shortage, start your morning with a whole grain cereal like porridge sprinkled with ground linseeds (flaxseeds) or muesli. Throughout the day, snack on other high-fibre foods like strawberries, blueberries, dried apricots, and dried plums. But be careful that you don’t add too much fibre too fast, or you’ll feel even more bloated than before. Your body needs time to get used to processing the increased bulk.
4. Peppermint and papaya supplements are two refreshing bloat-busters: Soothing peppermint relaxes the muscles that allow the body to rid itself of painful digestive gas, and the menthol in this aromatic herb aids digestion by stimulating the flow of natural digestive juices and bile, making it a safe and natural de-bloater. The luscious, exotic tropical fruit papaya contains papain, a digestive enzyme that encourages proper digestion and absorption of foods.
5. Cut back on gassy foods: Beans and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage contain sugars that are difficult for some people to digest. But you don’t have to give them up entirely. Instead, eat just a small portion of these foods at a time. Once your body adjusts to them, you can gradually increase the serving size over the course of a few weeks.
6. Live yogurt: Lactobacillus acidophilus is one of the friendly bacteria that live in the intestines. When eaten it travels to the intestines and crowds out the harmful bacteria that may be causing symptoms of painful gas and bloating. One source of these bacteria is yoghurts that contain live, active culture. It’s important to look for yogurts that specifically say they contain live culture, as many types of yogurts are heat-treated to kill the bacteria before being sold. Avoid fruit yogurts as they can contain up to 8 teaspoons of sugar and buy organic where possible. For people who either can’t tolerate dairy or who choose not to eat dairy, use a good probiotic containing these friendly bacteria. The one I use in the clinic is called BioKult.
7. Go Bananas: Bloating can be relieved by vitamin B6 which is a natural diuretic. Healthy foods that are rich in vitamin B6 include bananas, alfalfa, lentils, oily fish, soya, raw nuts and seeds, especially walnuts, green leafy vegetables, rye, oats and brown rice. Other natural diuretics include asparagus, celery, watermelon, and parsley (the parsley will help freshen your breath as well!). These diuretic “super foods” will help to flush excess water out of your system.
8. Shake the salt habit: Hold the salt or at least cut down, especially the week before your period. Too much salt makes your body retain fluids. And that’s pretty much a sure fire way to bring on the bloat. Instead of shaking on the salt or consuming high-sodium commercially prepared foods, experiment with flavourful spices and herbs such as cumin, garlic, cayenne, and lemon and lime zest.
9. You also need to eat more often: If you leave your stomach empty for long periods of time the secretion of digestive enzymes slows down. On the other hand, if you eat too much this can overload your stomach which can cause gas and bloating so remember to eat regular meals and snacks every two to three hours.
10. Get moving: Even a quick ten-minute walk can relieve bloating. Exercise helps gas pass through the digestive tract more quickly, so you feel better faster.
11. Do dairy wisely: If milk, yogurt, and other dairy products give you gas then take a break from them. You might find that you can digest yogurt but struggle with milk, as milk contains more lactose.
12. Don’t bite off more than you can chew: One big cause of bloating is swallowing too much air when you eat. For example, you might gulp air if you snack on the run and eat too quickly, talk while eating, drink from a straw, or down a lot of soft fizzy drinks or sparkling water. Force yourself to take more time for meals, skip carbonated drinks, and eat smaller amounts of food at each sitting. One of the easiest ways to reduce the amount of air you swallow: Chew with your mouth closed.
13. Aromatherapy oils can be helpful for bloating: Add juniper, fennel or chamomile to a warm bath and soak for 20 minutes. Alternatively before you go to bed drink a tablespoon of olive oil and lemon juice and lie down on your right hand side and massage your stomach. And if you feel constipated, another cause of bloating, take two tablespoons of olive oil in the morning on an empty stomach. Olive oil can help reduce constipation and bloating because it is very well tolerated by the stomach due to its high oleic acid content. Another good tip for constipation is to soak a tablespoon of whole linseeds (flaxseeds) over night and swallow in the morning.
14. You might also want to settle down with the odd cup of fennel tea: Just brew a tablespoon or so of fennel in a tea strainer and drink several cups a day. Fennel tastes like liquorice and has anti-gas as well as anti-spasmodic properties, making it especially helpful for bloating.
15. Monitor your medication: Numerous over-the-counter and pre-scription drugs, such as antidepressants, antihistamines, iron pills, and calcium supplements with calcium carbonate, can cause constipation and bloating, especially when you first start to take them. Talk to your doctor if you think that a medication may be giving you side effects.

Forget you are what you eat; you are what you digest. If your digestion is poor, however healthy your diet, you won’t be giving your body the nutrients it needs to reach your true health potential.

Symptoms such as tiredness, stress, bad skin and hair, poor immunity, weight gain and low energy are all outward signs that all is not working as it should be on the inside.

Taking care of your gut:

If your gut isn’t healthy, neither is the rest of your body. Digestion consists of three processes – absorption, assimilation and excretion. If any of these aren’t working properly it can affect your whole wellbeing. Read on to find out how you can make sure your digestion is in good working order and lower your risk of leaky gut and all kinds of other problems.

Leaky gut syndrome:

Your gut is colonised by bacteria – both good and bad – which must be in balance for you to be in tip top digestive health. Unfortunately, if your diet is poor and stress levels are high this balance is likely to be upset and a poorly recognised but extremely common condition called leaky gut syndrome may develop.

A leaky gut is bad news for a number of reasons. Not only can it trigger stomach upsets, bloating, constipation and diarrhoea it can also trigger a lethal combination of nutritional deficiencies and toxic overloads that increase the likelihood of blood sugar imbalances and weight gain. Even worse it can make your gut hyper-permeable and more likely to allow unwanted particles into your blood stream. This can cause your immune system to be on high alert all the time, as it does not recognize these foreign particles and the result is food allergies, mysterious pains, inflammation, fatigue, dizziness, fogginess and poor concentration.

Chew it over:

If you don’t chew your food properly you give more work to the rest of the digestive system which puts it under stress. As well as making food easier to swallow, saliva contains enzymes that contribute to the chemical process of digestion.

If food is not properly chewed nutrients remain locked in and undigested matter feeds bad bacteria, which can lead to bacterial overgrowth, wind and other symptoms of poor digestion. Chewing also relaxes the lower stomach muscles and triggers nerve messages which activate the whole digestive process. Aim to chew food until it is small enough to swallow easily. As a rule of thumb if you can tell what kind of food you are eating from its texture, not its taste, you haven’t chewed it enough.

Say the f word:

Fibre or roughage stimulates your digestive tract and helps it work more efficiently. It also promotes health-giving bacteria in your large intestine, softens stools to prevent constipation, slows down the absorption of carbohydrates (which in turn helps to reduce food cravings) and aids weight control. The best way to get your fill of fibre is to eat a combination of different fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

Drink up:

Sufficient fluid intake is essential to keep food moving down your digestive tract and to flush out toxins which would otherwise stay in your bowel. Aim to drink three to four pints of liquid – preferably filtered or mineral water – every day. Sipping between meals rather than drinking with food helps your body to absorb nutrients. Add a slice of lemon to pep up plain water and experiment with non caffeinated herbal teas and well diluted pure fruit juices.

Don’t count alcohol in your daily fluid intake. The odd tipple is fine but if you drink too much you inflame your stomach lining and unsettle your blood sugar levels which can lead to a down turn in energy.

How you eat:

How you eat is as important as what you eat for a healthy digestion. Keep your portions moderate, eat at regular times – your digestion system works best when it knows what to expect – and take the time to chew every mouthful and savour every bite.

Probiotics:

Probiotics are the good guys, the healthy gut bacteria which are important for the assimilation of nutrients and for making B vitamins, which are vital for a healthy nervous system. They create the right environment in your digestive system and act as a food source for good bacteria, ensuring the right type of bacteria colonise the gut. A number of factors can disrupt the balance of bacterial in your gut, such as stress, illness (especially diarrhoea), thrush and antibiotics. Probiotics have been used to help ease problems such as thrush and chronic fatigue. They may also have other benefits. Recent research from Sweden, for example, showed that a group of employees who took probiotics had less absence from work than those who were not given them. Other studies have found that probiotics can help manage irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.

If you have a hectic lifestyle, are prone to colds and/or flu, are taking antibiotics or have a history of stress related digestive disorders such as IBS you could benefit from probiotics. You may want to take probiotic supplements, but probiotics are also found in fruit and vegetables like bananas, artichokes, leeks, onions, garlic, asparagus and chicory. (A good probiotic I use in the clinic is Bio Kult). Cultured or fermented foods such as live yoghurt, miso, and tamari also contain various types and amounts of these ‘friendly’ bacteria.

Be active:

Regular aerobic activity (at least 30 minutes of any activity that makes you feel slightly breathless and sweaty five or six days a week) helps stimulate the muscles of the digestive system, helping you to digest food better and expel waste more efficiently.

Watch your stress levels:

Your stomach and intestines are very sensitive to stress and when you feel anxious digestion shuts down to help your body focus on preparing the flight or fight response. This means that food is only partially digested, leading to poor digestion and eventually nutrient deficiency. Finding ways to manage and cope with stress is important for your digestive health as well as your emotional health. It is also important to eat in a relaxed and calm state.