Is it all body fat around the middle, or am I bloated?
Food intolerance is an issue for the majority of people today, and often most people can’t quite put their finger on what is causing the issue. Many people are unhappy with their body, in particular their stomach, thinking they need to lose weight. Although this may be partly true, often people are actually chronically bloated all the time, and also suffer from water retention.
Have you ever walked past the mirror one day, and found yourself to be looking leaner than normal, then found later that day, or a day or two later your back to looking like you have more body fat than you’d like? The chances are you simply didn’t consume a particular food you often consume. One of 14 common allergens are eggs for example. Let’s say you have eggs for breakfast, however you run out mid week before your weekend shop, so you go without eggs for a few days. If you had an intolerance to eggs, either the white, yolk or both, then those few days without could ease off the bloating appearance until you consume them again, making you look and feel slimmer.
14 Common Allergens
Cereals containing gluten, in particular: wheat, rye, barley, oats
Crustaceans, for example prawns, crab, lobster, crayfish
Eggs
Fish
Peanuts
Soybeans
Milk (including lactose)
Nuts, in particular almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia (or Queensland) nuts
Celery (including celeriac)
Mustard
Sesame
Sulphur dioxide/sulphites, where added and at a level above 10mg/kg or 10mg/L in the finished product. This can be sued as a preservative in fried fruit
Lupin, which includes lupin seeds and flour and can be found in types of bread, pastries and pasta
Molluscs, like mussels, whelks, oysters, snails and squid
By no means should you feel you have to avoid all these 14 allergens. Your body may be able to digest and process most, if not all of these. However more commonly than not, your body may be reacting negatively to one or more of these allergens. My advice will be to cut them ALL out for between 1-3 months. Most people will usually notice a change within a couple of days, which could be less bloating, more energy, clearer healthier skin, better sleep, improved digestion, improved mood, etc.
After you have cut them out for at least a month (ideally up to 3 months), only reintroduce them one at a time (one per week) so you can identify if that particular allergen may have been the issue/cause. Many people experience issues, such as bloating in as little as 1-2 hours after consuming a food they are intolerant too, with some people having effects almost immediately.
Often a food intolerance is the result of frequency of use, where you simple consume a certain food or drink too often. For example an intolerance to blueberries and someone who drinks Ribena several times throughout the day. Or someone with an intolerance to Wheat, who consumes toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, and buttered bread with their evening meal, with the bread containing gluten been consumed far too often. And that’s not included other products that also contain wheat (there are many!). The body can often produce enough of the enzymes needed to breakdown the food once or twice a day, but enough more often than this.
Other times a food intolerance may cause bloating/gas could be sudden stress in life, either physically or mentally. This can be a loss of a loved one or an accident/injury. Another common cause is by starting on certain medications. The most common culprit is by taking a course of antibiotics, which also start killing off the good bacteria in your gut, disrupting the good vs bad bacteria balance, causing gastric upset and bloating. Or you may be experiencing a stress from a change in life, such as a new school, hitting puberty, change of jobs, or a noticeable overall increase in your day by day stress, such as work overload.
Some of the more common causes of bloating/gas include:
Digestive Disorder, which could include Leaky Gut Syndrome, Crohn’s, IBS, Celiac, Ulcerative Colitis or a number of other digestive disorders. You should avoid foods that are intolerances to your body as they will be aggravating the gut and causing inflammation of the gut lining.
Fluid Retention, often consumed by too much salt (sodium), either added to our food, or already added to our foods, particularly with processed and packaged foods. A lack of other nutrients such as potassium also result in us retaining water, giving us that spongy look, which can make us look like we have more body fat than we actually do.
Dehydration is another main cause of bloating, as every single cell in our body needs water to function correctly. It’s also important for maintaining blood volume so our body can transport nutrients, oxygen and also waste products where they need to go in the body. Stage competition bodybuilders will often drink lot’s of water constantly to help their body ‘let go’ of retained water, so they appear leaner and more firm. The same goes for boxers wanting to get their weight down before they get weighed for a fight so they end up in the correct fighting weight category. If your body doesn’t have a regular intake of water, your body will try to retain and hold on to what little water it gets. If you consume energy drinks and other drinks containing caffeine, these will act as a diuretic and cause you to lose more water than you take in, alcohol been another classic example.
Constipation is another major cause of bloating/gas as food can be slow moving through the digestive system. Often this can be caused by a lack of dietary fibre and dehydration, or poor food choices. An electrolyte imbalance can sometimes contribute to constipation too. When food sits around in the gut too long, it ferments, producing gases such as methane and hydrogen to name a couple. This is contributed to the fact that many of us eat far too quickly and don’t chew our food properly before swallowing. You should always chew your food until it resembles a ‘soup like’ consistency before swallowing. This also reduces the swallowing of air, which is another major factor leading to bloating (especially so when drinking carbonated/fizzy drinks).
Food Intolerances & Sensitivities are something I have spoke about already, further up the page. Everyone is likely to have some sort of food intolerance or sensitivity. You can probably think of at least one food now that you know your body doesn’t agree with in some way. Some intolerances can be long term which you’ve always had, or may have to put up with for several months, where as others can be short term, where you may simply have been consuming too much of a certain food or liquid too often, and need to have a break for a month or two. Sometimes it may be a combination of several foods your sensitive too, that have been consumed together to regularly causing a reaction, where individually they may not be as bad on your body. This can be similar to stress, where each individual stress in life can be managed, but when they all come at you at once, it can be hard to cope with.
Results typically come back within 7 days - Only requires a hair or nail sample
Discover foods your intolerance to, causing stress or weakness on your body and discover what deficiencies you have in vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids and supplements
(Includes advice, recommendations and support from myself)
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is often caused by an overgrowth of bad bacteria. We want a good balance of both good and bad bacteria, however too much bad and not enough good can lead to all sorts of bloating/gas and other digestive issues. There are foods you should avoid, foods you should add to your diet, and supplements you may choose to take which can help with this.
Infections can often cause issues, with some of the more common infections being yeast infections and candida infections, which are mainly caused by the over consumption of sugar, which lead to an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut, which literally feeds off these yeasts and sugars, producing large amounts of gas, leading to gastric upset and discomfort. This is one of the major more common causes of bloating/gas and I strongly recommend you considerably reduce your overall carbohydrate intake, in particular avoiding refined sugars, including those found in fruit juices. Fruit also contains sugar in the form of fructose and should be consumed in moderation. There are also supplements, such as pre and probiotics which can massively help in increasing the amount of good bacteria in your gut.
Bowel Obstruction can sometime be a cause of bloating/gas, especially when accompanied by pain and intense discomfort. This is something to consider when you think any of the above may not apply, and when you find you’ve not been to the loo for few days. This can be a serious problem and you should consider seeking advice from your GP. However making better food choices can help you reduce or avoid bowel obstruction in the future.
Hormonal Changes can often be a key factor, especially with women at certain times of the month. This can often lead to bloating, and often water retention too. Also women who take a contraceptive pill can also sometimes have issues relating to bloating and digestive upset.
Cancer no matter where it is in the body, can have a negative impact on digestive health. Almost every type of cancer treatment can cause bloating and digestive issues.
Recommended Foods to Reduce Bloating/Gas
Probiotics, either as a supplement, or probiotic foods included fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut ad kimichi, kefir, and others.
Raw Dairy in some people can cause bloating, such as those who don’t respond well to cow’s milk in general, or more commonly those who have issues with lactose, the sugar found in dairy. Products such as fermented yoghurts can actually help reduce bloating, including diaries that have probiotics added to them.
Water Rich Foods – Earlier I mentioned about how dehydration can be a major factor, so consuming water rich foods such as celery, cucumber, fruits, can all help add more water to your body. Consider a food intolerance test thou, or observe how your body responds to certain foods in case you might be sensitive to that type of food (celery been one of the 14 common allergens).
Herbs & Spices such as Ginger and Peppermint for example have been shown in research, and has been used successfully by humans to reduce bloating. Others include chamomile and many others.
Teas can also help reduce or avoid bloating, especially if replacing too much coffee throughout the day. Some examples include chamomile, fennel, peppermint, cumin and caraway.
Foods to AVOID that promote bloating
Sugary Foods & Drinks feed the candida and bad bacteria overgrowth, not to mention the gas found in sugary carbonated drinks that ends up in your gut.
Chewing Gum contains artificial sweeteners such as Xylitol which cause your you to produce and deplete various enzymes needed for breaking down food. So when you do consume actual food, your body struggles to digest properly, leading to bloating.
Conventional Dairy products have been pasteurized, which means they are heated up to a high temperature which kills off the enzymes and good bacteria, which promotes bloating. Many have been processed in many other ways which makes them very hard for the body to digest, especially the lactose.
Refined Grains which contain disaccharides, which are two sugars linked together. Most people can break these down, but when we have poor digestion, these go without been broken down, which causes bloating and gas.
Difficult to digest vegetables, particular raw vegetables are very hard for the body to digest, and instead are best slow cooked, for example as part of a bone broth mix. Instead consume cooked vegetables, and where possible fermented vegetables.
Unsprouted Beans/Legumes should be avoided, or at the very least soaked and/or pressure cooked. They contain raffinose sugars which come off during soaking, which otherwise would be very hard to digest, causing bloating.
Artificial Sweeteners are in more foods and drinks than you may realise, especially any kind of “Diet” drink or “No Sugar” drink, or flavoured waters. Some examples include Aspartame, NutraSweet, Sucralose, which can damage you gut lining, leading to conditions such as leaky gut syndrome, which is one of many major causes of bloating.
Final Words...
So within this article I’ve talked through a variety of potential causes and reasons why you may be bloated, and I’ve shown you how what you think may be body fat, may actually be chronic bloating, where you’re simply bloated the majority of the time, so it’s what your always used to seeing.
Be sure to apply the advice I have mentioned in this article, with an overall aim to HEAL YOUR GUT by avoiding the foods and liquids which potentially are causing bloating and digestive upset, chew your food more and drink more water to allow your digestion to function correctly, and consider supplementing your diet with supplements which can improve your digestion, such as a decent Probiotic to increase good bacteria. Some people have also advice consuming an Aloe Vera drink has helped soothe there gut, along with Digestive Enzymes with Betaine HCL to help breakdown the food better. Another good supplement is Apple Cider Vinegar which will aid digestion and has many health benefits.
Finally I strongly recommend you find out what foods are actually causing upset to your gut form food intolerances, either by having a food intolerance test done through a hair or nail sample, or simply using the method of elimination and reintroducing foods one by one later down the line to see if firstly cutting them out helped, and secondly what effect they have when introduced one by one.
Supplement Disclaimer
Always do your own research on supplements and make an informed decision before taking. Always read the label, and speak with your doctor first if you are unsure. If you are on any medication, speak to your GP or Pharmacist for information on possible interactions with your medication.
Results typically come back within 7 days - Only requires a hair or nail sample
Discover foods your intolerance to, causing stress or weakness on your body and discover what deficiencies you have in vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids and supplements
(Includes advice, recommendations and support from myself)
My Recommended Video List
Why Am I Bloated? + Best and Worst Foods to Beat the Bloat
Dr Josh Axe with Jordan Rubin
(YouTube Link - Opens in new window)
Are You Bloated or Fat? How to Tell the Difference
Celebrity Personal Trainer Thomas DeLauer
(YouTube Link - Opens in new window)
How to Reduce BLOATING Quickly
Dr Eric Berg
(YouTube Link - Opens in new window)
7 Reasons for Bloating, Especially on Keto (Ketogenic Diet)
Dr Eric Berg
(YouTube Link - Opens in new window)
Broken Link? Please let me know.