10 Tips And Tricks To Help Reduce Your Bloating
We all hate bloating when we reach the end of the day. Whether it makes your stomach hurt, gives you indigestion, or you just don’t like how it makes your stomach look, we all want to reduce bloating as much as possible. There are several things you can do to reduce your bloating throughout the day and overtime to improve your overall gut health. Here are some of those tips and tricks to help you keep a lean stomach throughout the day.
Consume Probiotics
Probiotics are one of the most important aspects to maintaining a healthy gut, which leads to less bloating. You can take probiotic supplements to help you get your daily serving, or you can eat foods that are naturally infused with probiotics, such as yogurt or tempeh. If you plan to eat foods that contain probiotics, be sure to avoid ones with a lot of sugar, as this can reduce the effectiveness of them for your gut health.
Reduce Your Sodium Intake
One of the perpetrators for your bloating is likely all those salty snacks or meals. Foods that are high in sodium make you bloat way more since it forces your kidneys to hold onto extra water. To reduce your sodium, avoid pre-packaged snacks and meals, since so many of them are very high in sodium. Instead, make the food yourself. When seasoning your food, perhaps lay off the salt a bit and try some different spices and herbs to give your food a new flavor that won’t make you bloat.
Eat More Leafy Greens And Berries
If you’re looking for an overall healthy set of foods that are extremely nutritious and good for your gut health, look no further. Both leafy greens, such as spinach and kale, and berries, such as blueberries and blackberries, are excellent at reducing inflammation and bloat. Both are packed with dietary fiber, which helps your colon produce stool, which aids in reducing gas and bloating. Leafy greens and berries are easy to incorporate into your diet, you can include them in smoothies, salads, or eat them on their own.
Have A Few Small Meals Per Day
Instead of waiting hours throughout the day to eat your meals, try having more small meals throughout the day. After waiting hours to eat, you tend to get ravenous, or even “hangry,” which might cause you to overeat. Keeping yourself well fed throughout the day with smaller meals and snacks is an excellent way to prevent you from overeating, which will therefore help you reduce your bloat. It will also help you prevent you from having that awkward distended belly.
Drink Plenty Of Water With Lemon
Staying hydrated throughout the day is one of the best ways to reduce bloating. Drinking water will soften your stools, which makes them easier to pass and reduces bloating in the form of gas and constipation. By adding lemon into your water, you’ll help improve the stool removal process even more. Lemon can act as a subtle laxative, which will help move your stools out of your colon and will also help flush the stored water out of your kidneys. Both of these important characteristics of lemon will help reduce your bloating throughout the day.
Opt For Non-Fried Foods
Although fried foods are delicious and oftentimes comforting, they may be to blame for all of your bloating. Fried food is sometimes more difficult for your stomach to digest. Instead of leaning towards those chicken nuggets and french fries, choose baked, grilled, roasted or broiled chicken or potatoes. These won’t be packed with nearly as many oils and fats and will be a little kinder to your stomach. This simple switch will greatly reduce your bloating overtime.
Drink Black Coffee
For all of those coffee lovers out there, here’s a good reason to keep drinking your morning cup of joe. Black coffee can be a great way to help keep your bowel movements regular. However, that means all of that additional milk, sugar and syrup won’t be the most helpful when it comes to your gut health. If you want to keep your bloating to a minimum, try slowly ditching all of the sweetening add-ons in your cup of coffee to get all of the gut healthy benefits. It might take a while, and if you can’t bring yourself to drink black coffee, the fewer sweeteners, the better.
Drink Green Or Herbal Teas
If you can’t get on board with coffee without your favorite flavoring and milk option, there’s still hot beverages you can try to get those same gut healthy benefits. Herbal tea and green tea are an excellent way to help keep your bowel movements consistent and regular, along with providing your body with essential antioxidants. Additionally, herbal teas will continue to hydrate your body and keep your stools nice and smooth, which will help reduce your bloating overall.
Eat Whole, Non-Processed Foods
One of the best ways to decrease your bloating is to avoid processed foods all together. Process foods can not only be high in sodium, but can also contain ingredients that are difficult for your stomach to digest, which will decrease your overall gut health. By eating whole foods or making your meals from scratch, you’ll know exactly what’s going into them and can control whether or not the ingredients are good for your gut health.
Increase Your Ginger Intake
Ginger is one of the best ingredients to improving your overall gut health. It aids in moving food through your gastrointestinal system more quickly, so it is less likely to undergo fermentation which leads to gas and bloating. You can consume your dosage of ginger through teas, juices, or by adding it into your dishes for an extra flavor.
Nobody likes going to bed with that uncomfortable feeling that comes with indigestion and feeling bloated. Fortunately, there are many small changes you can make to your diet and lifestyle to help reduce your bloating overall. Hopefully this list gives you an idea of what ways you can improve your gut health.
