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Check nowBloating is a common digestive complaint, and it can be caused by a weak digestive response combined with eating certain foods. Today I'll investigate a few ways to improve your digestive response to help avoid bloating, as well as looking at a few surprising foods that can contribute towards bloating.
Causes of bloating tend to be very individual, but can be a combination of lifestyle factors such as stress levels, and dietary factors that include not just troublesome foods, but also careless eating habits. The way you eat your food is just as important as the food you're eating. If you rush through a meal and don't chew your food properly almost anything can turn gassy on you and contribute towards unpleasant digestive symptoms.
You may find that there isn't consistency in the foods that cause you problems; for example, when you're on holiday you may find that you can eat dairy without any problems, but when you're back home and eat dairy the problems return. Here you're seeing a digestive response weakened by lifestyle factors such as stress, so that foods requiring more digestive power than others will cause trouble. When you're sunning yourself on holiday, you're less likely to be stressed. The body's response to stress, whether physical or emotional, includes the release of adrenalin. One of adrenalin's first actions is to shut down the digestive system, leading to a weak digestive response. Hence, trickier foods will start to bother you.
There are some foods that are generally harder to digest, requiring more digestive energy; and these are, therefore, more likely to cause problems. When you eat these foods, they are likely to pass through the stomach and small intestine without being properly broken down. Bacteria begin to ferment the incompletely digested food, creating gas which bloats the abdomen.
Let's look further at some of these foods, including:
This category includes peas, beans and lentils, which are infamous for causing gas!
Legumes are FODMAPs, a group of carbohydrates that are notoriously difficult for the body to digest, and they typically cause problems for people with sensitive digestive systems, such as people with IBS. Studies have shown that low FODMAP diets are beneficial in reducing bloating(1), making them more gut-friendly if you are prone to this problem. If you want to find out about more about low FODMAP diets have a look at my article "FODMAP-friendly foods".
Another reason for digestive problems can be to do with the difficulties in cooking legumes properly. They need careful soaking and rinsing and the right length of cooking time at the right temperature. Using salt-free tins of precooked legumes is one way to lessen the likelihood of a reaction.
If your bloating is triggered by legumes then sometimes persevering is the answer. Start with small portions of legumes and slowly build up your portion size. This slowly strengthens your digestive system, helping it to get used to handling these hard-to-digest foods.
If you find that legumes contribute towards your bloating problems why not try tofu instead? It's vegan and can be easily added into recipes to make a tasty meal. For more information about cooking with tofu have a look at our page "How to cook with tofu".
Cruciferous vegetables are from the Brassicaceae family (also known as Cruciferae) and include broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts. This group of vegetables have loads of health benefits, but they are also notorious for causing gas and bloating!
These vegetables contain oligosaccharides, as well as raffinose, a complex carbohydrate that the body struggles to digest because humans lack the enzyme required to break it down. This results in bacteria in the large intestine fermenting the raffinose, potentially leading to bloating and gas.
Cruciferous vegetables also contain sulphur – the natural compound that causes digestive gas to smell. Digestive gas can be experienced in the form of burps or flatulence. Eating foods that contain sulphur can lead to excessive gas that has an unpleasant smell. These compounds, combined with the oligosaccharides, make cruciferous vegetables a little tough on an underpowered digestive system, especially if you are consuming these veggies in high quantities!
Swap cruciferous vegetables for other green vegetables such as spinach and courgette.
The Allium family includes onions, garlic and leeks. These contain fructans - oligosaccharides that are made up of fructose and glucose molecules. Unfortunately, fructans are tricky to metabolise in the small intestine since we have a limited ability to digest these. (2) This results in the incompletely-digested fructans reaching the small intestine where again gut bacteria start to ferment the fructans, ultimately leading to digestive problems such as bloating.
Similar to cruciferous vegetables, onions and garlic also contain sulphur. Since sulphur compounds produce the odour in gas, eating foods that are rich in sulphur may lead to unpleasant smelling wind. This is more likely to happen if you have slightly weaker liver response than is ideal, as the liver is important in metabolising allium constituents.
Herbs such as ginger and fennel are both FODMAP-free and add a tasty flavour to your recipes.
Fruits such as apples, prunes and peaches contain sorbitol, a sugar that can cause digestive problems. Undigested sorbitol is broken down by bacteria in the large intestine where they begin to ferment and create gas, ultimately leading to bloating.
Apples also contain insoluble fibre. This type of fibre does not dissolve in water, adds bulk to your stool and can help constipation. Whilst fibre can help improve digestive problems, eating too much fibre all at once can leave you feeling bloated and gassy. (3)
Most fruits can be eaten raw, but unfortunately, this can cause problems for your digestive system if it's not very strong. Warm/cooked foods are easier to digest since some of the fibre is broken down as it is cooked. Lightly stewing your fruit may make it easier for your gut to process.
If you find that apples make you bloated and gassy why not try a handful of blueberries or raspberries as a healthy snack instead? These are low in FODMAPS and are packed with nutrients! Try stewing fruit like pears with some spices for a delicious treat. And, once they're cooked, make sure to eat them before they cool down as colder food is harder to digest than warm food!
Originally written on 22nd March 2016, updated on 21st January 2020.
We recently ran a poll to find out which foods contribute towards your bloating problems. We've crunched the numbers and here are the results.
The majority of you agreed that you think legumes and cruciferous vegetables contribute towards your bloating problems. Remember there are a few tasty alternatives to these foods that you can eat instead, such as tofu, spinach and courgette.
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Check the health of your digestive system using our simple test.
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An apple a day cannot keep bloating at bay. This popular fruit can play havoc on sensitive tummies due to their fibre and fructose content!
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