Valentin Bosioc
Bloating can be terribly painful and really frustrating to combat, leaving you feeling exhausted and defeated when you cannot squeeze into your favourite pair of jeans. You have probably tried every trick in the book from avoiding certain foods to drinking peppermint tea in order to flatten out your stomach and feel confident again.
Trust me, I know there is nothing more disheartening than working out and eating well only to feel heavy and bloated.
This is why I’m going to share with you 11 things you might be doing that you didn’t know causes bloating:
- Not drinking enough water
Seems counterintuitive, right? Surely the more you fill up your stomach, the bigger it will be?
READ: What Happens to Your Body When You Don’t Drink Enough Water
Wrong!
Dehydration causes your body to hold onto water because it doesn’t know when it will get more, and it is vital to our survival. This means that the more water you drink = the less water your body will hold.
- Chewing on gum/pen cap/pencil
When you mindlessly chew on gum or objects, you are actually swallowing air. This air gets trapped in the stomach and the small intestines which causes severe abdominal pain and bloating.
- Eating too fast
Similarly, eating your food too quickly allows for excess air to be swallowed with each bite and enters the gut to wreak havoc.
Eating too quickly also means that you are not chewing your food well enough. Digestion begins in the mouth when we chew the food into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the easier it will be for the stomach to breakdown the food. The stomach will have to work extra hard to break down the big chunks of food which will result in more gas and bloating.
