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Foods against abdominal swelling: what to eat to digest well

Foods against abdominal swelling: what to eat to digest well

Do you feel swollen, heavy, even after a light lunch? Many people to fight the unpleasant feeling of abdominal swelling and to digest well, they avoid the wrong foods and change some healthy habits. Let's find out which mistakes not to make and which foods are best against bloating!

There are people who have an iron stomach and could digest anything. Others who can't even bring down a single salad. And often the latter, like those who write to you, feel a very unpleasant feeling of abdominal swelling. 

Sometimes the swelling comes even before eating, when hunger turns into a strange abdominal pain. Very often the swollen stomach prevents you from enjoying a dinner, a lunch or even just a snack.

What is abdominal swelling?

It is an unpleasant feeling of fullness and tension in the stomach, associated with a real abdominal swelling and often even pain.

What are the causes of the swelling?

  • Bad chewing and excessive ingestion of air
  • Have eaten too much
  • Constipation
  • Excess fibre in the diet
  • Food intolerances
  • Taking certain medications 
  • Gastroesophageal reflux
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Ovarian Cyst
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Alteration of intestinal motility
  • Stress, depression, anxiety, insomnia
  • Alterations in intestinal bacterial flora

How to treat abdominal swelling?

Irritable bowel syndrome is a disease that has received special scientific attention in recent years, also because of its significant spread in the population. A recent scientific hypothesis is making its way to the treatment and prevention of irritable bowel syndrome and could be useful for relieving abdominal swelling as well. According to a scientific study the cause of the syndrome could be due to an unbalanced diet and a new treatment without drugs has been created, called the FODMAP diet. 

This is a diet based on easily digestible foods, called the low-fat diet FODMAP, and if it will receive more confirmations, it could be a good solution. FODMAP stands for "Fermentable Oligo-, Di- and Mono-saccarides and Polyols". FODMAP are carbohydrates that cannot be digested or absorbed well. Undigested carbohydrates, in fact, are metabolized by intestinal bacteria producing excess gas, which leads to abdominal pain, diarrhea and/or constipation.

A diet low in these carbohydrates, should be adopted after medical consultation, and therefore may be useful at certain times of the year even for people who suffer from frequent episodes of abdominal swelling.

What foods should be avoided?

The foods rich in these carbohydrates that are impossible to digest and cause swelling are mainly:

  • Cereals with gluten
  • Milk and dairy products
  • Soya and its derivatives
  • Processed, marinated or spicy meat

Excessive consumption of onion, garlic, mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, artichokes, asparagus, leeks, tomatoes and red peppers, as well as certain fruits, should also be avoided.

What are the best foods to avoid swelling?

To be able to digest well and avoid bloating, you must include it in your diet:

  • Oats
  • Rice
  • Peas
  • Hemp
  • Quinoa
  • Potatoes

You can eat different types of fruit, such as oranges, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, acai, melon, lemon, lime, bananas, pineapple and avocado. Vegetables can also be very varied: carrots, zucchini, lettuce, radicchio, cabbage, cucumbers, green peppers, turnips, beets and spinach.

Generally speaking, even if this FODMAP theory won’t receive further  validations, you can eat fermented and sprouted foods, such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, umeboshi and sauerkraut. You can also help yourself with charcoal in tablets, with a fennel herbal tea and with spices such as turmeric, cumin and aniseed.

What are the best anti swelling superfoods?

If you want to digest well, you must therefore avoid gluten (or drastically reduce it) and reduce the consumption of meat and animal proteins. You can start with a gluten-free instant breakfast like our new Divine Oats, made from gluten-free sprouted oats, buckwheat and peanut or hazelnut butter. 

Buddha’s Awakening is also great for satisfying yourself without swelling and to facilitate digestion. You can supplement the proteins with our Vegetable Proteins, derived from rice, hemp and peas, poor in FODMAP. For fruit, in addition to fresh fruit, you can add Acai powder antioxidant to breakfasts and smoothies!