If a food is causing you to be bloated, it’s important to understand that the food is not naturally to blame. In the vast majority of cases there is an imbalance somewhere in the digestive system that is responsible for bloating as a symptom following eating food.
Post-meal bloating occurs almost immediately following eating one of these foods. But there can also be a delayed response, with bloating being noticed up to 4 hours following eating that particular food.
Why do you feel bloated when you eat bread?
Although there are various foods that cause it, bloating specifically following eating bread is very common.
It happens to many people with digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome and more.
The digestive system is a dynamic environment with a wide range of bacteria, digestive enzymes and food particles traveling through it on a daily basis. A common reason for bloating following eating bread, or other foods containing wheat, is an imbalance in one of these points.
In a gut that works well and there are no symptoms of bloating, the digestive processes are balanced.
To understand this, we can divide the digestive system into 3 main sections, each with a unique role:
First part: Mouth and stomach
Mechanical breakdown of food into small particles and initiation of digestion processes
Second part: Small intestine
Absorption of food components
Third part: Large intestine
Fermentation and water reabsorption
Although we want there to be fermentation, it has to happen in the right part of the digestive tract and in the right balance, so that we don’t feel discomfort.
Because certain ingredients in bread, such as wheat, can cause puffiness
Wheat is high in a specific type of carbohydrate known as fructan. Fructans, in an out of balance digestive system, can lead to bloating. The imbalance described above means that either too many gases are produced from the breakdown of fructans, or they are not broken down enough. And this imbalance can occur in two parts of the gut:
-Small Intestine
-colon
This dysregulated process in the gut can be recognized in slightly different ways.
Specifically:
-if the bloating occurs within 1 hour of eating, then the problem is probably in the small intestine
-if the bloating increases gradually during the day, the problem is probably in the large intestine
The main reason for the bloating that occurs following eating bread or wheat, may be one of these imbalances. As this is a bacterial imbalance, we usually see an increase in the bacteria that love to digest wheat, especially fructans.
If we have too many of the bacteria that like to eat wheat, then high levels of gas are produced during the fermentation process and we end up getting bloated.
What are the alternatives to bread?
If your only option is to completely remove bread from your diet, there are other alternatives:
-Try wheat-free bread, such as rice or quinoa.
-Instead of making a wheat flour pie, try beating 2 eggs and making an omelette. This can be used as a replacement for wraps.
-Another option is to cut a sweet potato into 1 cm slices that look like a piece of bread.
It can be toasted or grilled and become a surprisingly good alternative to bread.
Sources: niddk.nih.gov / health.harvard.edu / healthline.com / ibsguthealthclinic.co.uk.
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