Boxing Day Bloat Can Be Defeated By These 3 Important Tips

Bloating is the upsetting effect that followed a blowout meal. A common complaint is feeling a puffy and stretchy sensation in the stomach. It may also be accompanied by painful tummy cramps.

Holiday meals can wreak havoc on your guts, with too much food and alcohol intake causing your stomach to swell. On the other hand, Boxing Day can help counter the build-up of gasses brought about by overindulging the previous day.

Minimize Gassy Foods

Holiday favorites like cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli have been known to cause bloating and the formation of gasses in the stomach. These foods rank high on the FODMAPS list or the fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols list.

These are the group of foods that your body find hard to digest because of the type of sugar they contain. In many cases, they are major culprits in stomach bloating.

According to Dr. Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, everyone experiences an increase in the amount of gas in the stomach after eating these foods. In some cases, however, some people may react more severely compared to others.

Exercise

Although exercising right away after the holidays may appear disagreeable, engaging in physical activity can boost your digestive system. Medical experts say that rigorous cardiovascular exercises like aerobics or running can activate your sweat glands, which in turn releases the fluids your body may be retaining. Even a simple stroll around your neighborhood for approximately 15 to 20 minutes after dinner can greatly help with digestion.

Go for gut-friendly foods

Aside from minimizing the consumption of foods that could cause stomach bloating, you might want to add some gut-friendly foods to your regular diet. This can also help alleviate the symptoms of bloating.

According to Dr. Oz, taking dandelion tea can help as it aids in flushing out excess water from the system. It also helps in breaking down fatty meals by stimulating bile to perform this job.

Other Ways To Defeat Bloating

If you still feel bloated until New Year’s Day, then it might be a sign that you are suffering from food intolerance. The NHS explains that food intolerance may lead to bloating when the food you ate caused gasses to be trapped, or you may not have emptied your bowel properly. In other cases, it may have been caused by the over-production of gasses in reaction to the food you ate.

Some of the most common foods to cause bloating problems are gluten or wheat and dairy products. This is why if you have a food intolerance, try to eat less of these food types to minimize the problem.