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Stop Stomach BloatingBloating, especially abdominal bloating may be misleading. You may identify stomach bloating as belly fat when this is truly not the case. Stomach bloating looks just like the jiggly fat around your belly button. It bounces up and down the same way, but belly fat and bloating are the not the same. Stomach bloating can be caused by a diet high in sodium. Sodium/salt retains water. That jiggly stuff you think is fat is simply just water weight. What to do?What to do? Stop eating salty foods. Stop eating chips or processed foods. Processed foods are those that a man or factory made. Man made or factory food cannot be found on a branch of a tree or growing from the ground. I never saw cookies swinging off a vine. The problem with processed foods is that they are made with a great deal of salt. Salt is a food perservative. Salt and many other chemical compounds give foods on the shelves in the supermarket such a long shelf life. I am speculating that processed foods may be responsible for so many succumbing to cancer, but that is just my opinion. Fried Food A Culprit?After eating french fries, do you ever feel bloated? Not only is the salt to blame, but the fat content in fried foods. Items like french fries, popcorn shrimp, and chicken wings are fried in an insoluble fat content - oil, lard, etc. Because these fats are insoluble by nature, they cannot be broken down by the natural digestion process. Your body really does not know what to do with it - these foods are abnormal to the body. So these fats end up being stored in our guts, thighs, arteries, and as visceral fat. Hence the bloat after our favorite fried meal. No more fast food trips - sigh.
Food Intolerance?Something as simple as a food intolerance can cause inflammation, abdominal cramps, irritable bowel syndrome and abdominal bloating. There are many causes for food intolerances. We may have a decreased level of digestive enzymes. For example, lactose intolerance is related to a low level of lactase, the enzyme that breaksdown lactose. The naturally occurring chemical salicylate found in certain foods can cause reactions such as abdominal bloating. This chemical can be found in teas, coffee, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. Try to find out if you have a food intolerance using an elimination diet. During this diet, you will avoid all foods with chemicals and addivities to reveal a true food intolerance, rather than a chemical reaction. Have patience as it can take as long as five days of total submission to the diet to reveal a food or chemical reaction. It can take up to fourteen days to remove the food completely from your system. If you still have symptoms after six weeks, then it is safe to say that food intolerance is not your problem. Keep a food journal during this time. Write down your symptoms. Write down what you ate. Be stringent about it.
My experience eliminating processed foods has been difficult at times, but so rewarding. The first couple of days is like withdrawl from a drug. It makes you wonder what the hell is in these foods. It physically feels like a literal drug, narcotic withdrawl. You may have headaches, slight tremors, nausea, and sweating. I swear. You feel tired and exhausted - all the time. Some days I would sleep close to ten hours. I was not really sleepy, but felt so sluggish and lethargic. It's like when you take a Benadryl to go to sleep and wake up the next morning feeling medicated. But after the first four days, the strong cravings disappear and it becomes mostly visual stimulation that tempts you to eat the crap again. Your energy and happiness will tend to pick up after the first four weeks. Your stomach bloat will be gone and you will feel great. I hope you can stick with it. How I Dropped My Belly and Have a Six Pack
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