18: Why You’re Bloated After Meals: It’s Not Always What You Eat

Why are you bloated after eating—even when you’re eating “healthy” foods?

In this episode of Team Gut Girls, Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND, Dr. Christina Carew, ND, and Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND break down some of the surprisingly simple reasons behind bloating, gas, abdominal distension, and digestive discomfort.

Sometimes it’s not just what you eat. How fast you eat, how often you eat, meal size, meal timing, carbonated drinks, swallowed air, gut motility, and even what you do after a meal can all play a role in how your gut feels.

We unpack why bloating doesn’t always mean you have a food intolerance, why feeling bloated immediately after a meal doesn’t necessarily mean that food is the culprit, and how visceral hypersensitivity, the gut-brain connection, the migrating motor complex (MMC), constipation, and pelvic floor function can influence bloating.

You’ll learn practical strategies you can experiment with, including slowing down while eating, chewing thoroughly, spacing meals, reconsidering constant grazing and snacking, adjusting portion sizes, reducing carbonation, walking after meals, diaphragmatic breathing, and paying attention to late-night eating.

We also discuss when persistent bloating deserves a conversation with your healthcare provider and the symptoms you shouldn’t ignore.

If you’ve been searching for answers about bloating after meals, IBS symptoms, constipation, excessive gas, digestive issues, gut motility, food sensitivities, or how to improve digestion, this episode is a great place to get back to the basics before assuming you need another restrictive diet, expensive test, or supplement.

Because Better Gut Health Changes Everything.

00:00 Bloating Basics Intro

01:40 Social Media Hype

02:47 Myth Gas Only

06:03 Myth Food Intolerance

07:32 Eating Fast Aerophagia

08:54 Three Gas Pathways

13:16 Slow Down Tips

16:34 Carbonation Culprit

17:18 Motility Explained

22:32 Migrating Motor Complex

25:59 Meal Timing Sleep

30:04 Portion Size Effects

33:07 Move And Loosen Up

36:18 Pelvic Floor Mechanics

38:45 Practical Takeaways

41:38 When To See Doctor

43:37 One Change At Time

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Transcript – 18: Why You’re Bloated After Meals: It’s Not Always What You Eat

18: Why You’re Bloated After Meals: It’s Not Always What You Eat.

Bloating Basics Intro

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Welcome back to another episode of Team Gut Girls. We’re returning to our topic on causes of bloating because there are so many, and today we’re sticking to the basics

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: So sometimes it’s not what you eat, but it might be how you’re eating or how much you’re eating all at once, or how frequently you eat, or how you’re eating.

So are you in the middle of driving your car and trying to eat a bowl of cereal, which I literally saw someone do the other day. Or are you ha- sitting down calmly at lunch and having, your lunch break and actually taking a break, or are you scrolling on your phone? So all those things can affect how your body digests your food.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And we’ve all done it, but picture this scenario. So you’re rushing through lunch between meetings, and you’re thirsty, so you’re gonna quickly chug some water after your meal. In the afternoon, you’re in the mood for a can of bubbly, and then later you have a [00:02:00] large dinner close to bedtime, and by the end of the day, your pants feel tight, you’re gassy, you’re uncomfortable.

And this actually may just spill over to how you feel the next morning, too.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: And these are all, really simple things that we do day to day, and sometimes we don’t do them every day, so it’s hard to link why we’re bloated. But we’re gonna talk about this, why it may cause or even worsen your bloating, and most importantly, after this episode, we’re gonna teach you some basic tips that you can actually get started to do today but don’t require cutting out large food groups or blaming your body.

Because bloating can feel really complicated, but sometimes the first step is just getting really curious about these basic things.

Social Media Hype

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: So what’s trending this week with all this talk about bloating? I’m sure both of your Instagram feeds are similar to mine, filled with bloating options, and tools and ads telling us that bloating is a problem.

And while it might be a problem, we have lots of [00:03:00] episodes about why bloating might be a problem for you, it may not always be a problem. And so that’s one of the things we wanna talk about today is, you know, is the situation, caused or being caused by something, or is it as a result of something? So, as always, it’s really important to track your symptoms and speak to your doctor if you’re concerned.

but also starting with some really basic eating behaviors, and things that we can do that we’re gonna talk about today might be helpful in helping you to figure out if something that you’re doing might be causing some of your bloating instead of ex- spending a lot of time on expensive supplements and things that you’ve seen online.

Myth Gas Only

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: So we have a recurring, segment on our podcast. This is the myth-busting segment, and let’s talk about myths and break them down. So myth number one is that bloating is always caused by too much gas. [00:04:00] So Whitney, walk us through that.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Makes sense when we’re bloated, like something’s in there, right? We feel like it’s gas, but it’s not always.

Of course, gas is a major player, but bloating is more about the sensation and the movement, and we talk about this a lot on our podcast. Some people produce a mornal- normal amount of gas, but they feel it more intensely. And they’ve done this in studies where they’ve actually measured the gas in two different people’s intestines, and one is saying that they feel more bloated or more inflamed where there isn’t actually excess gas.

And today we’ll talk about how the gas gets in our gut. But typically, when someone is feeling it more intensely, we’ve, we know that this is called visceral hypersensitivity, so the gut is the viscera, and it’s just hypersensitive. And basically, the nerves are just more reactive. So if you think of a balloon, one person’s balloon in their stomach may stretch easily without much discomfort, without feeling the normal gases and foods [00:05:00] moving through.

Whereas another person’s balloon may feel tight and uncomfortable with just a small amount of air or just a small amount of gases and food moving through. So I think that’s really key for people to understand. Then when we’re recommending things like diaphragmatic breathing or deep belly breathing or slowing down meals, that there’s a point to that, that our gut and brain can just rewire themselves instead of being so overly reactive and worried all the time.

so that amount of gas does matter. Of course, sometimes there is more gas, but also how sensitive the gut is, too. Another piece we’ll talk about a lot today, is how slower movement through the digestive tract with when the food and gas is just sitting around for longer, so it’s, that’s making us feel distended.

It’s creating pressure. The microbiome can have a party and ferment these foods for longer. and this is the one thing that we’re screening for when we see our bloated patients is if their gut is moving [00:06:00] effectively.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Okay, so-

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: So yes.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Oh.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: go ahead.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: So that might explain why two people can eat the same meal and then only one person may feel this type of bloating.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. It’s- Okay … bloating is so individual. Your gut microbiome, how your gut is moving, how these foods and gases are moving through this whole gut tube. We’re just one long tube.

We talk about in other episodes about our sleep, hormones. Today we’ll dive into meal size. we’ve talked in other sep- episodes about mast cells. So these are all affecting how you feel after you eat, and this is why broad food rules don’t work for everybody. So there’s a lot of research and evidence into the low FODMAP diet or going dairy-free, but it doesn’t work for everybody.

So today we’ll talk about how to start with the basics and see if just how you’re eating and the meal size is impacting you, or how one person can bloat from carbonated drinks and another person can’t. [00:07:00] So we’ll get into all of this today.

Myth Food Intolerance

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: So on that topic, myth number two, if someone gets bloated right after they eat, does that mean that they have a food intolerance?

Are they sensitive to things like gluten or dairy or something else like peppers if it happens as soon as they eat? What do you think, Whit? It

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: makes sense. If we eat, we’re gonna look at what we just ate. If all of a sudden you’re feeling like you need to rip your pants off, unbutton that button. But it’s a really big myth, and it’s something that’s talked about as an easy solution, and there’s a test for it.

So, and it’s so many people in my practice, I’m sure your practice is- Mm-hmm … coming in saying, “I want a food sensitivity.” And I need to talk about why I don’t trust food sensitivity tests. And that can be a really hard way to meet somebody. Okay. but it’s one way. So there’s all these causes of bloating.

Food sensitivity is, but if we’re introducing food into the gut and it’s, the gut’s not ready to digest or we, it’s still digesting that last meal. [00:08:00] So how we ate, when we eat, or even how much air we’re swallowing, that can be why you’re feeling those symptoms right after your, your meal. So even if the food itself is completely healthy and normal, you’ve never reacted to that food before, it can cause symptoms based on how you’re eating, and we’ll get into that.

And we’re gonna hopefully save you a lot of money on food sensitivity tests and microbiome tests at your first appointment somewhere if we can improve on these basics.

Eating Fast Aerophagia

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Okay, so myth number three, people often talk about eating fast in relation to overeating or weight, but does eating quickly really affect somebody’s bloating?

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yes, it can, and we’ll talk about this too. It’s one way that gas gets into our gut. So we’ll talk about three main mechanisms of how gas gets in the tube, and when we’re eating really quickly, we can swallow more air [00:09:00] without noticing it. It’s called aerophagia. It literally means air eating. when you’re eating quickly, maybe you’re chatting, you’re also chewing less thoroughly, so now more larger components are getting down through your gut into your microbiome.

This can make digestion feel heavier, slower, and just uncomfortable.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: I totally have air phagia. I eat

fast and I talk while I eat. Yeah. I will learn something today. Okay, so it’s not always too much gas, but it’s, like, how the gas gets in, which clearly I’m doing a lot of these things. So walk us through how do we know?

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: I think, I think we all do, especially as naturopathic doctors, we make our own day.

Sometimes our day is just we have to actually physically put a lunch break in our day- Oh, yeah … to sit and eat our meals, which, yeah, we’re all guilty of, I’m sure. We eat through lunch. Mm-hmm.

Three Gas Pathways

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Okay, so the three main mechanisms that we introduce in those myths, [00:10:00] and we’ll go through and it will make more sense as to why we’re telling you to slow down and enjoy your meal and be more mindful.

So there’s three mechanisms of how gas gets in that tube. The first is swallowed air, so there’s increased gas coming in, and we can do this without realizing it, and it’s very common. So things like carbonated drinks, eating quickly like we mentioned, chatting while eating, gulping drinks while eating.

Some people are gulpers. Even if we’re drinking while we’re eating, that can just introduce more air. Chewing gum, and then things like poor-fitted dentures in some individuals, poor-fitted CPAP machines. Mm-hmm. So there’s a lot of ways that that air can get into the tube. Interesting. And the next we’ll go through a lot today is why ga- gas isn’t moving through the gut effectively.

So we’ve introduced this a lot in our podcasts on bloating ’cause motility is a huge thing, so the movement of your gut. A big one we’ll introduce [00:11:00] is the mi- the migrating motor complex. So it’s this big flush sweep that goes through the gut. We’ll introduce some controversies here in the research. but essentially we’re thinking that this isn’t working properly.

So this is where meal timing comes into play. So if you’re someone who snacks a lot, grazes throughout the day, and you’re not leaving two to three hours in between your meals, we’ll talk about how this can cause some bloating or just some in- indigestion. Next is not letting your gut move or expand.

We’re all told that we need to have a flat stomach, and I just don’t think that’s very nice to put that on our bodies. That gut it needs to move and that food needs to move somewhere. So are we moving throughout the day? Are… Yeah, so we’ll talk about some things here, some tips you could do. And then other things like pelvic floor distension, ’cause if we think about our core and our abdomen, the pelvic floor is at the base of that, and our diaphragm’s on top of that.

So we talk about deep belly breathing a [00:12:00] lot, but pelvic floor physiotherapy can be awesome if we’re bloated or maybe more constipated. So we’ll talk about things that you can do, how, your lifestyle, your eating habits, but definitely tune into our other episodes on motility issues like tho- thyroid, insulin resistance, diabetes, hormone imbalances, and connective tissue disorders, and other, other conditions.

And then finally, you’ll hear in other episodes, but the third way that gas can get in that tube is the gas production by the microbiome. So some species actually create gas or they are ferment- either they’re fermenting the foods that, the fibers that we’re eating, and some other species can eat that gas.

So all… A balance of the microbiome is so important. Okay, so if you’ve ever filled out a naturopathic intake form, you know that we are obsessed about these little details. What’s your meal time like? What’s your lunch [00:13:00] time like? What’s family life like? I have three kids. My mornings are nuts. I don’t sit and eat breakfast lately until I get to work.

So how can we work with you to make these meal times work best for you? it’s what we do a lot in our jobs, and how can we help you, just listen to your body and when it might need more of? So let’s start by going through the first mechanism, too much gas getting into the tube. So excess swallowed air can get trapped in the stomach or small intestine because there are valves that close off these compartments.

Sometimes we, if we eat too quickly or a carbonated beverage, we can burp up excess, the excess gas. but if it’s getting trapped, it’s typically leading to the feeling of bloating or distension, that fullness in the abdomen, less often belching. and some people have a condition where they can’t belch.

Do you guys remember the term? Mm-hmm. [00:14:00] Again, it’s in the new digestion Rome criteria. There’s a term for it, but it’s a thing now. It’s recognized. Mm-hmm. And I’ve met some people who cannot belch, so.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Yeah. It might- Can seem quite uncomfortable.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. stuck.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Yeah.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: yeah.

Slow Down Tips

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: So, okay, so we know that eating quickly has been linked with more swallowed air, and again, the symptoms that somebody would feel would be this, post-meal fullness, pressure, bloating, this discomfort that we described.

Simply slowing down your meals can really help some people.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: And like slowing down is actually a pretty vague term, right? So like what does that even mean? And so if we think about a lot of diet culture, actually they talk a lot about eating slower because you recognize being full faster. A- and lots of, cultures will say, eat to 80% fullness, but if we’re eating so fast, we don’t even know if we’re 80% full.

So things [00:15:00] that can help is, actually putting your fork actually all the way down between bites, chewing food until the texture is soft before swallowing, so try not to get the chunks in there. avoid talking while you’re chewing, so trying to be mindful of, doing one activity at a time. And gulping water or drinks while you’re eating can also increase that swallowing of air ’cause you’re kind of like so many things going on at once.

trying to extend the time of your meal. So when we think about, blood sugar and we talk about blood sugar, we always say oh, like from the time you start eating until you end, your blood sugar sort of returns to normal is, two hours. But some people will eat in, five minutes, and we’re giving you sort of a, you know, 20 to 30-minute window.

So trying to take some of that time so you actually, enjoy your food and also, have time for it to get into the system and get digested instead [00:16:00] of sort of inhaling it. trying not to eat while you’re driving, rushing, scrolling, feeling like running from one place to another and, and sometimes that’s hard, right?

Our, our jobs are really busy or our life is really busy or you have other things you need to do. And, and nothing that we’re suggesting is always, you have to do it 100% of the time. But you might notice that even in doing it 50% of the time that that bloating really has changed for you, so it can help you to identify is that the reason that you need, to, to help to prevent the bloating or you’ll know that, you know, you’re eating fast and you might get more bloating that day instead of going deep into a lot of the interventions we’ve talked about on the podcast so far.

So maybe it’s just making sure that ruling in or out is this a part of the problem.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: And I think also- Especially

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: when-

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: I was gonna say, I think also that, if somebody is too busy to not eat when they’re driving is then that’s more of a reflection of their life [00:17:00] and how their systems are set up, and maybe that’s actually more of a place to look first so that somebody can actually carve out 20 minutes to sit down and eat their lunch.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. And especially when, things aren’t making sense. you can’t make a link of, you know, the food. Every time I eat cheese, I feel bloated. Well, not every time I eat cheese I feel bloated. Or it’s happening more between 3:00 and 4:00 PM. I hear that a lot, too. It’s … Well, what was your lunch? That’s, peak day.

Lunch was stressful. Mm-hmm. Work is stressful. Ending work is stressful. Mm-hmm. So kinda looking at the whole picture.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Mm-hmm.

Carbonation Culprit

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Um, so a sneaky one, things that are really popular lately, I love them, carbonated beverages can just add gas to the tube. Sparkling water, those SodaStreams were a huge hit a few years ago.

soda, diet pops are really popular. some kombuchas. People think it’s good for their gut, and it’s just making everything worse. [00:18:00] it’s, for some people it just can add to an already sensitive system, or maybe they’ve already eaten quickly or something else is going on, or some people just don’t tolerate it, and you r- usually know that pretty quickly if you don’t tolerate these.

Okay, so that was swallowed air or more gas being introduced in.

Motility Explained

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: So let’s talk about how the gut moves. So we’ll talk about, the various ways that there are, there are hormones and the nervous system, and there’s all these muscle movements. and it’s gonna make more sense for when we say how to eat and how frequently to eat those large meals, all of these things, and how they will influence your bloating.

So this is the big one. The gut has a few different mechanisms or a way that it, propulsively moves things through the gut. So if you think of this like a conveyor belt moving your groceries, so you’re– what’s slowing down the [00:19:00] process? You’ve lined up. Okay, the line wasn’t so bad. You’ve plonked your groceries on.

The two workers are chatting away, and something is really slow. Well, they’re ringing through things fast. The bagger’s going really fast, but that belt, that mechanism isn’t moving very quickly. So that’s where this motility of the gut comes in.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Yeah, so let’s break down these movement patterns. as it relates to peristalsis and expulsion, the purpose is, is to really just to move the stomach contents from the stomach to the small intestine, and this is an automatic process.

and it’s automatic because our smooth muscles are doing it without us consciously knowing that they’re doing it. And in order to do this work, we need to be in a calm state. When we are calm, we have more blood flow to our gut. we’re in a rest and digest state, and our vagus nerve is the main nerve responsible for taking over this process and helping.

and it helps move the food and gases throughout the gut. [00:20:00] And, you know, our nervous system, like Whitney just mentioned, also plays a large role, and various hormones as well released along the gut are triggered in response to the stretch of the tube from food leaving the stomach and then moving through to the small intestine

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: It’s like sometimes that vagus nerve piece is the reason why we feel anxious and we don’t want to eat, right?

Or you feel like you’re gonna vomit. It’s the same kind of idea. It’s like that rest and digest isn’t moving things smoothly in the direction we want them to go in. And so once the food, gets into that, stomach, it churns and mixes up digestive enzymes, and then, bile gets added in a little further down the tube and starts to break down the chyme.

So chyme is that broken-down food in that sort of… I always think of it kind of like a oatmeal kinda capacity. And so the reason we’re breaking things down is [00:21:00] we need to have these really tiny, molecules in order to be able to have them absorbed into the bloodstream. So our, our bloodstream, when we look at our blood, if we cut ourselves, we don’t see little tiny molecules in it, we- unless we’re under a microscope.

So we need to break that steak dinner down into something that’s now really small and usable so that the body can process it. And that’s another automatic process. We don’t have to sit there and think, “Oh, now I need to digest my food.” Instead, the small intestine and the circular muscles around the gut tube, they move everything along.

And once things leave the stomach until they get, through the small intestine, which is that large windy cord, it’s 23 and a half feet, so it’s from the three-point line to the basketball net, it’s somewhere between two to six hours for the nutrient absorption, and sometimes it stays a little bit longer

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: And this whole motion of, moving down through the tube and mixing it [00:22:00] all up, this continues into the colon.

So it’s gonna shape the stool and propels it forward, allowing it to, create stool. So it’s going to absorb water, it’s going to absorb nu- more nutrients. Our microbiome is there, so it’s all moving through.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: So what triggers these movements? Is it, is it food in the gut, or is it possibly no food in the gut?

So for example, when I’m hungry, my tummy gurgles. Is that what’s happening?

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: It- there’s a lot of things that will trigger these movements, and we both need to eat meals in a calm, rested state so our brain and the gut can communicate with each other to be like, “Okay, there’s food in our system. I feel s- the stomach is stretched.

Now the colon, the small intestine is stretched.” That will feed back to release more hormones, it’ll let more movements and, digestive enzymes flow. So we both need to eat, but then we also need to not eat, which we’ll get into in a minute. But another thing is sometimes people feel like they need to go [00:23:00] to the bathroom right after they eat or they feel things moving really quickly.

there’s something called the gastrocolic reflex. so you- as soon as you eat something and your stomach stretches, it’s going to signal the colon that there’s food coming. You need to move things out to make more room. So in some individuals, that’s faster, in some that’s slower. but otherwise, it should all work to allow things to move through.

so that’s like food and eating, the process triggering itself to get moving.

Migrating Motor Complex

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: But there’s something you may or may not have heard of, is this migrating motor complex, and I introduced it earlier. It’s essentially a whole wave that happens to push all the excess food and digestive enzymes and bacteria, microbes through in between meals.

so there’s multiple phases. Each gets progressively longer and stronger to really propulse things through, and it [00:24:00] occurs when we’re fasting, so every 90 to 100 minutes. so a long time fasting, so overnight or between meals. and snacking can prevent this, so any calories or nutrition in can prevent this from happening.

So some people who are snacking between meals or they eat, two hours after their last meal, they’re not getting this whole wave pushing through their gut. This little housekeeper, this housekeeper wave. What do you guys think about this? How do you talk to your patients about this? What have you read about this?

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah. So I think that it’s a common thing that we see in a lot of, of our patients that have IBS, so they have, diarrhea or constipation. We see it in people that get bloating. We’re seeing it in people that might have an fungal or bacteria overgrowth that subsequently affects this. We [00:25:00] know sorta gut-brain interaction we think affects the MMC.

So I mean, there’s lots that we don’t know about it, but there’s also some rule that we do know about it that says, well, if the conveyor belt, that’s what I usually call the MMCs, like the conveyor belt of the small intestine isn’t really moving everything forward and it gets stuck, then we might see all these other things happening.

And so when we’re thinking about, like, how do we fix things or how do we change things, there are things that help us to digest, but maybe we also think about things that help us propel, right? To move things forward. and so certainly one thing can be spreading out your meals, so trying to have a meal that’s sort of 30 to 60 minutes.

And we’ve talked to some of you that, you know, eat in five minutes. So, 30 to 60 minutes as a sort of mealtime with, you know, three hours at least in between so that the whole process can happen and everything can be empty before we start again. So think about it like waiting for the [00:26:00] dishwasher to completely empty so you can take the dishes out to put the new dirty dishes in.

You’re not gonna stop it halfway, put the dirty dishes in, and keep it going, or at least it’s not gonna be super effective. and then having, you know, some people need to have, you know, small frequent meals based on their glucose or diet or things like that. And so even trying to space those out throughout the day so that they’re still getting some window for things to keep moving.

So the idea of, snacks, like kids that have snacks, kinda okay ’cause the kids sort of burn through the energy really fast and they’re not eating a really big snack. But adults that have snacks, like our teachers, they may notice that this creates some more of that bloating or having not that fasting window.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And also, if you end up having a snack when you should have had lunch is then you may be more hungry, like an hour later, and then that kind of defeats the whole purpose because you’re hungry, so you are, you know, you’re not leaving that 90 minute that you [00:27:00] need to.

Meal Timing Sleep

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Um, one of the most common questions I’ll ask my patients who have digestive issues is whether they’re eating close to bed, like how long they are waiting between dinner and their bedtime, ’cause what I do find is that, uh, if you’re eating close to bed, for a lot of people, that can affect their digestion the next morning.

It also can sometimes sabotage somebody’s sleep. Some people are sensitive enough where it increases your temperature overnight. And then if you’re not sleeping, that can also affect your digestion.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah. Yeah. So-

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: A- and like you mentioned too, it, it depends on, the nutrition that you are eating. Are you getting enough protein at each meal?

Did you sit and eat that mindfully? Did your stomach digest that effectively? And are you still hungry after? Just kind of navigating what you had and troubleshooting that meal quantity and what you had is sometimes really helpful.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: And so as we- Okay … sort of talked about, the MMC is really a cyclical, right?

It’s like a 90 to 120-minute cycle. [00:28:00] And so if we break that cycle by, throwing a extra snack in there or grazing, then what ends up happening is that some… sort of doesn’t complete the cycle, and so that’s where we can get some things left behind or we may see increased gas and bloating. and so thinking, when we’re back to the tracking, you know, when are you getting bloated, and what’s happened, you know, in advance of that bloating may be really helpful to figure out if this is a piece of the puzzle.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it’s a quick, easy test to take a couple days. Yeah. Just kind of allow some more spacing for some people. And, and it’s important to have, like, more nutrition and nutrients in the mornings, so maybe that big larger fast is happening once a day, not in between each meal. It’s, it’s happening in between lunch and dinner.

If you need to, like me, have something in the morning and then have more of a meal when I get to work when it’s quiet and calm, and then my largest fasting window is later in [00:29:00] the afternoon, so my gut is still getting a break and a big sweep. Um, but that can be helpful to just troubleshoot for some people.

Um, but let’s summarize this MMC, migrating motor complex, uh, ’cause it is really important, especially when it comes to, uh, kind of gut maintenance and bloating. So we talked about meal spacing, frequency grazing with this migrating motor complex Christina, why don’t you walk us through, um, why it’s, why it’s important for the gut?

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: So we wanna make sure that the body has time to, both break down the food and secretions, move it along, and clear everything out before the next meal arises. So, anything left behind increases bloating. short intervals of time in c- in, in between meals mean they kinda, stack up, and so it’s like kinda train cars on a track where things are getting, too close together.

And so, [00:30:00] anytime the stomach needs to empty, it needs a space it to empty into. So if there isn’t space, then you’re gonna feel more nauseous, and maybe even sometimes people will say, “I have a distended stomach,” or, “It feels like it can’t empty,” or, “It feels really heavy.” so think about it as that big, long tube needs to have each segment of it emptied for the next thing to happen

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: And there, and there is some research that does support the MMC role, though some people would say it’s a little bit controversial.

So we, you know, we do have observational and, and interventional studies that suggest that allowing these longer intervals, specifically three to four hours in between meals, can improve gas-related symptoms for some people and we know we did do a whole episode on SIBO, and it is thought that the, migrating motor complex does play a role in SIBO, but the research tends to be a little bit older.

So we may do a part two episode on that and talk more about that next time.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah. [00:31:00] Cause or effect.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Right.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Chicken or egg?

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. Yeah.

Portion Size Effects

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Um, okay, we also always talk about, the quantity of food. so what about larger meals, Christina? How does this impact our bloating?

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah. So as you can imagine, putting more volume in stretches the stomach more.

And so just like a suitcase that’s overpacked or a bag that’s overpacked, it’s much harder to get something out of it if there’s no space to move anything around. And so it’s pretty common that when people eat a larger meal, it takes a lot longer for it to empty, not just because of the fact that there’s more food to process, but also the ability for it to move around and, and to be able to break down the food is hindered ’cause there’s not a lot of space in between.

And so when we have more substrate or more product that’s also in the intestinal tube, we have more opportunity for [00:32:00] bacteria and gas and also more feeling of distension and fullness, right? you’ve… Everyone’s had that meal where they lie down on the couch after and just hold their belly. but if once in a while it’s not a problem, if we’re having that kind of sensation every day, then we’re having, these large meals that are slowing everything down along the chain.

And so we also may see that that bloating is a result of all of these things happening. So the idea of, eating your meals across the day in, three meals instead of eating everything all at once actually has some benefit from a digestive standpoint.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you know, we did touch on the eating close to bedtime before, but what’s also important is that if somebody eats and then lies down right away, or too soon after a meal, that can slow gastric emptying and can affect intestinal transit.

It can definitely promote reflux. I remember in my last pregnancy I had to eat ’cause I was so hungry, but I ate close to bed, and [00:33:00] then I laid down, and it was just like, “I can’t, I can’t win.” But we wanna be able to eat and then stay sitting up for a certain period of time. and you know, it, it, this whole lying down, right after you eat may permit gas to pool or be perceived, more intensely, like that visceral hypersensitivity piece we discussed earlier.

and circadian rhythms also affect, gastrointestinal motility too, so we can’t discount that. There is some research that shows overnight late eating is associated with slower postprandial clearance, so postprandial meaning, right after a meal, as well as more reflux, and many patients report worse bloating when they eat large late meals.

So I will say, like, when we see things in research and then we can see it match up in the conversations we have with patients, I find that quite interesting because this is definitely, this is definitely an area where I do find people see improvement when they make these, these small changes.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Mm-hmm. Yeah, like having [00:34:00] your more of your larger meals breakfast and lunch just might help your gut if things are slowed down or just, like, how your day flows.

Move And Loosen Up

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Um, okay, so another way that gas is prevented from moving through the tube, so now we’re kind of talking outside of the way it’s- the gut is moving, but not letting your gut move and expand. So I think it’s just kind of reshaping what we’ve been taught through, like, social media and having to have this perfectly flat stomach, I think, is evil.

obviously, uncomfortable, painful bloating and distension every single day is abnormal, but a little bit of bloating and sometimes rethinking about your bloating, how you’re moving throughout the day, the clothes you’re wearing could be really helpful. So as best as we can, we should be moving or walking after our meals.

This is also a blood sugar piece. Those muscles soak up blood sugar outside of the work of [00:35:00] insulin, so it’s helping your insulin and your hormones and your cardiovascular health to move after just from that alone, and it does, help move your body and get things going.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: It can

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: also- My, patients

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: call this the fart walk.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: I love that. I love that.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Oh.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: I love that.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: They, there’s literally- Yeah … if you Google fart walk, there are a million things about it. Yeah … about, just getting things moving and getting the gas out.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yes. Go by a busy street if you’re with someone who doesn’t love it. It’s normal.

Love it. yeah. We all, kind of sit to drive to work, sit sometimes throughout the day. We’re not getting, that break. Do you sit and eat for that 30 minutes or do you go for a walk? It’s so tough. It’s so tough. Mm-hmm. So where can you move? and then yoga stretches or gentle movements. There’s some great, YouTube yoga for [00:36:00] digestion.

Some simple postures in the evenings or after that large meal can really help move the gut. Looser pants. Looser pants have changed my life. it’s less trending now. I’m like a millennial mom trying to be cool, but, the baggy pants are great. But tight pants actually, presses in and it does trigger a little bit of bloating.

Have you guys- Oh … I’ve, read about this and I’ve seen this.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: I feel it.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. It’s definitely a thing. It, it hurts, and it, triggers some visceral hypersensitivity and some bloat. So loosen pants. It’s okay to switch into comfortable fitting pants in the evening. and some bloating is normal. The food and gases do have to go somewhere.

Again, we’ve been conditioned to think that we bloat. There should be no bloating. We’re embarrassed or we’re trying to hide it. so we may also not be engaging our core muscles effectively if we’re [00:37:00] tired and from sitting all day. My husband always tells me to s- stand up straight at the end of the day ’cause I’m, but I’m tired.

But if you do engage those core muscles, if you work with a pelvic floor physiotherapist or just a physio, can be so helpful to just rewire that muscle movement pattern. our osteopaths are awesome for this too.

Pelvic Floor Mechanics

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Uh, we talk about deep belly breathing, how that can just… There’s something called abdominopelvic dyssynergia, where the core and the diaphragm aren’t coordinating effectively.

So typically our diaphragm should rise and the, so the abdominal wall can come in to allow for the expansion of that gut tube with things moving through it. But if it’s not doing that effectively, then the abdominal wall comes out and you see that bloat. So that’s a really common cause of bloating. So working with these muscles, deep belly breathing, working with pelvic floor physio, osteopaths can be so helpful for this we’ll have a pelvic floor [00:38:00] physiotherapist guest coming on our podcast soon, so we’ll talk to her more about this.

So keep your questions in mind. but these floor- this is like the floor of our abdomen. So at that final stage of bowel emptying, these muscles can be just not coordinated, and she’ll bring this to life for all of us. She’ll really walk us through how this works. But, the gut moves forward through this motility, but the stool still needs a relaxed, coordinated pelvic floor to exit properly.

So sometimes we can be too tense, sometimes we’re too relaxed. it really depends on how this is leading to constipation, incomplete bowel emptying, gas buildup, and of course, bloating. And then we know when the stool sits longer in the colon, the bacteria that exists there normally have more time to ferment the leftovers, and this can increase gas and abdominal distension.

So it might not be [00:39:00] dysbiosis. It may just be poor coordination of the muscles, in that area. so something also to be considered if, for those who have been pregnant, have carried a baby, any injury or surgery to that pelvic floor, we can hold tension in these muscles, so a mental, emotional standpoint.

a difficulty relaxing, as I said, or weakness there. So see your pelvic floor physio, breathing mechanics, toileting posture is huge, and I’m sure the pelvic floor physio will walk us through this. Relaxation training can really help improve the coordination of these muscles and reduce constipation or related bloating.

So those are all kind of the mechanisms and what we can do.

Practical Takeaways

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: So let’s go through some practical takeaways from this episode. Christina, how about you get us started?

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Okay. So slowing down. So slowing down the speed of eating, but [00:40:00] also what we’re doing while we’re eating, so not eating distracted, gulping water, m- chewing too quickly, absorbing all of the, the extra air through the things that we’re doing.

that may mean sitting down and having your fork sit down and also, chewing well so that you’re swallowing something that your body can take the nutrients from. Remember, we want those microscopic little bits in our bloodstream. we also wanna think about avoiding carbonated beverages and chewing gum, especially if we’re finding that bloating is an issue, because some people just may not tolerate them very well or have some difficulty in breaking down that extra gas that’s being absorbed in.

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: And we talked about supporting motility, so there’s a number of ways that somebody can do that. the most common being, you know, [00:41:00] avoiding snacking in between meals, which we’ve, we’ve talked about a lot. And thinking about leaving two to three hours of fasting to better support the migrating motor complex, which allows for food and gases to move through the gut like that conveyor belt analogy we’ve discussed.

Walking after meals can be, really powerful for some people. The diaphragmatic breathing piece, yoga. the yoga poses, like the twisting poses, like there’s, there’s certain ones that can be a bit more beneficial for just moving things through. looking at portion sizes. Sometimes overeating is m- a bit to our detriment.

Considering dividing large meals into smaller. Spacing meals if there’s large volume meals that are very much obviously cause symptoms. we talked about finishing eating two to three hours before lying down, especially after large meals. And even thinking about the distribution of calories. is somebody’s l- largest meal their dinner meal where it’s like [00:42:00] 70% of their daily calories?

Maybe we wanna shift things a little bit earlier. A- and then lastly, working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist if somebody is bloated or constipated, or even like for things that feel like they’ve been missed. I had a patient post-pregnancy, she had the diastasis recti, which is where there’s basically the abdominal, the ab- the abdomen is not as strong as it was before, so we see this bloating, but she also had a hernia that was undiagnosed.

Mm. So yeah, making sure we’re turning over every, every stone here.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Yeah. Doesn’t hurt to get a second follow-up or go see a practitioner just to kinda cover your bases.

When To See Doctor

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Uh, so this section is all about how to talk to your practitioner so you know how to bring this up if, if it’s not getting better. So if you’ve done all the things we talked about today, you’ve spaced out your meals, you’ve really slowed down, you’re walking after your meals, we really wanna highlight when to just not assume it’s the lifestyle.

so it’s an [00:43:00] important question of, considering when it’s not just these pieces. So if your bloating is persistent, if it’s getting worse, doesn’t improve with these basic changes, it’s always worth chatting with your medical doctor, or healthcare professional. let them know if there’s… We don’t wanna cause concern, but especially the red flags we talked about in a previous episode.

unexplained weight loss, blood in the stool, if you’re feeling nauseous all the time or you’re vomiting consistently. Anytime there’s pain, it can either be that visceral hypersensitivity or there could be something else going on. Asking for some blood work. Any major change in bowel habits, it’s always good to just say, “Hey, I’ve noticed this.

I’ve been tracking it. This is what I’ve been doing. This is what I’ve noticed.” Most bloating is, or some, like bloating is typically pretty functional and manageable. We just don’t want to ignore it ’cause it can, as you know from this season, it can be due to so many things. So here are some ways [00:44:00] that you can talk to your doctor.

I’ve noticed consistent bloating after meals. I’ve worked on slowing my eating, spacing my meal times three hours apart. Can we look into other causes? And mention specific things like if you feel nauseous or burn or reflux after meals, lying down at night, any pain and what time of day and when that’s coming on.

And then ask your doctor if it’s appropriate to eat three meals a day or should you snack in between meals, what should meal sizes and times look like. So this can sometimes be a blood sugar piece or something else going on with way you are digesting

One Change At Time

Dr. Dominique Vanier, ND: Yeah, so we hope this episode gave you some tips on how to start with, the basics for somebody’s bloating.

You know, we wanna try one change at a time. That’s one of the, I say, the biggest pieces of recommendations that we will typically discuss with, with our patients. so you know, for example, pausing carbonated drinks for a week, slowing down meals, reducing large portions, [00:45:00] allowing a few hours between meals or avoiding eating right before bed, and then tracking, ’cause that’s a, that, that data piece is quite important to be able to identify patterns, but also helps somebody’s practitioner know what to do next.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Yeah, certainly you don’t wanna give up your carbonated beverages if that’s not the issue.

Dr. Whitney Baxter, ND: Exactly.

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: So bloating can certainly feel complicated. If you’ve been listening this far, you realize there are so many different reasons for bloating, but each, each thing has sort of more clues and information, and taking some first steps in being like, “This is or isn’t, the cause,” can be an easy way to get better information.

Final Wrap Up

Dr. Christina Carew, ND: Thank you for joining Team Gut Girls, and remember, better gut health changes everything, so we want you to have that too

Speaker: Thank you for joining Team Gut Girls. Like, follow, subscribe, and share our [00:46:00] podcast with friends you think will wanna know more about their gut. You can also visit us at teamgutgirls.com for show transcripts and more information. Because better gut health changes everything. See you next time.