Bloating is common, and the key to beating it is to understand the cause. From working with people in my clinic, I can tell you that bloating typically has less to do with how committed you are to a diet and exercise plan and much more to do with the bacteria in your gut and how efficiently you’re metabolizing estrogen. There are three main culprits that lead to water retention, and once you can identify which is your main root cause, you can start eating to treat it. How to solve it: Help your body during your luteal phase metabolize excess estrogen—make an estrogen-flushing juice from carrot, beet, celery, and lemon; eat dark leafy greens, legumes, flax; reduce animal protein and dairy; and supplement to support liver function with the mother of all antioxidants, glutathione, and vitamin C. How to solve it: Low- to medium-intensity exercise is a great way to beat stress and decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol. (I get on my trampoline at least once a day!) Stress makes all physical symptoms worse, including bloat. Also: self-pleasure! Masturbating is one of the fastest and most fun ways to flush massive amounts of cortisol. And if you haven’t already, reduce or say goodbye to caffeine, which causes the body to produce extra cortisol. How to solve it: There are natural strategies for boosting magnesium, including eating key magnesium-rich foods, like sunflower seeds, low-mercury fish, leafy greens, and my personal favorite, dark chocolate! I love recommending dark chocolate as medicine. Just make sure that you choose chocolate that contains 70 percent cacao or more. A 100-gram serving has 176 milligrams of magnesium, which is just over half of the recommended daily intake for adult women7. Enjoy! But here’s where things get really interesting: Digesting food isn’t your gut flora’s only job. A specific set of your bacteria known as the estrobolome11 is responsible for helping metabolize estrogen. When these bacteria are out of balance, your body doesn’t process and eliminate excess estrogen efficiently. This can lead to estrogen dominance12, which contributes to bad PMS, among other health problems—and that includes more bloating. So microbiome imbalances are a double whammy when it comes to bloating, contributing to both food reactivity and estrogen overload. That’s why the first step in putting a stop to bloat is addressing gut health. How to solve it: Healing your gut is the single best thing you can do to help with bloat—and the process starts with food. Reduce or eliminate sugar, dairy, and gluten, and keep inflammatory processed foods to a minimum. Then stock up on hormone-healthy whole foods like organic greens, avocados, pastured eggs, ground flaxseed, and berries. Make probiotics part of your diet. Taking a high-quality probiotic helps nudge your gut flora back into balance. And of course a great magnesium glycinate supplement is great this week. Read more from Alisa Vitti here.
