“My belly looks like I’m pregnant.” As a gastroenterologist, who treats bloating, I hear this daily. I hear it from women who’ve been pregnant and those who have not. I even hear it from my male patients—I typically respond to the guys with a Different Strokes‘,”Whatchu talking about Willis?” Bloating is a common problem with common causes. For most people, bloating is just an annoying sensation of fullness. For others, it can be a distressing source of pain and mental anguish. Unfortunately, I’ve even seen spouses ridicule their partner’s appearance for bloating. Although bloating is a frequent complaint, I often see patients who’ve had previous doctors that never addressed any of the common dietary causes of bloating. Many of these patients had colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, and CT scans to evaluate bloating. They’ve had every test a doctor can order when the solution was as simple as avoiding gum-chewing. I’m not claiming to be the ‘belly whisperer,’ but avoiding, or at least reducing, certain foods has a helped a significant portion of my patients. I want to discuss bloating and a share few simple dietary approaches for addressing it.
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