7 Herbs to Help Reduce Your Bloating
If you're reading this then chances are you're dealing with some digestive discomfort and one of those symptoms is likely bloating. Whether it's every day or a few times a week, bloating is no fun.
Let's talk about some ways you can address the bloat with herbs when that feeling of discomfort comes on.
Why am I bloated?
Bloating is so common these days, that many people think it's normal to feel this way. I’m here to let you in on a little secret: bloating is not normal!! There is something going on in the digestive process that is triggering bloating to occur. Here are some of the most common reasons I see people are dealing with bloating:
Eating too fast: not slowing down while you’re eating can cause important parts of the digestive process to be missed. Chewing your food provides a physical breakdown of the food and your saliva helps to further break down your food. If this step isn’t completed, the rest of your digestive tract is having to do 10x more work to break down food that should have already started to break down in your mouth.
Not enough stomach acid: if you’re dealing with bloating along with heartburn, you could be dealing with low stomach acid. It’s important to work with a provider to help address the reason for low stomach acid.
Drinking a lot of fluid before/during meals: drinking a lot of fluids (water, soda, juice) at meal time can dilute your stomach acid and make it harder for the stomach acid to break down. Drinking a ton of water before meals was a trend in the diet culture to help reduce the amount of food you eat. In reality, it just messes up the ability for your stomach to break down food, triggering bloating.
Dysbiosis: an overgrowth of bacteria, especially in areas like the small intestine (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO), allows for the bacteria to start breaking down your food. This process is more like fermentation. And when fermentation occurs, this creates gas. Working with a provider to find out what type of dysbiosis you’re dealing with and start a gut healing protocol is going to be vital to reducing bloating.
When I’m working with patients to help alleviate bloating, I am always recommending the herbs I discuss in this blog post to help them feel better while we are working on the plan. This helps them feel more comfortable throughout the whole process.
What Herbs are Great for Bloating?
Herbs have amazing benefits for the whole body, but there is a set of herbs that can alleviate annoying symptoms like bloating. The set of herbs that have a specific action that helps with bloating are carminatives.
What are Carminative Herbs?
Herbs that have carminative properties will help coordinate the contractions of the muscles in the digestive tract. Uncoordinated movements can cause pain and bloating. Another action of carminatives is to help get gas out.
When consuming these herbs, some notice an improvement in that uncomfortable symptom of bloating pretty quickly. Which is amazing! It’s no fun to be out with friends feeling uncomfortably bloated.
What herbs are carminatives?
Peppermint or Mentha piperita is a go-to herb when people struggle with bloating. Peppermint tea is a carminative, helping to relax the muscles of the intestines to stop the feeling of bloating and help get gas out. Remember to cover your peppermint tea when steeping to get those benefits!
Fennel has amazing properties to help reduce bloating. Add the seeds to a tea or you can chew on a few of the seed to reduce bloating. You can also cook with fennel for the amazing benefits.
Chamomile or Matricaria recutita is a versatile herb that has so many uses. It’s great at relaxing the nervous system, antimicrobial, reduces inflammation, and reducing the feeling of bloating in the digestive tract.
Lemon balm or Melissa officinalis is a great herb when it comes to relaxing the nervous system, but lemon balm is also a great carminative to help reduce bloating. If you find yourself bloated at the end of the day, sip on some peppermint + lemon balm tea to unwind from the day.
Anise
Ginger is a hot herb helping to reduce inflammation and reduce bloating. Sip on some ginger tea in between meals to help stimulate GI motility (helpful if you’re dealing with constipation).
Cinnamon
Herbs to De Bloat
One of my favorite ways to alleviate that bloat is to drink a de-bloat tea, you can do this by getting some of the carminative herbs as a loose leaf tea from one of my favorites, Mountain Rose Herbs, or you can grab a set of tea bags from your grocery store from another go-to brand of mine, Traditional Medicinals.
Pro Tip: I often recommend Throat Coat by Traditional Medicinals because it contains many carminative herbs that can help reduce your bloating.
How to Consume the Tea to De Bloat
There are various ways you can use these herbs to de-bloat. One of my favorite ways is to consume the herbs as a tea at the end of a meal. You can do a combination of herbs (like Throat Coat) or one herb on it’s own (like peppermint tea or chamomile tea).
Relaxing De Bloat Tea
I love recommending to ending the day with some carminative herbs to unwind, de bloat, and de stress. Many of the herbs that have carminative properties also have properties to help support the nervous system, reducing symptoms like anxiety including chamomile and lemon balm.
Recipe:
1tsp of peppermint leaf
1tsp of chamomile
1tsp of lemon balm
I wouldn't recommend peppermint if you're dealing with heartburn, this can make the symptoms worse.
These herbs are a great tool to help symptomatically, but it’s important to address the root cause of your bloating. Working with a practitioner to help
PS - if you've been dealing with bloating for too long and are sick of feeling like you have a a balloon in your stomach at the end of the day, we can work together one on one to investigate the root cause so you don't have to worry about bloating ever again. You can book a free discovery call here so we can chat about how this process will work for you.
Talk soon,
xx Dr. Alyssa
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