The Wellness Scoop - The Extra Scoop: Bloating

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Bloating—uncomfortable, frustrating, and often a mystery. But how much of it is actually normal? In this episode, we cut through the noise and get straight to the facts. With bloating now fueling a billion-pound industry, countless products promise relief. But do they really work, or is the solution far simpler? What really causes bloating? Are quick-fix supplements worth it, or just clever marketing? Can stress, diet, or even tight clothing make it worse? To help separate fact from fiction, we’re joined by Catherine Rabess, a Registered Dietitian specialising in gastroenterology and complex nutrition support. Catherine is the Clinical Lead Dietitian for NHS Nutrition and Dietetic Service in South West London, and helps clients on a 1-1 basis inside the Rhitrition Clinic. She shares expert-backed insights to help you understand your gut — and feel your best in this episode.  Catherine is also the author of The 30 Plan: Why Eating 30 Plants a Week Will Revolutionise Your Gut Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The truth is, no one does it alone. And why would you want to? We all need someone to make us believe. Hashtag, you got this. Welcome to the Extra Scoop, our expert-led bonus episodes, giving you the need to know on the topics everybody is talking about.

That's right. From gut health to sleep, hormones to skin, we are cutting through the noise with top experts so there is no fluff, just facts. Exactly, it's all quick, practical, evidence-based advice to fit into your busy lives. So this is The Extra Scoop. Let's get started. Today is all about bloating and whether it's normal. I was absolutely blown away looking a few stats around this, that the global digestive health supplement market size is going to grow from $13.4 billion in 2023 to almost $33 billion by 2033. And I'm sure that resonates with most of us because if you're tapped into a wellness algorithm, you're probably seeing supplements and all sorts of quick fixes for bloating and those

digestive challenges coming up all day every day. I know I do. And our big question is why does bloating affect so many of us and what is actually normal? I think that's something that Ria andanna are a bit obsessed with is this idea that so many of us sit at home thinking, is this normal? Am I strange? It doesn't look like the gals I see on Instagram. And particularly for women with hormone fluctuations. So in this quick conversation, we're going to be looking at the most common causes of bloating,

debunking some of those claims of supplements and quick fixes, and then having a look at why it has become such an enormous industry, plus sharing insights to help you understand your body a little bit better and separating the all-important facts from marketing hype. Absolutely, Ella. And I cannot even express how excited I am to chat to Kath, because Kath, Katherine Robes works as a registered dietitian.

She is an expert in all things gut health. She works in the nutrition clinic. And I think we can start by asking Kath, well, first of all, that figure, by the way, is astounding, the money involved in this industry. And Kath, if you could help our listeners know why does bloating affect so many of us and is it actually normal, but especially for women with hormones? Thanks so much for having me on. Yeah, it is so normal. And to just explain what bloating is, it's a buildup of pressure from either the amount of food and drink you've had, or sometimes it's due to sort of excess gas production. And that's what's happening when the gut microbes

ingest different types of foods, it produces gas. But it's really healthy. And it is a way for the gut to signal to the brain that digestion is occurring and that the gut microbes are being well fed. There are two slightly different types of bloating though, and it's important that we do touch on that. So there's intermittent bloating, which is common and everyone experiences it. And that's particularly seen, you know, after eating or towards later on in the day, or sometimes you may even wake up and experience it. However, continuous bloating, which never goes away and often linked with abdominal swelling and pain, is not normal. This could

actually be due to an underlying cause. It's really important you get that checked out with your doctor. As you mentioned about with women and the hormone fluctuations, we unfortunately get quite a bad deal. And when we're experiencing PMS or the luteal phase of our menstruation period, we are experiencing quite a bit of bloating and that's due to this fluctuation in hormones of estrogen and progesterone. And they can affect the bowel function function but also bloating too. It's so reassuring that because, and I don't want to overly dwell on social media because

not all of us doom scroll too much, but I think it is interesting because certainly there's a lot on there. There's a lot of content of this is how to get rid of bloating, this is my super, super flat stomach. And I think there's such empowerment and important conversation around just normalizing what bodies are actually meant to do and actually meant to look like. And as you're saying, Kev, actually bloating after meals, that's healthy, that's normal, that's not something we should be obsessively trying to get rid of. Totally. Yeah. And we have to really change that misconception too. And I think that's where sometimes the wellness industry is falling short because they're making, you know, vulnerable

people, women especially, feel that we shouldn't be bloated and we should have this flat stomach and take this pill or whatever it may be to actually stop that from happening. But we don't want to do that because it's our body functioning normally. Is it normal to have a flat stomach all the time? No, it actually isn't. Hallelujah. I wish I had a flat stomach all the time, but it's not, it doesn't happen, unfortunately.

Isn't it the shape of our organs as well? Yeah. The way we're built and some women, isn't it true they have larger gynecological area than others? Yeah, yeah, the pelvic area and actually depending on how your womb sits, you know, that pays a big part to the shape of how your stomach looks too. Wow. Honestly, this is so extraordinarily reassuring.

I think for so many people listening of just again, it's just normalizing human bodies as opposed to quite a lot of the images that have been projected on us via, you know, diet culture growing up and women's magazines and the whole kind of, you know, the covers of Heat and Now that used to happen was, you know, drop a dress size in about three hours. Brittany Abbs, Britney Spears, there's 200 crunches a day, everybody. I'm not going to forget that one. So I think it's really powerful and reassuring to know, as I said crunches a day, everybody. I would not forget that one. So I think it's really powerful and reassuring to know,

as I said, that bloating is normal. I experienced it. I think we all experience it. But then you go sometimes online or see things and read things. And you think, oh, maybe I'm not normal. Maybe I should be getting rid of this. And I think then within that, the wellness industry offers just countless supplements, pills, gummies,

claiming to reduce bloating. Do these actually work or is there more to the story and what should people be mindful of within that? That's such a great question, Ella. And in my book, The 30 Plan, I actually talk really deeply about gut health myths and then busting these myths. One section which I digged really deep into is the de-bloating supplements. Now, with de-bloating supplements, they usually contain types of digestive enzymes, probiotics, and natural herbs like dandelion root and licorice root, for example. Separately, from either an alternative medicine route or actually from science when we think

about probiotics and digestive enzymes, there is evidence to support. We know probiotics has huge amounts of studies to support the benefits of probiotics with certain types of gastrointestinal conditions, things like IBS it's proven to work for, and it can help with certain symptoms such as bloating. However, with these supplements that have multiple types of ingredients in them, there's actually no clinical studies to prove that when they are put together into one pill, one gummy, one drink, we don't actually know the benefit or lack of it will have on the body. So, the industry is going wild with these claims saying it does this, it can do that

and very much so it's all antidotal. So I would always be wanting to focus on other factors, which I'm sure we'll get into, which can play a part before trying to find a quick fix with a pill because we just don't know clinically if it's proven to work. And that's really helpful because obviously I know you very well, Cath, and I know you've been asked to consult on supplements and turn them down. You know the inside of this industry and it's a huge moneymaker and you can see, first of all, I'd like to ask you why the regulation perhaps isn't there. So anyone could literally create one of these de-bloat pills. I've seen influencers create de-bloat books

and profit massively off of these. But I think really importantly as well, like you said, what are those other reasons that can make us bloat? What actually is it? Is it that I'm sat here now, and I know you're going to say it is, I'm wearing tights, right? And whenever I sit down in tights, I don't know why I do it to myself. I don't feel good. You feel restricted. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many common reasons for bloating and things like tight jeans, even active leisure wear, all the gorgeous sort of tight fitted gym leggings, which we would say feel quite comfortable. They often are quite compressive and restrictive on the tummy. And that makes food harder to

pass and gas as well because it is restricted. And there's actually something called the tight gene syndrome, which causes bloating. And it's when sort of muscle and nerve fibres unfortunately start to die because they're wearing things that are too tight around the body. There's that side of it. There's also factors such as your own lifestyle. Movement can play a big part. If you are able to go for a walk after eating, that can help with actually reducing bloating. But if you're in quite a sedentary job, sat down based in an office, that often can make bloating worse sometimes. Sleep and stress can play a big part because of something called the gut-brain axis and how they communicate with

one another. High-fiber foods also, because they just take that little bit longer to digest. So more gas is being produced to help with those gut microbes digesting high-fibre foods. But then there's things like, you know, if you're having a really large meal or you're rushing to eat, you're not being mindful with eating and, you know, taking huge mouthfuls or swallowing air, all of those factors can play a part. And something that I see so common in clinic is, you know, people are going online, they're trying to be proactive, they want to improve their gut health, but they're doing so much, almost too much. Whether it be they're taking a bunch of different supplements or they are taking lots of fermented foods like

kombucha and kefir and kimchi. But when you're having too much of those things, they also can play a part because they will be producing more gas on the back of that. But it's also important to bear in mind that there's certain conditions that can contribute and bloating can be a symptom of that. So, you know, it's commonly seen in gynecological conditions such as endometriosis. It's also seen in people that have IBS and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. So if you are experiencing lots and lots of bloating, which is persistent, you must go to your doctor just to make sure that there isn't something else going on. So Kev, within that, I think what's certainly what I've taken from what you said that's so incredibly important is that if you've got, as you said,

persistent bloating, then that's a reason to go to your doctor straight away and get to the bottom of it. But if what you're finding is when you've had a big night out, when you're lack of sleep, when you've sat your desk all day and your super tight jeans and you feel bloated, that we shouldn't be berating ourselves, that that's just a completely normal bodily function and something we should all actually become

a lot more comfortable with. Totally, yeah. And are there any lifestyle factors for people who don't need to go to the doctor, you know, as in they don't have pain, they're not, you know, really struggling with consistent bloating. And you know, I really appreciate that when I was pregnant with my first daughter, I got to about seven months and I looked as bloated then as I did when I was ill and I was like so chronically bloated 24-7, seven days a week for about two years and that's when I looked about seven or eight months pregnant and that was so painful and awful and I thought

yeah lots of doctors are not so special to get to the bottom of what was happening there whereas now I would just have bloating when I'm maybe today a bit hungover as I've admitted and a bit lagging on sleep and probably had too many snacks already today. Those sorts of moments, are there things for us to be bearing in mind if we want to feel maybe we're not feeling as comfortable in our body because there's a little bit more bloating than we'd like but it doesn't feel like a medical challenge? What would you be advising people to be thinking about? That's such a great question. And as you rightfully said, you know, alcohol does

also play quite a big part in bloating and fizzy drinks too. So if you're somebody consuming high amounts of fizzy drinks, you know, that's something to consider dropping and reducing down, but also artificial sweeteners that are found in sugar free drinks, they can be quite a bad culprit when it comes to bloating. Also with sugar-free chewing gum and mints as well, that's one question that I always ask my clients who are experiencing lots of bloating, are you chewing gum? Something as simple as that could play a part.

Even factors like depending on the water bottle you use, do you drink straight from the bottle or do you use a straw? Because often the straw, you're gulping more air. And when you're swallowing more air, you're actually then causing more gas to be produced as well in the stomach. So drinking straight from the bottle rather than using a straw would be a better option. Another suggestion I would say is just being conscious about, you know, if you're somebody that's not having much fiber in your diet and you want to try and

eat more fiber, that could be great for your gut microbes and can help with improving how you digest certain food by having more diverse gut microbes. But don't increase fiber too quickly in your diet. Do it very slowly because when you're doing it gradually, you're then giving the gut that time to sort of readjust and get the microbes around new foods that they're being exposed to. I would also say focus on trying to get really good quality sleep, winding down, trying to make sure that you have some protected time for that before actually going to sleep so you have a really restful night's sleep. But stress can play a huge part with

digestion. So thinking about ways that you can manage stress, whether it be focusing on things like movement, exercise, yoga. We know that there's lots of gut-directed yoga that can really benefit, whether it be digestion but also your overall gut health and focusing on you know meditation and stuff that just helps to give you a bit more calm or just picking up a book and having a read or listening to a podcast like this something to help you unwind all really great ways of trying to help manage stress too. I mean what's so interesting from that that I really take as well from the whole conversation, is that we all go through really hard times. And for some people, those hard times can

last six months, maybe a year. For instance, you're postpartum with a baby, you're chronically sleep deprived, you're stressed to high heaven trying to manage everything, your hormones are going crazy. I can imagine that's a period of life where your bloating symptoms are going to be far higher. And I used to know before I'd go on stage when I'm in my previous career as a singer, I would always get that digestive, those IBS-like symptoms constantly. And I think it's just subliminal psychological stress. But for our listeners, Cath, you've mentioned so many amazing things there. It's going to be so overwhelming because they hear certain camps on the internet saying focus on fermented foods, get more, more, more, more fibre. And actually, I think once

again, it's the nuance, isn't it? Taking a step back and just saying, let's start off with baby steps. So should people keep a food diary every day just to have an idea of what they're doing? If they are concerned that bloating might be happening more than usual, then yeah, a food and symptom diary can be really helpful. But something else to take into consideration is there are quite a few fruits and veg that contribute to bloating because they do produce quite a bit of gas when digested. So things like brassica veg, which is things like broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, onions, beans and pulses, these all can cause quite

a lot of bloating. But what we always say is it's not about restricting or cutting out these foods. It's just about making sure you're chewing your food really well, taking your time to eat, but maybe considering rather than having it on a day to day, but just reducing it down and alternating with different types of plant based foods and different types of veg and fruit so that you're not having it all the time, which could be making that bloating worse. Fantastic. And if we were going to leave listeners with one last thought, how do they separate fact from marketing hype?

They're online, they're looking at social media and they're having these all these kind of click-baity headlines pop up. How do they know, yep I'm gonna follow this or I'm gonna skip this one? That's a good question. I would always say making sure the person you are following is reputable and they actually have a level of qualification or registration, whether it be a registered nutritionist or a registered dietician or somebody in a field which has extensive knowledge and experience in that area to be able to provide that level of information, check their credentials. That's so important.

But also just bearing in mind, you know, what I eat in a day and a picture of an ad is just not the one. It's not realistic. And actually, often that really can promote quite a bit of disordered eating. And that's what you want to pull away from. Like, I know sometimes when you're looking at these more reputable people, they're not telling you this magic pill will save your life and do this and do that and stop bloating. But it's really about focusing on the basics and that's where the research is at. So it's important that people are aware of that. Oh, Calf, I mean, it's so wonderful to hear. And I think for everybody, it's kind of a relief, but also put your detective hat on. That's what we always say, don't we, in clinic? Because

people are going to try and sell you one-pill miracles and they do exist and they're very popular but like you said, there's no research on them and okay if you want to try it but it's a lot of money and what you could be doing instead is just invest in you like a bit of you time. It's so hard to get you time, I actually have to put it in my diary sometimes or it just doesn't happen whereas perhaps instead of taking a pill most people people would benefit more from doing a bit of that yoga or breathing properly and not using a straw. I didn't know that about the straw. Ella, do you think in terms of the industry getting bigger and bigger, do you think we've helped kind of

bring those figures down? I hope today's been helpful. And I think for me, it's just, it's everything we want this show to be for our listeners, which is a weekly reminder that there really aren't any quick fixes. There really aren't any magic pills to take. What really matters when it comes to your health and wellness are the, let's be honest, quite boring things,

exactly like you've talked about, Kev, today, which is trying to sleep more, trying to manage your stress effectively, trying to move your body, trying to look after your gut health. Ultimately, it's these small, consistent habits that fundamentally will shape our health more than any one singular expensive item can normally do. But also within that, to feel so comfortable within ourselves, you know, it isn't normal to feel 100%, 100% of the time. It isn't normal to have, just like you said, Kev, a flat stomach 365 days a year. We are humans, our bodies and our moods ebbs and flow, and they should because that's what our lives do and our bodies are going to reflect that.

So the pressure to be perfect should just be removed from everybody else. They go into their week and instead just take this as your reminder that actually sleep is going to change how you feel, movement is going to change how you feel, small habits with your diet are going to change how you feel and that will ladder up. But you do not have to be perfect. Nobody is. Jill, we were speaking about CAF before we were talking about topics and what we should discuss is that we just all genetically are different. Like we said at the beginning with the organ shapes and sizes, like I've never stored weight around my middle. I mean, that might change in the menopause, but we're built differently. So how can we expect us all to

look the same? It must drive you crazy in your line of work. Yeah, I find it really challenging. And often there's a big part of trying to break down those misconceptions before I even can start focusing on dietary changes because it is all good and well, providing that level of expertise. But if you have grown so much to just be absorbed by diet culture, absorbed by what weight trends there are now. They're constantly changing. One minute it was curvy, next minute now it's like super, super skinny. It's like nobody can keep up with it. It's just impossible. So really it's about focusing on what's right for you and what makes you feel good. That's

all that matters. Thank you. Thanks for leaving us feeling so empowered and comfortable in our own skin. Thank you guys so much for listening to us on The Extra Scoop. We are a community-based podcast. We want this to be helpful for you. So any requests, we want to hear it. Absolutely. Let us know which experts that you want on The Extra Scoop

and we will see you on Monday. Can't wait.