Bloating: Causes and Natural Ways to Cure

Are you the one who wakes up with a round or huge belly in the morning which settles by afternoon and in the evening you regain the puffiness again? 

This is nothing but bloating or water retention. Most of us confuse bloating with fat. There is a huge difference between being fat and being bloated. Fat is accumulation of fat cells in the body due to improper diet, lack of exercise, inadequate sleep. Bloating on the other hand is experienced due to accumulation of either lot of fluids or gasses within the body.   The main cause of water retention or bloating is due to a wrong lifestyle. 

1. Lack of movement
2. Overuse of medicines or pain killers/ antibiotics
3. Lack of adequate sleep
4. Intake of more salt, sugar, processed, packaged foods
5. High intake of alcohol, carbonated beverages
6. Stress

How to reduce bloating?

If the root cause is lifestyle then the solution should revolve around lifestyle too-

1. Move: Set a goal of 10,000 steps each day. If you are glued to your chair in office, make sure you get up every 2 hrs and walk around.
2. Reduce Salt intake: Avoid packaged and processed foods which have high level of sodium. Use pink salt/ rock salt instead.
3. Potassium: Potassium balances excess sodium. Add more fruits and vegetables rich in potassium in your diet like banana, oranges, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, cucumber.
4. Water: Dehydration actually makes your body hold on more water, hence adequate hydration is a must to flush out the excess water. 
5. Avoid sugar: Cut back on sugar loaded drinks, cereals, biscuits, cookies. Read labels behind so called healthy snacks. Here are some of the most common names used for sugar-
   • High-fructose corn syrup
   • Cane sugar or juice
   • Maltose
   • Dextrose
   • Invert sugar
   • Molasses
   • Caramel

Quick remedies:

1. Jeera water: Jeera works as a fantastic diuretic. Add 1 tsp jeera in 300 ml water and and soak overnight. Next day morning warm, strain and drink. Follow for at least a week for best results.
2. Barley water: Boil 3 tbsp of pearl barley seeds in 3 cups water, reduce it to half, squeeze some lemon juice and drink.
3. Coriander and mint juice- Take handful of corrainder and mint leaves, add in 1 glass of water. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice. Blend and drink.