Indigestion and its Simple Remedies

Problems With Food Digestion

Foods to Eat and Avoid

A balanced diet contains intestinally healthy foods and nutrients. Some meals may produce digestive system symptoms in people with particular medical disorders.  These foods cause most heartburn, diarrhea, bloating, and other digestive issues. Learn what to eat instead.

Here's what to avoid, what to eat, and when to consult a doctor for bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or heartburn.

Junk food causes indigestion

The following Hard-to-Digest Foods and What to Eat Instead 

These foods, which are hardest to digest, cause bloating, gas, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea.

Without medical issues, some people have digestive discomfort. Others involve gastrointestinal difficulties or dietary allergies like lactose or gluten.

1. Dairy

• After consuming dairy products, some people experience gas, bloating, and diarrhea. This is often caused by an inability to digest the dairy sugar lactose.
• A healthy small intestine produces lactase to break down lactose. For some, lactose lingers in the intestines because the body cannot absorb it.
• Lactose reaches the colon, where bacteria break it down into gas. To pass undigested sugar molecules, the large intestine generates extra fluid, causing gas, diarrhea, and bloating.

What to eat instead

• Despite being lactose intolerant, many doctors recommend eating dairy products in moderation since they include calcium and vitamin D, which build bones. 
• People with lactose intolerance can eat some lactose before getting symptoms. 
• Drink a cup of milk before each meal and monitor your feelings afterward. Hard cheeses and yogurts have less lactose than other dairy products, which may help your digestion.
• Milk products with little or no lactose provide calcium and vitamin D without lactose sensitivity.
• According to Luis F. Lara, MD, clinical medicine professor and division chief of digestive diseases at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, you may need to eat a lot of these foods to obtain enough calcium and vitamin D.

2. Fried and Other High-Fat Foods

• Fats occupy a longer duration in the abdomen, causing acid reflux; thus, food enters the esophagus. 
• Consuming a high amount of fats may be difficult to break down and cause bloating and gas.
• This led to an increase in the production of liquid, resulting in a watery and loose stool.

What to Eat 

• You can substitute lean meats (grilled, boiled, baked, or poached) for fatty, fried foods. 
• You may prefer unsaturated fats like nuts and seeds, avocados, olive oil, and fish, as they tend to be more gut-friendly.

3. Vegetables with cruciferous

The video about cruciferous vegetables is good for indigestion.

• An important part of a healthy diet is cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, mustard greens, radish, kale, and broccoli, which are rich in fiber. 
• Fiber may create digestive problems like gas and bloating if a large quantity of nondigestible carbohydrates is consumed.
• The fiber in cruciferous vegetables will remain intact till it passes through the stomach and small intestine and into the colon. 
• Gas will be created inside the colon due to microbes feeding on fiber.

What to Eat Instead 

To make it digest cruciferous vegetables, try sautéing, boiling, or roasting since it provides many health benefits. 

Hence, it should not be ignored. If you are avoiding high fiber, you can prefer cooked green beans, carrots, and mushrooms that have lower fiber.

4. Ultra-Processed Foods

• Unnaturally processed foods (UPFs) are highly processed. 
• To make them taste better, they have lots of sugar, starch, oil, and fat. 
• To prolong shelf life, UPFs use artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. Fast food, salty snacks, cookies, cakes, frozen meals, and soda are UPFs.
• UPF-rich diets are linked to constipation more than unprocessed or slightly processed diets.
• This may be because UPFs have less fiber than lightly processed ones. 
• One study found that eating more UPFs reduces daily fiber intake. 
• Consuming adequate fiber daily prevents constipation by keeping stools moving.

What to Eat Instead 

• Cooking from scratch and eating fruits, veggies, and whole grains can help you obtain enough fiber. 
• Check ingredient lists to make sure food makers use natural ingredients first and minimal additions or preservatives.

5. Legumes

• Legumes like beans and lentils cause flatulence and bloating. 
• If you suddenly eat more legumes, their high fiber content may be hard to digest.
• In addition, legumes contain hard-to-digest raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs). 
• Gut bacteria break down RFOs and release gases that cause stomach pain and flatulence.
• Foods high in RFOs, like legumes, are harder for people with digestive conditions like IBS or IBD to digest.

What to Eat Instead 

• IBS or IBD sufferers should avoid or limit legumes high in RFOs. 
• These legumes include baked beans, chickpeas, lentils, and soybeans. 
• If you have gas and stomach pain after eating legumes but no digestive disorder, soak them overnight before cooking. 
• Soaking beans for 16 hours reduces RFOs and gas, according to research.

6. Caffeine-filled foods and drinks

• Caffeine is an energy-boosting compound
• Speeds up gastrointestinal motility. 
• If you consume more than two or three cups a day, it may lead to diarrhea
• Caffeine’s mortality results in IBS symptoms like diarrhea and stomach pain
• Higher caffeine consumption has been associated with worse IBS symptoms, particularly in women and obese individuals, according to research. 

What to Eat Instead 

• For IBS or stomach upset, try caffeine-free versions of your favorite drinks or search for caffeine alternatives.
• Dr. Lara recommends high-amino-acid protein shakes to replace caffeine for energy. 

7. Spicy Foods

• If you have digestive issues, indigestion, or diarrhea, spicy foods may worsen.
• Capsaicin tricks your taste buds into thinking your body temperature has risen.
• This tingling and burning feeling around your mouth when you eat spicy foods passes through your digestive system, increasing your metabolic rate and causing belly pain and cramps. 
• Fast digestion from spiciness can cause diarrhea. It can even activate colon pain receptors, making bowel movements painful.

What to Eat Instead 

• Adjusting flavor rather than cutting whole foods reduces spicy food effects. 
• Ginger, basil, rosemary, mint, and thyme are mild herbs and spices to use in cooking.

Also, read https://www.scripps.org/news_items/5225-six-tips-to-prevent-digestives.

8. Some Fruits

• Fruits are essential to a healthy diet, but some can cause digestive issues.
• All fruits contain fructose, which IBS and other GI disorders can make difficult to digest. 
• Dried fruits, apples, and pears have more fructose than other fruits, which can cause lactose intolerance in IBS. 
• Fructose is also abundant in fruit juice, watermelons, and peaches.

What to Eat Instead 

• Bananas, blueberries, cantaloupes, grapes, oranges, and strawberries have less fructose and may help IBS.

9. Wheat, Rye, and Others

• Gluten (a protein in wheat, rye, barley, and triticale) can cause digestive issues.
• Gluten damages the small intestine in celiac disease patients. 
• Bloating, constipation, gas, abdominal pain, and diarrhea are celiac disease symptoms.
• Gluten intolerance (nonceliac gluten sensitivity) causes abdominal pain, bloating, fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, headache, nausea, and vomiting.

The cause of these symptoms is unknown. 

• People may be sensitive to a wheat carbohydrate that the gut can't absorb. 
• Gas and other symptoms can result from the carb fermenting in the gut. 
• Gluten-sensitive people may experience stomach lining irritation from wheat.

What to Eat Instead 

• Replace bread, pasta, crackers, and flour with gluten-free options. 
• See “gluten-free” on the label or in the ingredients. 
• Amaranth, buckwheat, corn, cornmeal, flax, millet, and gluten-free flours like rice, soy, corn, potato, and beans are gluten-free.

10. Soda

• High-fructose corn syrup, a refined sweetener that is poorly absorbed in the stomach and can exacerbate symptoms of IBS like gas and bloating, is found in many sodas.
• Soda also contains carbon dioxide, which can cause gas and bloating.
• Sucralose and aspartame, which are found in other "zero calorie" sodas, can cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
• Many sodas contain caffeine, which can cause diarrhea.

What to Drink Otherwise 

• Instead of soda, try seltzer or sparkling water. 
• Check the nutrition label because some seltzers and sparkling waters contain sugar. 
• If bubbles upset your stomach, drink lemon, mint, or basil-flavored flat water.

11. Alcohol

• Many digestive issues can result from drinking more than one or two drinks per day.
• Drunkenness often causes diarrhea.
• Alcohol can draw water to the stomach in a laxative manner.
• Alcohol can also aggravate the intestines and hasten digestion.
• Belly cramps and poop urges result from alcohol speeding digestive muscle contractions.
• Bloating may occur. Beer disrupts gut bacteria, causing gas production and abdominal bloating.

What to Drink Otherwise 

• Those who like the taste and social aspect of alcohol but not its gut effects can buy nonalcoholic beers, wines, and spirits.

Consult a Doctor

Kelci McHugh, RD, a North Carolina-based registered dietitian and assistant director of nutritional sciences at Ayble Health, a virtual gut health platform, says your digestive responses may indicate when you need help. When gut symptoms interfere with your daily routine, you lose weight unintentionally, or you show signs of health changes, McHugh advises consulting a doctor.

Medical intervention may be necessary for the following digestive symptoms:

• Rapid or severe abdominal pain
• Chronic diarrhea
• 3 or fewer bowel movements per week
• Weekly heartburn over two
• Unusual gas or bloating
• Your stool has blood
• Keep track of any foods that regularly cause digestive problems. 

In addition to scheduling a colonoscopy, the doctor might inquire about digestive symptoms and recommend lifestyle modifications.

Conclusion

• Food can cause abdominal pain, gas, bloating, nausea, heartburn, diarrhea, and constipation.
• Dairy, cruciferous vegetables, high-fat foods, gluten, legumes, and others can cause digestive issues. Consult a doctor if digestive symptoms persist or disrupt daily life.