Why Water Can Cause Bloating

We all know that feeling bloated is the worst… it’s especially bad when not even a pair of Spanx can fix the situation. Water is the key to so many health benefits but sometimes our bodies hold on to excess water, which can cause that unwanted bloating (it’s important to mention that there can be a number of factors that cause this too like certain foods, your diet, hormone changes, etc.).

We’ve come up with ways on how to avoid water retention:

Stick to room temperature water while eating

Drinking cold water during a meal can disrupt the digestive process by diluting and cooling the digestive enzymes, which are needed to digest foods effectively. We recommend sticking to room temperature water or something hot if you need a drink with your meal.

Drink water at a steady and regular pace

Slow and steady wins the race! It’s hard to know how much you’re drinking exactly, so it’s easy to drink too little or too much. Consuming a large amount of water at once can bloat and stretch your stomach. We find drinking from bottles with measurements (ml’s or time) help avoid this. You can purchase our time marked water bottle from here.

Try to avoid sparkling water

Although sparkling water is fancy, it contains gases, which can cause a build up of air in our digestive system. Try drinking plain water and jazz it up by adding fruits/veggies/herbs. Find our infused water combinations here.

Eat foods with high water content

According to the Better Health Channel, the recommended amount of water we need to consume daily is between 2L-2.6L. That sounds like a hell of a lot, but did you know that 20-30% of this could also be through food consumption too? Dr Howard Murad says “when we eat more water-rich foods, we absorb water more slowly because it is trapped in the structure of these foods… and [it] also stays in our bodies for longer.” If you’re unsure about the water content of fruits and vegetables, read our post here.