Foods that cause gas and bloating are many. Gas producing foods can be from the dairy family, contain fructose or from the cruciferous family. There can also be others. A planned step-by-step process can help you walk through the difficulty in figuring out what foods cause gas in you.
Foods that cause gas, at least the most well known are mostly from the legume family, which includes beans. The legume family is very hard to digest. It’s the difficulty we have in breaking them down in a specific period of time that causes them to spoil in your gastrointestinal tract and become gas causing foods.
We’ve all joked about this since we were 5 years old. Beans are foods that cause gas and bloating, right? Technically, beans are legumes. Therefore we have to eliminate all legumes: Beans, including navy, kidney, black, red, etc., also all lentils and split pea soup. Peas as a side dish seems to be okay, but when dried and condensed into a thick soup, they become hard to digest. Green beans (string beans) as a side dish should be okay to eat. Same for lima beans.
Mexican, Indian and Middle Eastern foods (with garbanzo beans/chick peas) are out because they are foods that cause gas and bloating. Soy products, especially tofu, soy milk and other products made from the protein portion of the soybean also are hard to digest and need to be eliminated. Soybean oil seems to be found everywhere and is of no concern to us. Soy lecithin is an emulsifier of fats and also will be found in many ingredient listings. Don’t worry about it either. Peanuts and peanut butter are also very hard to digest as they are a legume, not a nut. Eliminate them. Other actual nuts, macadamia, almonds, cashews, walnuts etc., should be fine. Maybe. Sometimes nuts can also be hard to digest. Chewing creates a lot of small sharp pieces. Sometimes they can irritate the gastrointestinal system causing discomfort and gas.
Gas Causing Foods from the Dairy Family
Less known foods that cause gas and bloating are dairy products. Easily the most villainous food we can consume that routinely causes gas and bloating and a multitude of other gastrointestinal symptoms as well as other major health conditions. Eliminate them to see if this is part of what foods cause gas in you.
Dairy is contained in all the liquid milks, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese and yogurt. For a comprehensive foods that help IBS diet plan, please read all the ingredient lists on all the products you have in your kitchen, looking for five words:
- milk (or any word attached to the word milk)
- cheese
- lactose
- whey
- casein (sometimes found as sodium caseinate)
Make sure you scour any food you might order in a restaurant looking for hidden dairy there also.
Gas Producing Foods that Contain Fructose
If you can honestly say you are true to the No Dairy rule and have followed the above foods, but you still have symptoms, the next step requires that fructose be removed along with maintaining all the previous rules.
Fructose can be a gas producing food…or ingredient in food. It can also cause loose bowels in some. Fructose is found in all fruit, corn, beets, carrots, peas, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, sweet potatoes, turnips and winter squash and any type of sugar.
After a discussion of the gas causing foods, many patients will begin to ask about certain foods that cause gas and bloating I haven’t talked about. Usually, they are talking about the cruciferous vegetable family. The foods they are asking about usually aren’t known as gas causing foods to the general public. They are just gas causing foods to these patients because of their imbalanced gastrointestinal systems. This means that once their system gets balance restored and is back to efficient function, at some stage these foods may no longer cause them any problems.
Foods that Cause Gas and Bloating: Cruciferous vegetable family:
- Arugula
- Bok choy
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Chinese cabbage
- Collard greens
- Daikon
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Mustard greens
- Radishes
- Rutabaga
- Turnips
- Watercress
Also, please follow an old food combining rule saying fruit should be eaten before a meal or all by itself as a snack. The reason is when fruit is mixed in with other foods or eaten after a meal, it will spoil while waiting for the other food to be digested in the stomach and because of the timing of you eating like this, becomes a gas causing food.
Fruit is very easily digested and would usually be released from the stomach quickly for rapid absorption in the small intestine. Please note there’s a difference here between the gas caused by the spoilage of fruit waiting to be digested and a fructose intolerance that causes gas and bloating that’s discussed above.
For a complete protocol to help you conquer IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) or gas and bloating symptoms, please fill out the form below to receive a copy of Dr. Dahlman’s free report on how you can conquer IBS with his all natural treatment utilizing his step-by-step process, temporary dietary eliminations and an all natural supplement program.
To find the costs of his program, please click here: “Do It Yourself Program” and solve IBS on your own or “Phone Consultation Program” to learn about how he can guide you through the step-by-step process to help you conquer this condition.
