Foods for bloating: what may help, what to limit, and Indian kitchen fixes

This is general information. See a doctor if bloating is new, severe or comes with pain, weight loss, blood in stool or a change in bowel habits.

Foods for bloating: the short version

Sunday lunch was rajma-chawal, a second helping and a glass of chilled cola. By 4 pm the waistband is tight and the sofa looks better than the evening walk.

So which foods for bloating actually help? Fewer than the internet promises, so don't expect one food to switch bloating off. What changes things is which foods ferment in your gut and how much of them lands at one sitting.

If you are reading this for someone at home, you are not alone. In our survey of our own buyers, 19% said someone at home keeps an eye on digestion [6].

This page covers the everyday, after-meal kind of bloating and the food side of it.

Why some foods bloat you

It starts with what your gut cannot finish digesting.

Gas gets into your gut two ways: the air you swallow while you eat and drink, and the gas that bacteria in your large intestine make when they break down carbohydrates your stomach and small intestine did not fully digest [1].

Sugars, starches and fibre can all reach the large intestine like this, and the more of them you eat, the more gas symptoms you may have [1].

Doctors have a name for the hardest-to-digest group. FODMAPs, short for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, are carbohydrates that are hard to digest [7] [8].

Bloating is the feeling of fullness or swelling in your belly; when the belly gets bigger, doctors call it distention [1]. Passing gas is normal too: on average people pass it 8 to 14 times a day, and up to 25 times is still considered normal [1].

So the goal in your kitchen is less gas at one go, not zero gas.

Foods that cause bloating, and their Indian versions

The foods that cause bloating most often carry carbohydrates your gut ferments [2]. The list comes from US health guidance; the desi twin on your plate is our addition.

• Pulses: rajma, chana, lobia, whole moong and the dal in your katori; beans, peas and lentils are a named group [2].
• Cabbage-family vegetables: gobhi, patta gobhi and broccoli belong to the cruciferous group [2].
• Onion and garlic: both sit on the FODMAP list doctors use for IBS, along with mushrooms, mango and watermelon [7].
• Some fruits and juices: apples, pears, peaches and fruit juices [2].
• Milk and milk sweets: milk, ice cream and curd make the dairy line of the list [2].
• Whole wheat: whole grains such as whole wheat are on the list, so atta roti and brown bread count [2].
• Cold drinks and packaged juices: drinks with high-fructose corn syrup, such as soft drinks and fruit juices, so check the label of the bottle you buy [2]. The fizz adds swallowed air on top [1].
• Fried, rich food: high-fat foods such as samosa and pakora can increase bloating [2].
• Sugar-free mithai, gum and candy: these have a section of their own below, because the label tells you a lot.

Read that list as suspects, not a ban. Some people have more gas symptoms with these foods, not everyone, and a doctor may ask you to keep a diary of what you eat and drink and your symptoms to find which ones are yours [2].

In practice, pick your two strongest suspects and write down what you ate and how you felt for a couple of weeks. For gas that feels like more than an after-meal thing, see

Common trigger	Why it can bloat	Try on a bad day
Rajma, chana, whole moong	Fermentable carbohydrates	A smaller katori, soaked and pressure-cooked
Gobhi, patta gobhi	Cruciferous vegetables ferment	A vegetable not on the list, such as lauki or tori
A glass of milk	Lactose, if you are lactose intolerant	Less milk, with a meal, or a katori of curd
Cola, packaged juice	Fizz adds air; high-fructose corn syrup	Water, or nimbu paani without the soda
Sugar-free mithai, gum	"-ol" sweeteners	Check the label first

Food that reduces bloating: what may help, and how sure we are

The health guidance we lean on here names foods to limit and habits to change; it does not give a list of anti-bloating foods [2]. So the food that reduces bloating for you is usually a swap: a form your gut handles better, or a smaller amount.

That is how we have sorted the foods for bloating below, each with an honest label.

• Curd in place of a glass of milk (guidance, if lactose is your trigger): curd is lower in lactose than milk, and many people with lactose intolerance manage about 12 g of lactose, the amount in about a cup of milk, with no or mild symptoms [3]. Curd is still dairy, so test it if dairy itself sets you off.
• Milk in small amounts, with meals (guidance for lactose intolerance): you may tolerate milk better if you take a little at a time with a meal and add it back to your diet slowly [3].
• Fibre, added slowly (guidance written for IBS): too much fibre at once can cause gas, and adding it by 2 to 3 g a day may help prevent gas and bloating [7]. In everyday terms, add one fibre food at a time rather than a new salad, a bowl of oats and a fruit plate in the same week.
• Soaked, pressure-cooked dal (lab evidence): soaking and cooking lower the gas-forming sugars in pulses; the numbers are in the kitchen section below.
• Saunf, ajwain, jeera, ginger and hing (tradition): you probably keep one of these for after a heavy meal. We make no claim for them, and a spoon of saunf will not undo a second helping of rajma. If one sits well with you, keep it.

Best food for bloating and gas, if you want one answer

The best food for bloating and gas is a plain, cooked, moderate meal that you eat slowly. That is our view, built from the lists above. Rice, a well-cooked split dal, a cooked vegetable that is not on the trigger list and a small katori of curd fit that brief.

Indian kitchen fixes that reduce gas

Rajma night does not have to go. Some of the most useful foods for bloating are the same pulses, cooked the old way, because a few kitchen habits change what reaches your gut.

• Soak overnight, then pour the water away: in common beans, the species rajma belongs to, soaking and then cooking without the soaking water cut raffinose and stachyose, two of the gas-forming sugars, by about a quarter and verbascose by about two-fifths [5].
• Pressure-cook until soft: soaking alone lowered these sugars by 40% in chickpeas (chana) and by 10% in lentils, and cooking took them lower still [4].
• Serve a smaller katori: less of the same dal means less for gut bacteria to ferment at one go, so the portion matters as much as the recipe.
• Keep the hing in the tadka: it is tradition, and we make no claim for it beyond flavour.
• On a bad day, switch the dal: try a smaller katori of a split dal, such as dhuli moong, instead of whole rajma or chana, and note in your diary how it goes.

Those soaking and cooking figures come from lab measurements of the beans, not from tests of gas in people. They do suggest your nani's overnight soak had a point.

Sugar-free sweets and the "-ol" label

You switched to sugar-free mithai and sugar-free gum to cut sugar, and the stomach rumbles anyway. The label usually explains why.

Candy, gum and other products with sweeteners whose names end in "-ol", such as sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, erythritol and maltitol, may lead to extra gas [2]. These are sugar alcohols, also called polyols.

Indian labelling rules put a warning on the pack. A food with 10% or more polyols must carry the line "Polyols may have laxative effect" in a rectangular box, and one with 10% or more sorbitol must say "May have laxative effect, cause bloating and diarrhea in children; and reduce calcium absorption in post-menopausal women" [9].

So turn the pack over before it goes in the trolley. Look for names ending in "-itol" and for that box; our guide to sweetener ingredients explains each name you will meet.

If you sweeten chai every day, our pick is a monk fruit sweetener made without sugar alcohols.

Sweetener made from monk fruit is 100 to 250 times sweeter than sugar, depending on how much mogroside it holds [10]. That is why a powder that measures spoon for spoon like sugar needs something to fill the spoon, so check that the filler is not an "-ol", and read what the research says about monk fruit safety before you switch.

Where The Sweet Change fits

At The Sweet Change: our monk fruit sweetener comes as drops and powder, with sachets coming. The Powder is made with monk fruit, guar fibre and allulose (30% / 35% / 35%), with no erythritol. Both contain no erythritol or other sugar alcohols.

The Drops are monk fruit extract, water and vitamin C, and two drops replace a teaspoon of sugar. Unlike the Powder, the Drops contain no guar fibre.

Bloating diet: a sample Indian day of eating

A bloating diet does not need special foods. It needs smaller plates and slower meals.

The habits first, because they cost nothing. Limit chewing gum, hard candy, fizzy drinks and drinking through a straw; avoid talking while you eat; eat slowly and sitting down; and choose smaller, more frequent meals over two big ones [2].

This example day builds on those habits and the lists above. It is a starting point to adjust with your diary, not a prescription.

• Breakfast: vegetable poha or two idlis with coconut chutney, and your usual chai.
• Mid-morning: a fruit you get on with; apples and pears are on the gas list, so test them on a good day.
• Lunch: rice, a katori of soaked, pressure-cooked dhuli moong dal, cooked lauki sabzi and a small katori of curd.
• Evening: chai with a handful of roasted makhana instead of samosa or pakora.
• Dinner: two rotis, or rice if wheat seems to bother you, with paneer bhurji and a cooked vegetable such as tori or bhindi, eaten at the table rather than on the sofa.

When bloating needs a doctor

Some gas symptoms during or after a meal are normal [1]. Talk to a doctor if your symptoms bother you, change suddenly, or come with belly pain, constipation, diarrhoea or weight loss [1].

Extra gas and bloating can also come from a health condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), lactose intolerance, coeliac disease or constipation [1]. If IBS is a possibility, our guide to IBS and what helps at home walks through it.

For IBS, there is trial evidence for cutting FODMAPs. A review of 13 trials with 944 patients found a diet low in FODMAPs ranked first for bloating or distension among the approaches compared, though most trials were in specialist clinics and did not test adding foods back [8].

It is done for a few weeks with a doctor or dietitian, and foods go back in slowly afterwards [7]. That evidence is for IBS; it is not a plan for everyday bloating.

The kitchen version

Foods for bloating are less about a special katori and more about the plate you already eat: smaller portions of pulses, soaked and well cooked, curd in place of a big glass of milk if lactose bothers you, fewer cold drinks, and a look at the back of any sugar-free pack.

There is no single best food for bloating that suits everyone. Keep the diary for a couple of weeks and you end up with your own list, which matters more than any list online.

Cheat sheet

• Two causes: swallowed air and fermented carbohydrates; some gas is normal.
• Usual suspects: pulses, gobhi and cabbage, apples and pears, milk, whole wheat, cold drinks, "-ol" sweeteners.
• Kitchen fixes: soak, pour off the water, pressure-cook, serve a smaller katori.
• Habits: eat slowly, sitting down; smaller meals; skip the straw and the gum.
• Label check: names ending in "-itol" and the "Polyols may have laxative effect" box.