What should you know about excessive bloating after eating?

Bloating is a feeling of fullness or visible abdominal enlargement. Eating quickly can add swallowed air, while digestion naturally produces gas. Food intolerance, including lactose intolerance, can cause bloating with cramps or loose stools after particular foods. Coeliac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, giardiasis, or Helicobacter pylori infection may also be considered when symptoms persist or come with diarrhoea, pain, nausea, or changes in weight. Bloating alone does not identify its cause.

Keep a food and symptom diary that records portions, timing, bowel changes, and how long symptoms last. Eat slowly, chew well, choose still drinks, and try gentle movement after meals. Test one suspected trigger at a time rather than removing many foods together. Do not begin a strict gluten-free diet before discussing testing for coeliac disease, because changing the diet can affect how assessment is performed. A nutrition counsellor can help plan balanced changes.

Arrange an appointment if bloating is frequent, worsening, painful, or accompanied by persistent diarrhoea, constipation, vomiting, blood in the stool, fever, reduced appetite, or unexplained weight change. Seek urgent help for severe sudden abdominal pain, a hard swollen abdomen with repeated vomiting, fainting, or breathing difficulty.

Could my symptoms fit food intolerance, coeliac disease, or irritable bowel syndrome? Should I have testing before changing my diet? Which signs would make this urgent?