🎈 I’m bloated all the time

🔍 What is actually going on

Lasting bloating usually follows one of four patterns, and it rarely comes down to a single food. It can be energy that should move smoothly through you getting stuck, where the sticking point is usually emotional rather than dietary, so the bloating arrives with stress. It can be digestion that is working harder than usual to turn food into usable energy, so the bloat builds as the day goes on. It can be a system producing more than it can move, so heaviness and fog travel with it. Or it can be too little regularity, warmth, and grounding in how you eat, so it varies from one day to the next.

🎭 The four most likely types

Here is how to tell which is you:

• Bloating that arrives with stress and moves around → The Pressure Cooker ⛓️. Tightness across the ribs, chest, or shoulders travels with it, and the bloating arrives with stress rather than with meals.
• Bloating that builds through the day and worsens after eating → The Depleted Engine 🪫. You bloat as the day goes on, worst by evening, and eating makes you sleepy rather than energised.
• Bloating with heaviness and fog → The Waterlogged 💧. Heaviness in body and head, puffiness, and a greasy or coated feeling in the mouth travel with it.
• Bloating with gas, low down, that varies daily → The Windblown 🌪️. Your appetite and digestion vary day to day, and the feelings move around rather than staying put.

Real bodies are layered, so expect a primary and a secondary type rather than one perfect fit.

✅ Do this today

Eat one meal sitting down, screens away, chewing slowly, and notice how your belly feels afterwards.

🍚 Foods to favour, foods to ease off

Match this to the type you recognised above. Each line is the start of that type’s fuller list.

If you are closer to The Pressure Cooker ⛓️: eat more citrus peel, bergamot, mint, rose bud tea, jasmine, fennel · eat less alcohol, heavy fried food, excess dairy, large late meals, coffee on an empty stomach

If you are closer to The Depleted Engine 🪫: eat more congee and porridge, rice, oats, millet, sweet potato, pumpkin · eat less iced drinks, smoothies, raw salad as a main meal, excess dairy, banana, refined sugar

If you are closer to The Waterlogged 💧: eat more adzuki bean, pearl barley, mung bean, daikon, celery, turnip · eat less dairy above all, banana, wheat in quantity, refined sugar, deep fried food, beer

If you are closer to The Windblown 🌪️: eat more warm cooked grains, ghee, sesame oil, root vegetables, soaked nuts, stewed fruit · eat less raw salad, dry crackers and rice cakes, cold drinks, sparkling water, plain beans, caffeine

🧭 Take the quiz

Curious how your everyday eating pattern reads in this tradition? Take The Sampler: eight short questions that show whether you tend to run cold or hot, damp or dry, with foods to favour, foods to ease off and a one-week food experiment to try. It asks for your email address, which is added to the VHT Society email list; you can unsubscribe at any time.

Good to know. If you notice strong pain, vomiting, a swollen belly while your bowels have stopped moving, yellowing of the skin or eyes, strong pain high on the right side of the belly, blood in your stool, a lasting change in your bathroom habits, unexpected weight loss, sudden swelling on one side, or shortness of breath, please speak with a qualified professional soon.